SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS SPUN YARN The Essex-bu ii t schooner Highlander Sea is sailing under an American flag once again as part of Michigan businessman James C. Acheson's mission to "put the 'port' back in Port Huron. " The gaff topsail schooner, christened Pilot in 1924,
Highlander Sea (Photo: j. S. Thomas) served as a Boston harbor pilot vessel for 44 years. (Acheson Ventures, 600 Fort Street, Suite 101 , Port Huron MI 48060-3930; 8 10 966-8811) .. . The schooner Roseway, built in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1925, has been purchased by the First Nation al Bank of Damariscotta at a foreclosure auction . T he bank donated her to the World Ocean School of Camden, Mai ne, newly founded by Abby Kidder and Dwight Deckelmann,
who plan to restore Roseway and use her as an educational pl atfo rm. (WOS, 18 1/i Sp ring Street, Camden ME 04843; 207 236-7482; e-mail: wos@worldoceanschool .org; web site: www.worldoceanschool. org) .. . T he tugb oat Hay-De,the for mer New York Central 13, buil t in 1887 by the John Dialogue Co. of Ca mden , New Jersey, has narrowly escaped sinking into New Jersey Fisheries' "Jack's Spot" artificial reef. New owner Eric Fischer intends to restore her. In the movie Billy Bathgate, the rug was the scene of a scuffle between Dustin Hoffman and Bruce Willis .... Volunteers at the Pump House Steam Museum of the Marine Museum of the G reat Lakes at Kingston, Ontario, are restoring the 88year-old steam launch Phoebe, built in 1914 by the Davis Dry Dock Company in Kingsto n, Ontario. Phoebe, which received Canadian H eritage designation in 1979, is a unique example of steam-dri ven pleasure boats of the late 1800s and early 1900s. (PHSM, Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, 55 Ontario Street, Kingston, Ontario K7L 2Y2, Canada; email: wevers@me. queensu.ca) ... The T ug Pegasus Preservation Project has received
a $ 150,000 matching grant from the Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act, administered through the New York State Office of Parks , Recreation and Historic Preservation , for the restoration of the N ew York harbor tug Pegasus of 1907. (TPPP, 83 Murray Street, New York NY 10007; 212 406-2225; web site: www.rugpegasus.org) ... The 88-year-old wooden Lehigh Valley R ailroad Barge #79, which houses The Waterfront Museum in Brooklyn, New York, underwent extensive repairs this summer to counter the effects of wood-eating shipworms, newly returned to New York
Lehigh Vall ey Railroad Barge #79
The restored coastal passenger stea mer SS Virginia V made her public debut last May afrer six years of extensive renovation, at a cost of $6. 1 million. The historic 400-horsepower, tripleexpansion steam engine, built by Heffernan Iron Works in 1898 and originally installed in the Virginia !V, received an overhaul, and the boat Virginia V dewas renovated inside and our to bring buted in May her closer to the look she sported 2002 (above) af ter work that induring her heyday, with some concescluded restorasions made for modern passe nger tion ofher origisafety and comfort. nal engine. The 122-foot steam-powered passenger vessel was built in 1921 by Anderson & Co. of Olalla, Washington, and was laun ched on 9 March 1922. Virginia V is the last steam-powered survivor of Puget Sound's "Mosquito Fleet," which carried passengers and freight between Seattle and Tacoma, Washi ngton, prior to the development of the Washington State Ferry System. She is one of only two operating steam-powered, wooden-hulled passenger ships in the US. (The other is Sabino at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.) Virginia Vwas designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992. (The Steamer Virginia V Foundation, In c., c/o Maritime Heritage Center at South Lake U nion, PO Box 24805, Seattle WA 981240805; 206 624-9119; web site: www.virgi niav.org/; e-mail: info@virginiav.org)
harbor as a result of cleaner waters. (The Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, 290 Co nover Street at Pier 45, Brooklyn NY 1123 1; 718 624-4719; web site: www .wa terfro ntmuseum .o rg) . .. The USS Saratoga Museum Foundation has brought the fo rm er Soviet submarine ] uliett 484 of 1968 to Rhode Island. T he movie-going p ublic wi ll recognize the submarine from the 2002 movie K-19: The Widowmaker. (USMF, PO Box 28581, Providence RI 02908; 401 831-8696; web site: www .saratogamuseum.org) ... Princess Cruises' 640-passenger cruise ship Pacific Princess, which played the title role in the weekly television series The Love Boat, retired in O ctober after 27 yea rs of service. (Princess Cruises, 24844 Avenue Rockefeller, Santa Clarita CA 91355; web site: www.princess .com) ... The mayor of New Rochelle, New York, and Jacques Cousteau's widow, Francine, announced in July that, pending fundin g, C ousteau 's fo rmer research ship Calyp so may be brought to New York from La Rochel le, France, to be resto red and displayed in co njunction with a Co usteau museum. (Cousteau Society-US, 870 Greenbrier Circle, Suite 402, Chesapeake VA 23320; 800 441-4395; web site: www.co usteausociety. org) . .. The Port of
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SEA HISTORY l 03 , WINTER 2002-03
Mosquito Fleet Veteran Virginia VSteams Again Under Her Own Power