Old Old Boats

In the second week in January, a replica of a 17th century ketch, Discovery, left Boothbay Harbor with a fair wind, spreading a wide fan of white water ahead of her bluff blows. She was a new boat built by the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard. Her upper spars had been lashed on deck and her stout 50-foot hull seemed well designed to face the open ocean on her voyage to Jamestown, Virginia. There she would join her 1607 consorts, Susan Constant and Godspeed, to preserve and enhance our maritime heritage.

Can an old old boat or the replica of an old old boat do this? Consider USS Constitution, lying afloat at the Charlestown Navy Yard. Literally millions of dollars have been spent on her preservation since she was built in 1797 to resist French interference with our trade and to fight the Barbary Pirates. She was the pocket battleship of her day, bigger, faster, and more heavily armed than enemy frigates. She could outrun any enemy she could not outgun. In the War of 1812, she scored a brilliant victory against HMS Geriere and later in 1812 she defeated the British frigate Java. The British Navy was not accustomed to being defeated. These victories were a great boost to American morale. Constitution continued as an active naval vessel until 1830 when she was to be broken up for scrap until Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote “Old Ironsides,” beginning at first ironically,

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down,

The lightning and the gale.

However, the people of the United States wouldn’t stand for that. In 1833, she was rebuilt and maintained until 1927. She was then again rebuilt by dimes from American school children as well as by substantial private and government money. In 1931-34, she went to sea again, sailing 22,000 miles and saluted by enthusiastic people in many ports. Major repairs have since been made and a new suit of sails built for her by Nathaniel Wilson in East Boothbay. She leaves her wharf occasionally to be turned so the sun hits both sides alternately and on great occasions may be seen under sail in Boston harbor. To walk the deck of USS Constitution, an American fighting ship that never lost a battle, stirs an appreciation of our maritime heritage.

What of other famous vessels? A replica of Mayflower, which brought English Pilgrims to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620, lies afloat in Plymouth. She is pretty much an authentic replica except raised up a little in deference to tourist heads. Many of those who visit her annually and claim ancestors among her 102 passengers in 1620 are stirred by an appreciation of their maritime heritage, distant as it may be.

What of Maine’s maritime heritage? We have sections of the clipper Snow Squall, built in South Portland in 1851 and we have Bowdoin, built in 1921 by Hodgdon Brothers in East Boothbay for Commander, later Admiral, Donald B. MacMillan. She was designed and equipped for arctic research and exploration. She was schooner rigged and moved primarily under sail to conserve fuel for her 45 hp engine. Commander MacMillan used her for years cruising amid arctic ice, often with students in her crew. During World War II, he patrolled the coast of Greenland in her for the Navy. She was rebuilt in the 1960s by the same yard that built her and now sails under the flag of the Maine Maritime Academy with crews of students. She occasionally visits the arctic and carries at the top of her foremast the ice barrel used to protect the lookout stationed aloft to con a path through ice floes. For those who sail in her and even for those who walk her deck in exhibitions, she adds to the appreciation of our maritime heritage.

Now consider the fleet of coasting schooners, some old like Victory Chimes, Isaac Evans, the pilot schooner Roseway, and the Gloucester fisherman, Adventure. They have been reconstructed below to carry passengers on week-long cruises. The food is good and the bunks are soft, but on deck they look much the same as when they carried lumber, bricks, lime and granite. Some are more recently built like Heritage and Mary Day, elegantly appointed below but pretty much authentic on deck. Passengers as they are willing and able, trim sheets, hoist sails and man the anchor windlass. After a little rough weather and jigging up the peak of the foresail, a man must get some appreciation of our maritime heritage.

However, it is not the vessels alone that add to our feeling for our maritime heritage. The cool kid from Kansas will see just a bunch of old boats. With the expensive and authentic vessels of former generations must come some history, literature, economics and culture of the people who voyaged aboard them. Thus it is well that Discovery, bound for the museum complex at Jamestown, Virginia, will be visited by people who may have learned something of why her original came from England in 1607 and how her crew sailed her. May she increase their appreciation of our maritime heritage. q

Roger F. Duncan is co-author of A Cruising Guide to the New England Coast and author of Maine: A Maritime History, Dorothy Elizabeth and other books.