On Friday, the schooner Mary E, owned by the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, was knocked down and flooded while sailing off Doubling Point Light on the Kennebec River, just downriver from the museum. All 18 passengers and crew were rescued from the 73-foot schooner, pulled from the water by boats from Sea Tow, Bath Iron Works security, and good samaritans.
The schooner has now been recovered and returned to the museum dock. An investigation into the accident is ongoing.
On Friday, the schooner, advertised as “the only Kennebec-built schooner still afloat,” was scheduled for a river cruise from 4-6:30 p.m. that would take passengers past BIW, Doubling Point Lighthouse and the Kennebec Range Lights, according to the museum’s website.
The Portland Press Herald reports that the two-masted schooner was built by Thomas Hagan in 1906 in a Houghton shipyard, where Bath Iron Works now stands. For 38 years the vessel was operated as a fishing and trade vessel out of Rhode Island. The ship was sold in 1944 to become a dragger until it was abandoned in 1960 and sank in Lynn Harbor, Massachusetts, after a hurricane on Thanksgiving 1963.
William Donnell of Bath – whose great-grandfather was a shipbuilder associated with Hagan – bought the vessel in 1965 for $200 and brought it back home for restoration. Following that two-year endeavor, the Mary E became a passenger vessel in the Maine Windjammer Fleet.
Maine Maritime Museum purchased the Mary E in early 2017 for $140,000 and uses it for cruises on the Kennebec River.
UPDATE: Coast Guard officials investigating how ‘Mary E.’ schooner capsized
Thanks to Willy for contributing to this post.
Given the vessel’s history, just a minor setback! Deck barely awash…
Excellent that everybody was safety recovered.
She was upside down at time of incident. She had to be righted to set on the shore
Mind you she had heeled over in deep water as the channel is used by newly constructed naval vessels
It can get very difficult and messy if the mast gets stuck in the mud. I have watched such shenanigans happening to racing dinghies in my home river.
Good job by the rescuers and salvage crew, that is quite a major incident.
Was it caused by a white squall?
Local news hasnt updated yet. It may be a month plus before anything is known
https://bangordailynews.com/2021/08/03/news/midcoast/passenger-recounts-capsizing-of-historic-maine-schooner/
When the wind increased the skipper put the engine on?
Thought it read he put the engine on during a lull of wind. Came around the point and had too much wind.
Maybe the reporter in your link missed out on some of Pete Norlander’s view of the incident. Between the end of the first para below and the start of the second.
He says the first half of the boat ride down the Kennebec River Friday was amazing. But as they turned back up river, the wind picked up.
“The wind was against us then,” said Norldlander. “So the captain turned on the engine. So we were sailing, but we were also using the engine.”
He says as they came around a bend, the wind picked up, causing the ship to go much faster.
When the captain turned the sails to change the ship’s course, it capsized.
The difference between running down river and turning to tack back up our river is often two reefs in a fresh breeze. The apparent wind increases by the boat speed through the water down wind plus velocity made good upwind.
So a 20 knot breeze which appears to be 14 knots down wind becomes 24 knots on the return, plus gusts and the increase caused by the pressure zone around the buildings of the power station which also changes the wind direction.
Just an example of estuary sailing.
So operator error.
I’m not sure what else it could be. How many of the crew were actually sailors and how many were hospitality? When things start going wrong you need enough people who know what they are doing to act quickly.
A good crew will notice immediately if there is a problem and start doing the necessary even as, or before, the skipper starts giving instructions.
But we have to wait for the investigation report to get an accurate assessment.
Unless the captain is the top of the list and requires crew to wait until comanded. Proben to be the wrong atmosphere to have in many companies (industrial supervision)
Problem*
Even if the Captain is a tyrant I would still make a unilateral effort to save the boat and possibly lives. Its going over – let the sheets fly!
Don’t just stand about waiting for orders that may never come and then drown. (My tip for the day)