enamed American Eagle by then owner Capt. Ben Pine
Free At Last

History

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History
enamed American Eagle by then owner Capt. Ben Pine
History
1977 AE Gloucester July web
History

About the Schooner

Vessel Specifications

 

Built: 1930
Capacity: 26 guests overnight, 56 daysail guests
Crew: 6
Length on deck: 92 feet
Sparred length: 123 feet
Beam: 19.8 feet
Draft: 11.4 feet
Tonnage: 70 tons

Schooner American Eagle under sail

Image courtesy of the Penobscot Marine Museum


Our Small Boats

The Schooner American Eagle's seine boat sits on a beach

Seine Boat

  • Built in 1985 during the rebuild of the Eagle
  • Modeled after traditional seine boats used to fish for school fish like herring or mackerel up and down the Atlantic coast
  • The Eagle would have carried one from 1930-1945 on summer seining trips
  • Now used as the main shore transportation on trips

Amesbury Skiff

  • Built in 1973 at Lowell’s Boatshop in Amesbury, Massachusetts
  • The design is based on the Grand Banks dory, which Lowell’s historically supplied in great numbers to the Gloucester fishing fleet. The addition of an engine to create this “power dory” changed the design somewhat
  • The Eagle would have carried similar dories powered by oars and a small sail when dory trawling for ground fish.
  • Each dory could carry thousands of pounds of fish.

 

Roscoe

  • The second hull of a design built by John Foss for the Lewis R. French in the 1970s
  • Roscoe is a unique mixture of the Swampscott dory and a traditional each tender marrying the stability and agility of both types
  • A great boat for an early evening row after a day of sailing

Whitehall

  • Built in Lowell’s Boatshop in an unknown year
  • Whitehalls were popular recreation boats in the early 20th century, know as “bicycles of the sea”
  • The Whitehall style was developed in the United States in the 19th century, however the basic design is of much older European ancestry
  • Strongly resembles a ship’s gig or Thames River wherry used by watermen as a taxi service
  • First made in the US at the foot of Whitehall Street in New York City to ferry goods and people to ships in New York Harbor


The Last Schooner of Gloucester

Launching: June 2, 1930

Gloucester, Mass.

“Standing at her bow, arms laden with flowers, and grasping a bottle of something we used to see much of before Prohibition, Miss Rosalie Murphy, daughter of Captain Patrick Murphy, who will command the craft, smashed the bottle on the shoe of the schooner as she started…”

– Gloucester Daily Times

andrew_rosalie-fishing_schooner_launch_1930


June 2, 1930

Launched as the Andrew & Rosalie, the last fishing schooner built in Gloucester.

Patrick Murphy (center) with his son Andrew (left) and daughter Rosalie (right) at the launch

 


June 26, 1930

She leaves on her first fishing trip

The Andrew & Rosalie as she was set up for sword fishing leaving Gloucester Harbor sometime in the 1930s


July 14, 1937

May 5, 1941

Renamed American Eagle by then owner Capt. Ben Pine

enamed American Eagle by then owner Capt. Ben Pine


December 16, 1981

The trawler American Eagle is featured on Good Morning America


August, 1983

Made last fishing trip

The American Eagle in Gloucester in 1977


October, 1984

Made it to Rockland, Maine for rebuilding

Schooner American Eagle - Rebuild 1984-86 Captain Foss
Schooner American Eagle - Rebuild 1984 Arrival Rockland Maine


1984-1986

Schooner American Eagle - 1984 Rebuild at North End ShipyardWhen the American Eagle tied up at our North End Shipyard in 1984, 53 years of hard fishing really showed. From then until the spring of 1986, great efforts went into her reconstruction. The ingenuity and expertise of Captain Foss and five other schooner captains completed her restoration.


April, 1986

Schooner American Eagle - 1984 Rebuild Rockland Maine
Schooner American Eagle - 1986 Rebuild

Relaunched after complete rebuild


June, 1986

Schooner American Eagle - 1991 National Historic Landmark sailing the coast of Maine

Sailing the coast of Maine


July 1986

In Parade of Sail, New York for Statue of Liberty rededication


1991

Designated a National Historic Landmark


1992

Sail Boston


1994

First trip to Canada since her fishing days


2000

Sail Boston

Opsail Maine


Schooner American Eagle - Rockland, Maine - Present Day

Today the American Eagle looks and feels like a new boat. Her fair lines, solid timber and tarred rigging are as they were three generations ago when she first went to work in the waters off New England. She was recently designated a National Historic Landmark, and is one of very few sailing vessels licensed for international voyages.

2009

Participated in SailBoston 2009

2010

Twenty fifth season windjamming

2012

Completed our twelfth international cruise to Canada