Solitude (III)

Kyle Stubbs (Email to Nauticapedia 29/11/2022) stated "A rather yacht-like hull form belonged to the fishing vessel SOLITUDE (250560). Despite MVUS saying this vessel was built in 1941 at Compton, California, this vesselfirst appears in the 1947 edition under the name BOZO, already listing a former name of BEEPS. Her owner at the time was a Bob Bozin of San Pedro, which I suppose explains the choice of name BOZO, but I have no explanation for the history behind "BEEPS." In the 1947 MVUS, the only other vessel I found built in Compton was the VISION (250177) of 1946, which was owned by an Arthur F. Gilmer of Compton, who appears to have been the builder as well. Given that the dimensions of the two are incredibly close (37.2 x 10.7 for BOZO vs 37.6 x 10.7 for VISION), it's entirely possible he built both vessels. A little more digging found an entry on Family Search for Arthur Francis Gilmer (1897-1990), which states that in 1942 he was listed as an employee at "Hodgson Shipbuilders," which would be the Hodgson-Greene-Haldeman yard in Long Beach. Once I started looking in more recent registers, I found at least two more Compton-built vessels of similar dimensions, which were also documented well after they were built."