Ringland Ancestry

Grandpa Ringland, was a member of the United States Navy, during World War I.  He was released, following the war, as a Chief Machinist Mate.  He was a professional Brick Mason, and assisted in the construction of the hospital I was born in, at New London, Connecticut.

Gramps was a gifted builder of boats, of all sizes, from "dingies" to Trawler Class fishing boats.  He, assisted by my Dad, used to build these sea faring craft in the big shop, in his back yard, then launch them in the cove, further behind the property.  The way Mumford's Cove was laid out, they had to take the larger boats out into the channel and anchor them, until low tide, in order to move them under the bridge, which spanned the channel form Fisher's Island Sound and Mumford's Cove, which ran way back into the land, up near a large Dairy Farm, owned by the Beckworth's.

We all used to dive off the bridge, at high tide, and sometimes the current ran so swift that we could only dive, with the flow.  That is until I learned how to twist, in the air, landing with the tide flow.  I remember the first time I "dared" this feat, I entered the water too steep, and my hands hit the rocks on the bottom.  It was these rocks that Gramps and Dad had to be cautious of, because if the keel were to scrape over the larger rocks, it could have torn a hole in the bottom of the boat.

Later in life, following our move to Bradenton, Florida, I learned how to assist Dad in the building of boats, only in this case, we built our own racing boats.  Dad would build runabouts and hydroplanes.  He drove the runabouts and I drove the hydroplanes.  Dad's boat was named "Butt Buster" and his Florida Federation of Outboard Clubs number was 220, while I had number 119, and my hydro was named "Goom-Bye."  We competed in races all over the state, when we had the money to buy Amoco White Gas, at thirty-five cents a gallon, and the money for the trips to the lakes, coastline, bays, or rivers, wherever the race was conducted.  For example all the races in Bradenton or Palmetto, were held in the Manatee River, where as in Sarasota, they were always in Sarasota Bay, which was fed by the Gulf of Mexico.

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