Timberwind (schooner)

Last updated
Timberwind (Schooner)
Schooner Timberwind.jpg
USA Maine location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationThompson's Wharf, Belfast Harbor, Belfast, Maine
Coordinates 44°25′46″N69°0′19″W / 44.42944°N 69.00528°W / 44.42944; -69.00528 Coordinates: 44°25′46″N69°0′19″W / 44.42944°N 69.00528°W / 44.42944; -69.00528
Arealess than one acre
Built1931 (1931)
Built byPortland Engineering Co.
NRHP reference No. 92000274 [1]
Added to NRHPMarch 26, 1992

The schooner Timberwind is a historic former pilot boat, now berthed in Portland, Maine. Built in 1931, she served as a pilot boat (named Portland Pilot) in Portland Harbor until 1969, and was then converted into a schooner as part of the Maine "windjammer" tourist fleet. She is one of a very small number of early 20th-century purpose-built pilot boats that has survived major alteration, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. [1] She moved to Rockport in 1969 and then to Belfast in 2015. She was purchased by the Portland Schooner Company in 2018. [2]

Contents

Description and history

Timberwind is a two-masted wooden-hulled sailing vessel. She has a total length of 70 feet (21 m), a beam of 14 feet (4.3 m), and a draft of 10 feet (3.0 m). She has an oak frame, and is sheathed in yellow pine below the water line and oak above it. The deck planking is yellow pine. She is presently rigged as a schooner, although she has carried a number of different sail configurations in her service history, and the bowsprit used in the rig was added as part of the ship's conversion to tourist service. She is fitted with two marine engines located midships, and was originally fitted with crew living, sleeping, and dining quarters belowdecks. [3]

The Portland Pilot's Association was formed in the early 20th century as a method to organize the activities of the private harbor pilots who brought large ships into the Port of Portland. The association's first pilot boat, the Director, was commissioned and built in 1906. Due to increasing demand, a second boat was commissioned and built in 1931 entering service in December of that year. The Portland Pilot's design is said to be based on that of the Director and a local fishing schooner. She served as a pilot boat until 1969, except for a period during World War II, when she was commandeered by the United States Coast Guard for patrol duty in the harbor's outer reaches. From 1969 to 1971 she underwent conversion for use as a tourist boat in Camden, and has served as a "windjammer" offering daily cruises to tourists. [3]

The Schooner Timberwind is currently for sale through the Brokerage at Artisan Boatworks: http://www.yachtworld.fr/bateaux/1931/Classic-Portland-Maine-Pilot-Schooner-3187969/#.WqvzcejwaUk

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Zodiac</i> (schooner)

Zodiac is a two-masted schooner designed by William H. Hand, Jr. for Robert Wood Johnson and J. Seward Johnson, heirs to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals fortune. Hand intended to epitomize the best features of the American fishing schooner. The 160-foot-long (49 m), 145-ton vessel competed in transatlantic races. In 1931 the vessel was purchased by the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association, brought from the Atlantic, modified and placed in service as the pilot vessel California serving as such until retired in 1972.

<i>Governor Stone</i> (schooner)

Governor Stone is a historic schooner, built in 1877, in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She is the only surviving two-masted coasting cargo schooner built on the Gulf Coast of the United States, and is only one of five such surviving US-built ships. On 4 December 1991, she was added to the US National Register of Historic Places. One year later, the schooner was designated a US National Historic Landmark. She is presently berthed at Saint Andrews Marina in Panama City, Florida, where she is maintained by a nonprofit group. Sailing tours are regularly scheduled.

<i>J. & E. Riggin</i> (schooner) Schooner

The schooner J. & E. Riggin, a National Historic Landmark, was built on the Maurice River in Dorchester, New Jersey in 1927. She is one of a small number of surviving two-masted schooners, once one of the most common sailing ships in North American waters. Now based in Rockland, Maine, she serves as a "windjammer" offering sailing cruises to tourists.

<i>Adventure</i> (1926 schooner) 1926 schooner

Adventure is a gaff rigged knockabout schooner. She was built in Essex, Massachusetts, USA, and launched in 1926 to work the Grand Banks fishing grounds out of Gloucester. She is one of only two surviving knockabout fishing schooners – ships designed without bowsprits for the safety of her crew.

<i>Lettie G. Howard</i>

Lettie G. Howard, formerly Mystic C and Caviare, is a wooden Fredonia schooner built in 1893 in Essex, Massachusetts, USA. This type of craft was commonly used by American offshore fishermen, and is believed to be the last surviving example of its type. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. She is now based at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City.

<i>Emma C. Berry</i> (sloop)

Emma C. Berry is a fishing sloop located at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, United States, and one of the oldest surviving commercial vessels in America. She is the last known surviving American well smack. This type of boat is also termed a sloop smack or Noank smack. The Noank design was imitated in other regions of the United States.

<i>American Eagle</i> (schooner) United States historic place

The American Eagle, originally Andrew and Rosalie, is a two-masted schooner serving the tourist trade out of Rockland, Maine. Launched in 1930 at Gloucester, Massachusetts, she was the last auxiliary schooner to be built in that port, and one of Gloucester's last sail-powered fishing vessels. A National Historic Landmark, she is also the oldest known surviving vessel of the type, which was supplanted not long afterward by modern trawlers.

<i>Roseway</i>

Roseway is a wooden gaff-rigged schooner launched on 24 November 1925 in Essex, Massachusetts. She is currently operated by World Ocean School, a non-profit educational organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, and is normally operated out of Boston, Massachusetts and Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997 as the only known surviving example of a fishing schooner built specifically with racing competition as an objective. In 1941, Roseway was purchased by the Boston Pilot's Association to serve as a pilot boat for Boston Harbor, as a replacement for the pilot-boat Northern Light, which was sold to the United States Army for war service.

<i>Grace Bailey</i> (schooner)

Grace Bailey, also known for many years as Mattie, is a two-masted schooner whose home port is Camden Harbor, Camden, Maine. Built in 1882 in Patchogue, New York, she is one of four surviving two-masted wooden-hulled schooners, once the most common vessel in the American coasting trade. She was one of the first ships in the fleet of historic vessels known as "Maine windjammers", which offer cruises in Penobscot Bay and the Maine coast, entering that service in 1939. She last underwent major restoration in 1989-90. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

Isaac H. Evans US two-masted schooner

Isaac H. Evans, originally Boyd N. Sheppard, is a two-masted schooner berthed in Rockland, Maine. She is a Maine windjammer, serving the tourist trade. Built in 1886 in Mauricetown, New Jersey, she is the oldest of a small number of surviving oyster schooners, used in service of the oyster harvesting industry in the coastal waters of New Jersey. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

<i>Lewis R. French</i> (schooner)

Lewis R. French is a gaff-rigged topsail schooner sailing out of Camden, Maine as a "Maine windjammer" offering weeklong cruises to tourists. Built in 1871, she is the oldest known two-masted schooner in the United States, and one of a small number of this once-common form of vessel in active service. The ship was designated a US National Historic Landmark in 1992.

<i>Mercantile</i> (schooner)

Mercantile is a two-masted schooner berthed in Camden Harbor, Camden, Maine. Built in the 1914-16 on Little Deer Isle, Maine, she is one of a small number of such vessels still afloat from a time when they were one of the most common cargo vessels of the coasting trade. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991, she now serves as a "Maine windjammer", offering multi-day sailing cruises to tourists.

<i>Stephen Taber</i> (schooner)

Stephen Taber is a two-masted schooner, built in 1871, operating as a "windjammer" in the tourist trade out of Rockland, Maine. A National Historic Landmark, she is one of a small number of surviving schooners originally built for the Atlantic coasting trade, and one of only three with a centerboard, allowing access through shallow channels and to shallow landing points. She is named for New York lawyer and politician Stephen Taber, and has a well-documented history of continuous service since her construction.

<i>Victory Chimes</i> (schooner)

The three-masted schooner Victory Chimes, also known as Edwin and Maud or Domino Effect, is a US National Historic Landmark. She is the last surviving Chesapeake Ram schooner. The boat on the Maine State Quarter is meant to resemble the Victory Chimes.

<i>Shearwater</i> (schooner)

The Shearwater is an 81.5-foot (24.8 m) wooden schooner docked in Lower Manhattan in New York City in the U.S. state of New York. The schooner was designed by Theodore Donald Wells and built by the Rice Brothers Corporation in East Boothbay, Maine in 1929. During World War II, it was requisitioned into the United States Coast Guard to patrol for German U-boats. The Shearwater completed a circumnavigation of the world in the early-1980s and later worked as a research laboratory for the University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Environmental Medicine. Docked about 200 yards (180 m) west of the site of the World Trade Center, it is operated by Manhattan by Sail, which gives 90-minute-long tours of New York Harbor, and is licensed to carry 48 passengers. The schooner was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

<i>Coaster II</i>

Coaster II, also known as Quissett, is a two-masted sailing schooner moored at the far western end of the Main Pier at Mattson Lower Harbor Park, off Harbor Drive in Marquette, Michigan. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

<i>Bagheera</i> (schooner) United States historic place

Bagheera, formerly Beacon Rock, is a historic schooner normally berthed at the Maine State Pier in Portland, Maine. She is a two-masted auxiliary rigged schooner, built in 1924 by the noted naval architect John G. Alden, and is noted for her racing success on the Great Lakes. She is now owned and operated by the Portland Schooner Company, which offers sailing tours of Casco Bay, using Bagheera and Wendameen. Bagheera was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

<i>Wendameen</i> (yacht) United States historic place

Wendameen is a historic schooner normally berthed at the Maine State Pier on Commercial Street in Portland, Maine. She is a two-masted auxiliary rigged schooner, designed in 1912 by the noted naval architect John G. Alden. She is now owned and operated by the Portland Schooner Company, which offers sailing tours of Casco Bay, using Wendameen and Bagheera. Wendameen was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

<i>Surprise</i> (schooner) United States historic place

Surprise is a two-masted former racing schooner berthed in Camden, Maine. Built in 1917-18 in Rockport, Massachusetts, she is one of a small number of surviving schooners designed by noted naval architect Thomas F. McManus. She currently serves as a "windjammer", providing daily cruises in Penobscot Bay. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

The General Butler was a schooner-rigged sailing canal boat that plied the waters of Lake Champlain and the Champlain Canal in the United States states of Vermont and New York. Built in 1862 and named for American Civil War General Benjamin Franklin Butler, she sank after striking the Burlington Breakwater in 1876, while carrying a load of marble. Her virtually intact wreck, discovered in 1980, is a Vermont State Historic Site and a popular dive site; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Historic Belfast-based schooner sold, moving to Portland
  3. 1 2 Kirk Mohney (1992). "NRHP nomination for Schooner Timberwind". National Park Service . Retrieved 2016-07-07. with photo from 1990

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Timberwind (ship, 1931) at Wikimedia Commons