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THE STATE OF MAINE'S BOATING NEWSPAPER Volume 28 Issue 10 October 2015


PRST STD


US Postage Paid Permit, #65 Brunswick, ME 04011


Maine Coastal News FREE COLUMBIA Wins Gloucester Schooner Race in Style!


The 141-foot COLUMBIA moving easily through the waves on her way to victory.


GLOUCESTER – Anyone who reads or studies the maritime history of New England will certainly understand the importance of commercial fi shing to the region. No one can state with certainty when the fi rst fi shing boats plied the New England coast, but it was more than likely before Columbus did not discover America. T e Native Americans knew the importance of fi shing, but it was the Europeans that took this to another lev- el. T e Native Americans used canoes, but those from across the pond used large ves- sels, better designed, and with better outfi ts. Few people today know the lineage


of the fi shing vessels from the early pinkie schooners to today’s big western rigged trawlers. T e pinkie grew in size, her bluff bow got sharper, the tombstone stern disap- peared to be replaced with a fl at or rounded one, the rig increased, fi sh holds got bigger, and at the turn of the century the sails began to be replaced with an internal combustion engine. T e advent of the engine did not spell the end for the fi shing schooner. Many were built aſt er 1900 and they continued to evolve: bigger and faster, many designed by the most-noted yacht designers of the day. T is created some of the most impressive sailing vessels built, many of them coming from Essex and Gloucester, but a number from yards in Maine, such as Hodgdon in East Boothbay. I had not been to the Gloucester Schooner Festival since 1997 so I made


arrangements with Capt. John Foss to sail with him on AMERICAN EAGLE. She was launched as the ANDREW & ROSALIE at Gloucester on 2 June 1930, the last fi shing schooner to be built at Gloucester. In 1941, Capt. Ben Pine renamed her AMERICAN EAGLE. Forty two years later she made her last fi shing trip and was later purchased by Capt. Foss. Between 1984 and 1986 she underwent a major rebuild at the Northend Shipyard in Rockland. She was now to begin a new career carrying passengers along the mid-coast of Maine and beyond. In 1991 AMERICAN EAGLE was designated as a National Historic Landmark. Sailing with Capt. Foss is one thing anyone who loves schooners, especially fishing schooners, must do.


AMERICAN EAGLE has consistently


been one of the fastest schooners competing, usually crossing fi rst (11 of 28 races), but this year she had a huge challenge from the 141-foot COLUMBIA. T is is a replica of the original COLUMBIA, designed by W. Starling Burgess and built at the Arthur D. Story yard in Essex in 1923. During her brief career she raced the fame Canadian schoo- ner BLUENOSE in the International Fisher- men’s Cup Races at Halifax and was narrowly defeated. Unfortunately, COLUMBIA was lost four years later in a storm off Sable Island with all hands on 24 August. Last winter the Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, FL, launched an identical replica of


Former swordfi sh schooner AMERICAN EAGLE just waiting to get out on the race course.


COLUMBIA. T e replica was built of steel and an engine-room and staterooms were added and these modifi cations were done by the design fi rm John W. Gilbert & Associates of Boston, MA. Covey Island Boatworks of Lunenburg, NS, built the rigging and spars; A. Dauphinee & Sons fabricated the blocks; Michelle Stevens Sailloſt , Ltd., Lunenburg made the sails; and the decks were laid by Teakdecking Systems, FL. Her dimensions are: Length on Deck,


141-feet 2-inches; length on the waterline, 110-feet; Beam (Moulded), 25-feet, 6-inch- es; mainmast, 17-inches x 124-feet 10-inch- es, Douglas fi r laminated lower, Sitka spruce laminated topmast; and foremast, 17-inch


C o n t e n t s


Publisher's Note Calendar of Events


Newport Intl. Boat Show US Navy News


4 4 5


Waterfront News


Mystic Seaports New Exhibit MMA News


6-8 Wrecked Lightship MMM's Mariner's Award 9


10 10 10


Commercial Fishing News DELA - Director's Report


Misc. Commercial Fishing News Boat Yard News


J. Williams adds New Travelift


11 12


14-19 15


Just Launched Maritime History


History from the Past Classifi ed Ads


22-26 27-31


18


x 115-feet 7-inches, Douglas fi r laminated lower, Sitka spruce laminated topmast. T ree of the fi ve remaining Essex built


fi shing schooners also made an appearance: LETTIE G. HOWARD (1893), ROSE- WAY (1925); and ADVENTURE (1926). Another remaining schooner, HIGH- LANDER SEA (1924) was sitting at the dock of Gloucester Marine Railways. T e fi ſt h schooner, ERNESTINA-MORRISSEY was hauled out on the railway at Boothbay Har- bor Shipyard in Boothbay and beginning a multi-year restoration. T ere were also three newer schooners built at Essex, ARDELLE,


Continued on Page 21.


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