 In March 1938, "The Christian Science Monitor" reported that "Pennsylvanian"s captain, C. M. Bamforth, had temporarily turned the deck of the cargo ship into a boatyard to build a catboat for his son in Swampscott, Massachusetts.Bamforth laid the keel while in San Francisco, bought copper rivets for the hull planking in Portland, Oregon, and began painting the boat after "Pennsylvanian" had traversed the Panama Canal.He expected to have the boat finished when "Pennsylvanian" arrived in Boston on 22 April.