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Capt. Jon Heon—aka “Catboat Jon” to his friends—acquired his nickname after he salvaged the catboat Lazy Jack from a bad Nor’easter and sailed her to Newport, which he decided to call home. Jon is an experienced woodworker of 35 years, restoring, rebuilding and sailing on a long list of yachts. He built his first boat when he was 12 and carries aboard Farallone a 17 ft. Whitehall that he also built. It’s been eight years since he first saw the “For Sale” sign on Farallone anchored in Newport Harbor. He sold his house and moved aboard the new home he created for himself and his cat Boo. In his “spare” time Catboat Jon enjoys building beautiful buckets of Northern pine with steam-bent green oak hoops, for the pleasure of those who appreciate hand craftsmanship. Built in 1918 as Q-9 by Luders Marine Construction Co. In Stamford, CT, M/V Farallone is happy to still be motoring on the waters of Narragansett Bay and is now proudly owned by Jon Heon of Newport, RI. She has an interesting history. We only wish she could tell us more of the secrets she holds. As the last surviving example of the first 12 boats specifically built for the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Corps for government service, she is the second oldest Luders-built boat in existence. Q-9 was renamed Farallone for the Farallon Islands, literally “Rocks of the Sea,” where Sir Francis Drake first landed in 1579. She’s 60 ft. Long with a 12 ft. Beam of 1¼ inch fir and hard pine planking on 2 x 2 steam-bent oak frames. Her keel is a single piece of solid oak. She was originally powered by a 4-cylinder Frisco Standard gasoline engine with an open planetary gear rated at 65 horsepower, which weighed 12,000 lbs. Q-9’s existence is due to the changing of the U.S. Army Transport Service from a partially civilian organization to a wholly military one needing its own watercraft, and came about at the moment of major military expansion and the emergence of the United States as a world power. These boats were placed under direct military control to transport material and personnel for the country’s East Coast artillery posts. Q-9’s sister, Q-1, was built and stationed in Newport for Ft. Adams’ transport in 1918. Initially, Q-9 was stationed at Ft. Washington, Maryland, until 1923, when she was transferred to the Army War College in Washington, DC, to become the Quartermaster General’s personal launch. She was used by two Quartermaster Generals (B.F. Cheatham and Wm. H. Hart) as well as the Secretary of War, but still carried out her other duties of transporting Infantry and Artillery Corps personnel in the Chesapeake Bay area. |
In 1929 she was shipped on the steamer Marian Otis Chandler out of Norfolk, VA, to San Francisco, CA, to be used as a utility boat to carry prisoners and employees to and from the military prison at Alcatraz Island. In 1935 Q-9 was transferred to Ft. McDowell on Angel Island, CA, where she served as 28-T-873 until the end of World War II in 1945. After being sold as surplus, Q-9— renamed Farallone — was operated on various passenger runs, as a Boy Scout Boat, and she enjoyed a brief career as the first salmon sport fishing party boat out of San Francisco. She was bought and used as a shipyard launch by D.J. Arques in Sausalito, California, until being laid up in 1963. By 1975 she was being used as a houseboat. Capt. Cogswell purchased her in 1975 in Sausalito, where she was hauled and restored over the following 13 years. In 1993 she was shipped to Texas. Since then she has cruised the waters of the Gulf Coast, Bahamas, and the US East Coast. For the first time in 84 years, in 2002 Farallone made a return visit to Ft. Washington, then Connecticut, and continued cruising that year to Newport. Now that Newport is her home, you’ll hear from the passing tour boats, “Farallone was Al Capone’s last ride…when he was delivered to Alcatraz.” With the ebb and flood of the tides, Farallone will continue to affect those around her with her beauty, grace, and unduplicated character.
For more information on Jon and his buckets visit catboatjon.com. return to Newport Harbor Guide Articles |
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