< Previous100 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2016Currents | Nice RidesStory by Michael A. Smith Photos by Stuart VillanuevaPaul Dunphey has got stuff. His shop just off FM 518 in League City is stuffed with stuff — knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, examples of Texana kitsch.There’s a barber’s chair draped with a free-fall parachute, a stuffed alligator, an antique cash register and hats — lots and lots of hats.Among this assort-ment of somewhat windblown oddities is some really cool stuff. A whole pride of Jag-uars slumbers in bays and on hydraulic lifts, along with two VW Things, one dressed for work, maybe at a Jamaican resort, and one outfitted for safari.And on a lift tucked in a back corner, a 1941 Bentley minds its own business as well as a Bentley ever can, its great winged “B” hood ornament gleaming royally in the fluorescent light.“I’m a collector of stuff,” Dunphey said recently. “I’m not a collector of fine antiques.“When I was younger, I’d buy anything that was rusty and $2,500 or less.” One of the most recent additions to Dun-phey’s collection of stuff is neither rusty nor going to sell for less than $2,500 anytime soon.It’s a 1959 Mercedes-Benz 190SL.The 190s began rolling off assembly lines in Stuttgart in 1955 and the model continued to 1963. They were marketed in the United States as a sort of workingman’s version of the incredible 300SL, a gull-winged supercar selling for as much as $2 million today. 1959 Mercedes-Benz among eclectic collection in League City shop“It was not as powerful and not as sophis-ticated,” Dunphey said. “But it was sexy, fun to drive and affordable.”The 190s were powered by an inline four-cylinder engine fed through a pair of carburetors, for example, while under a 300’s long, elegant hood was a directly fuel-in-jected six-cylinder generating more than 200 horsepower and a top end of about 160 mph in some models.Dunphey’s 190 immigrated at a time when the domestic sports car market was ruled by Corvettes and it offered the enthusiast good power and handling along with European styling. It’s all clean lines and elegant, well-turned details.Dunphey has mod-est plans for the Benz. He wants to upgrade the electrical system and the fuel system to get rid of those cantankerous twin carbs and plans to restore some interior areas and parts of the convertible top.A complete resto-ration would be worth the effort, he said.“Anything you put into one of these you’ll get back and then some,” he said. “Once, you could get them in fine con-dition for $50,000 or $60,000. People have gone crazy for them, though; now they go for $200,000 to $300,000.”A complete restoration would take a lot of focus, and Dunphey, who this year chairs the committee organizing Kemah’s annual boat and car show, Keels and Wheels, has a lot of stuff demanding his attention. Aside from the shop collection, he keeps five classic cars at home to drive more or less regularly.Just keeping all the batteries charged and tires inflated is a job. “The death of a car is sitting still,” he said. “I believe in driving them. I’m not a collec-tor of 100-pointers. I like to drive them and mess with them. If you get a scratch, you get a scratch.” The right stuff COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2016 101Paul Dunphey’s 1959 Mer-cedes-Benz 190SL features a classic wooden steering wheel and shifter and a Blaupunkt radio. The illustrious Mercedes logo is featured prominently on the classic car, and a label under the hood speaks to its provenance.For more than 20 years, Karen Parsons has acted as chaplain, friend, mentor and administrator to the crew members of ships in port in Galveston. COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2016 103Story and photos by Irene AmietWhen budding Galveston Sea-farers Center Chaplain Kar-en Parsons realized she had to cross moving gangways suspended high over water to do her job, she wanted to quit. Her teacher said she wasn’t allowed to until she’d met her first crew. After that, she never again wanted to quit.Parsons is the Galveston port chaplain, based at the Seafarers Center on 20th Street. She arrived in the historic seaport city from Michigan in 1992 to take the position and has acted as chaplain, friend, mentor and administrator to sailors since.“We see ships instead of people,” Parsons said, nodding toward the Gulf of Mexico.The lines of cargo ships trudging in and Solace for sailorsChaplain overcomes fear to help seafarers in a strange landout of the Houston Ship Channel are part of the coastal silhouette. Often, the crews on these ships hail from distant countries and may have been at sea for 50 days straight. Many officers have access to Wi-Fi on board, and lower ranking crew do, too, as long as they have the appropriate SIM cards. None-theless, family and friends overseas also have to be connected, and depending on their location, it’s more than difficult to manage a proper signal on Skype, for instance.Recently, a grain freighter was in port. The crew was mostly Filipino and Catholic. Parsons was asked to conduct a Communion service on board. As they were about to begin, a crew member came running in, asking whether his wife could participate. Parsons naturally agreed. The man then set up Skype and told Parsons that it would be The Galveston Seafarers Center, 221 20th St., is a “home away from home” for visiting mariners.104 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2016the first time in months he would get to pray in the company of his wife.Sailors often can become isolated from family, their culture and support systems. But there are other issues the Seafarers Center helps to resolve. Crews are depen-dent on the goodwill of their employers. Parsons has seen her share of abandoned sailors waiting in vain to be paid, stuck in a foreign country. Sailors might also be confronted with a crisis at home with no way to help or intervene. It’s the practical support, from providing legal aid to phone cards to toiletries that go hand-in-hand with the moral, spiritual and psychological sup-port the Seafarers Center provides.To help a Sri Lankan crew member suffer-ing from burns after a terrible accident on board ship, Parsons spoke to the Buddhist center in Houston, and together they found people who cooked Tamil food to bring to the man’s hospital bedside until he was well enough to travel again.“Ships go away, not the crews’ problems,” Parsons said. She has stayed in touch with some sailors for more than 30 years, a con-stant in their changing lives. Recently, she received an email from a Russian sailor with pictures of his daughter’s wedding. She re-members that same sailor sending her photos of his daughter when she was in a child’s snow suit. Sadly, Hurricane Ike, which struck in 2008, had damaged her files and computer, Features(Above) The Galveston Seafarers Center offers free Wi-Fi and other computer services to help visiting crew members stay in touch with family and friends. (Right) The center welcomes visitors from around the world as shown in the guest book that all crew members must sign.Karen Parsons visits with crew members of the freighter Palma Bulker in port to load grain. The crew members welcomed Parsons like an old friend and asked her to bless the ship bound for China.and decades of correspondence was lost.“It was never just paper,” Parsons said.Her own children grew up in Galveston and had birthday celebrations at the Seafar-ers Center, where sailors would give them small, self-made gifts from their homelands.“It opened their hearts to people from all over the place,” Parsons said.Galvestonians see the importance of the Seafarers Center, and support it. The center, which offers free Wi-Fi and other computer services, transportation on the island, clean, used clothes and a library, among other things, relies on donations. Visit http://galvestonseafarerscenter.com to help or for information. COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2016 105Donna Corbett NewdingCo-Owner/Realtor822 6TH STREET NORTH, TEXAS CITY TX. 77590409 939-8095e-mail: donna@donnanewding.comweb site: www.donnanewding.com FIVE STAR REALTOR TEXAS MONTHLY MAGAZINE 2011-12-13-14-157205 Avenue O Santa FeCountry Estate 107 MustangStampede Dr.Two Santa Fe Beautiesyou’re gonnalove it hereEngaging Minds, Embracing Spirithfcsgalv.org • 2601 Ursuline, Galveston, TX 77550409.765.6607HOLY FAMILYCATHOLIC SCHOOLGALVESTON2014awardsREADERS’ CHOICETHE DAILY NEWSREACH YOUR WEIGHT-LOSS GOALS4623 Fort CroCkett Blvd • Galveston(oFF seawall, near aCademy & salsa’s)HoUrs: mon. - FrI. 9am - 6pm, sat. 10am-4pm409-762-7646www.islandhealthcenter.netMedically supervised weight loss. 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Ryan Moody, B.O.I.Broker Associate / Co-Owner, ABR®, AHWDAccredited Buyer Representative(409) 599-1818Ryan@RyanMoody.netwww.RyanMoody.netLeading Edge COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2016 107MeMbership at its best!Join TodayGolf, pool, tennis, Dining, eventsdonate goods.hunt fortreasure.Pickup Scheduling: 409-763-1691 • 601 51st, Galveston, TX 77551FOR RESERVATIONS, CALL 1-800-445-00905222 Seawall Boulevard • Galveston Island, Texas 77551800.445.0090 • 409.744.1500 • sanluisresort.comPLAN YOUR Valentine’s DayWITH US!108 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2016Stem to SternStory by David Canright Photos by Jennifer ReynoldsAt 75, the Elco cabin cruiser Serenity is old for a wooden yacht. But in the care of owners Jim and Nelda Blair, and with the help of Capt. Buck Beasley of Profes-sional Yacht Management in Seabrook, she’s doing well today.Looking for a larger boat than the Chris-Craft runabout they still enjoy on Clear Lake, the Blairs found Serenity advertised for sale in 1998. She was on Lake Michigan; her owners needed to sell her to help send their children to college.The Blairs bought her and took her down the series of canals and rivers that connect Ohio with the Gulf Coast, with crews of eight or 10 friends at a time.“We weren’t racing, and kept her around A 57-foot pre-war Elco cabin cruiser still going strong(Above left) A statue of Poseidon stands in the salon alongside several trophies Jim and Nelda Blair’s 1941 57-foot Elco cabin cruiser Serenity has won in various boat shows. (Above right) A bell original to the cruiser hangs above the built-in saloon on the upper deck. (Right) Serenity9 knots on that trip,” Jim Blair said. “I don’t remember how long it took, but we used up maybe 38 cases of beer.”Serenity’s heritage dates back to the Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition of 1893, which highlighted many new developments in American art and indus-try. Among these were 21 elegant launches built by the new Electric Launch Co., or “Elco,” of Bayonne, N.J.Sleek, finely crafted, comfortable and silent with newly developed electric motors, these boats offered rides to fairgoers on the large artificial lake built for the exhibition, and in the process made the pleasures of yachting available to ordinary visitors.Yachting until then was exclusively an activity of aristocrats and the rich. Elco helped trigger an interest in yachting for the common man, and provided affordable watercraft for the next century. While still building electric-powered launches, the com-pany introduced larger diesel-powered cabin cruisers with suitable accommodations for owners and more Spartan accommodations for the paid crew that was still assumed to be part of yachting.Among the largest of these cabin cruisers was Serenity, one of only a few 57-foot cabin cruisers produced by Elco before World War II.Launched in 1941, Serenity was requisi- COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2016 109tioned in April of the following year by the U.S. government’s War Shipping Admin-istration for coastal patrol duties. For the duration of the war, the Elco yard turned to the production of fast Patrol Torpedo, or PT, boats for the U.S. Navy. By war’s end, the yard produced 399 PTs, using some of the production techniques Elco had perfected in building cabin cruisers such as Serenity, but in strong marine plywood.PT boats were not successful in their in-tended role of attacking larger warships with deck-launched torpedoes. Fast as they were, the time it took to bring them near enough to accurately launch a torpedo left them vul-nerable to defensive fire. Worse, American torpedoes in the early years of the war were unreliable. Many boats were lost. The title of the 1945 movie about PTs sums it up: “They Were Expendable.”PTs did good service, though, in fast dis-(Above) The Blairs bought their cruiser in 1998 and sailed it from Michigan to Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook, where it is docked. (Left) A ship’s wheel table top serves a seating area on the upper deck.“Serenity is not your average yacht. She’s a lucky boat to have the Blairs looking out for her. ” – Capt. Buck BeasleyCapt. Buck Beasley, of Professional Yacht Management in Seabrook, takes Serenity out on Clear Lake.Next >