John Brady: The Boat Builder that Keeps the Independence Seaport Museum Afloat

Recently, The Irish Edition asked me to sit down with John Brady, the Shipwright turned President & CEO of the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

His is a remarkable story that started when he was just a boy and his father bought an old sailboat. That started John's love of sailing, working on boats, and all things nautical.

You can read the interview with John Brady on the Irish Edition website or below:

John Brady at the Helm of Independence Seaport Museum

Shipwright and President & CEO John Brady

Boat Shop at Independence Seaport Museum

John Brady was an Army brat, spending his early years in Texas and Germany. Aside from the transatlantic voyages that took him and his family back and forth between the United States and Europe, he never gave boats much thought.

But his father did. Despite knowing nothing about boat ownership, or how to sail, he always wanted one. So much in fact that in 1964, when John was 12, his father moved the whole family to Pine Beach — a town down the New Jersey shore — so he could buy a boat and sail on Barnegat Bay.

Independence Seaport Museum

A 23-foot wooden sloop, named Joint Venture by the previous owner, was purchased. She needed help. Although Brady’s father lacked know-how and money to spend when it came to boat repair and maintenance, he did have enthusiasm and healthy young sons. A simple rule was decreed in the Brady house: If you want to sail on her, you have to work on her.

How fitting the name of the boat would become for John. Joint Venture would make him a life-long sailor, and start him down the path to becoming a shipwright (a carpenter for boats) and boatbuilder.

It’s a career that would end up spanning 47 years, leading him to overseeing the boat shop at the Independence Seaport Museum at Penn’s Landing and ultimately serving as the museum’s President & CEO for the last two years.

With Brady at the helm, the museum has created special events, world-class exhibits on everything from the impact the War of 1812 had on popular culture to the highly anticipated new exhibit “Tides of Freedom: African Presence on the Delaware River” which opened last month. As a result, the museum’s attendance has gone up by over 44 percent in the last two years.

The Irish Edition had a chance to talk with the always active 61 year old to find out how he went from being a guy more comfortable wearing tool belts and sawdust to wearing suits. (This turned out to be more of a metaphor. For the interview, John wore grayish khakis and a blue shirt and told us that he has one suit—for when he needs it—in his office closet.)

IE: You left the boat shop for the first office job you’ve ever had, and it’s the Corner office job. What was the biggest adjustment?

J.B: (Laughing) The art! In the boat shop, you can’t hang a lot of things up because of the sawdust. In the office, I get to be surrounded by great ship models and paintings and other pieces.

IE: Was it tough to become an administrator when you’ve been working with your hands so long? The duties are so different.

J.B: Not really. Being in charge of the boat shop, I had a lot of administrative responsibilities so it wasn’t brand new. Building a boat is different than running a museum, but both really boil down to being good at problem-solving and looking for the best solution.

IE: And you started developing those problem-solving skills as a kid working on your father’s boat, the Joint Venture?

J.B: (Laughing) She was a pretty lousy boat, really. And we all learned by making her worse! We fixed problems we caused fixing the original problem!

IE: And you took the same method when it came to learning how to sail.

J.B: We taught ourselves. My dad would get home from work and we’d walk to the boat and go out on Barnegat Bay for a few hours. We figured out how sailboats worked. It was a lot of fun. (Laughing)There was also a lot of swearing.

IE: So when did you know that working on boats and becoming a shipwright was what you wanted to do with your life?

J.B: My brothers and I sailed Joint Venture all around Cape Cod and Long Island Sound on a cruise when I was in my 20s. The adventure took us to New York City and I got a job at the South Street Seaport Museum working on a four-masted ship called the Peking which is about the size of the Moshulu here in Philly.

IE: That’s a big jump from working on the Joint Venture and other pleasure boats.

J.B: It was a leap, but not much. That job lasted about a year. Then in 1991, I came to Philadelphia to be a shipwright for the Independence Seaport Museum, which was called the Philadelphia Maritime Museum back then.

IE: Was the museum much different?

J.B: Much different. It was located at 3rd and Chestnut and the boat shop was on a barge in the boat basin. The shop had a pot-bellied stove for warmth and fans blowing in the summer. (Laughing) At least I worked on the waterfront! On the water, actually!

The museum’s purpose was different. We’d build a different wooden boat each year and then we’d do an exhibit about it. Then, we’d sail them. It was an awesome experience. That lasted about eight years. I think 1991 was the last year. I built a catboat that was put into the fleet in Barnegat Bay.

After that, I left the museum and went to Nova Scotia to do some big boat construction. Then I ended up working on the Gazela in Baltimore, which is now here at Penn’s Landing.

IE: That’s when you came back to the Independence Seaport Museum?

J.B: Yes. That was 1995. I was asked to run the boat shop and be the boatbuilder. But it wasn’t on a barge anymore! The museum had moved to the current location by then and the boat shop is actually in this building. Visitors can come watch the shipwrights and builders putting boats together.

IE: What happens to the boats?

J.B: Some are in our collection. Others we were commissioned by collectors or other museums. Two of the boats I built, the Bull and Bear are sandbaggers (working boats that became racers) and they’re at the National Sailing Hall of Fame. The boat shop has always been successful and makes money for the museum.

IE: The museum has had a lot of success too since you’ve become president. How have you done it?

J.B: Reaching out to the community and creating partnerships have helped bring people to the museum. We partner with the Charter High School of Architecture and Design’s Physics Department. They work on our boats using what they learn in class and they can see physics actually being applied. Those students end up taking an interest in the museum.

Also, in the case of the new exhibit Tides of Freedom, we worked with several African American scholars to help bring it to the next level. Professor Tukufu Zuberi from Penn, who is on the PBS show History Detectives, guest-curated the exhibit.

And, we have wonderful volunteers, former bankers, lawyers, and researchers in a variety of departments from archives, to fundraising to building the boats. They allow us to do a lot of great things by being generous with their time. I think all of these things are what will work for us in the future.

IE: What does the museum need?

J.B: More visitors. Attendance is up but we want more people to come. I think we’re one of Philly’s best kept secrets. We’re working on it through our exhibits and festivals. Big hits for a museum like us are pirates and the Titanic. They’re always big draws. (Laughing) If I could somehow arrange an exhibit that that had the Titanic taken over by pirates we’d be set!

IE: What’s next for the museum?

J.B: We’re adding bathrooms on the Olympia to have and host events and we have the Old City Seaport Festival coming up in October with some great tall ships coming.

IE: So you’re keeping the Olympia after all? Is there still a possibility that she’ll go somewhere else or be turned into a reef?

J.B: There are two organizations interested in taking her. But, she will not become a reef. It would cost just as much to sink her as a reef as it would be to save her, and she deserves to be saved. We’re going to do whatever we can for her while she’s here. Maybe she’ll end up staying.

IE: Do you have a family and do they like boating and sailing?

J.B: My son, Christian, is in college. He grew up in the boat shop. He likes boats but running is his passion. My wife, Susan, her thing is art. She’s an artist and she heads the Art Department at Germantown Friends.

IE: Last question: Do you, a shipwright, boat builder, sailor and president of the Independence Seaport Museum own a boat?

J.B: (Laughing) I don’t! I built so many, and they’re scattered all over so I can go sail on them whenever I want. Sometimes, I take one of the small boats we (museum) have in the boat basin for a row. Early on I decided I’d rather build boats, have fun, and sail on the boats I built then to work hard to have to pay for a boat.

IE: That stings. I own a sailboat.

J.B: (Wild laughter)