Bowdoin finally found a real home at Maine Maritime Academy. One of only six maritime training colleges in the United States, the academy was named the best public college or university in 2014 and 2015 by Money magazine. The academy's educational mission jibes with the history and mission of the schooner Bowdoin. Since being acquired by Maine Maritime, she's seen ongoing active service, training future m ariners for the twenty-first century. In 1990, for the first time since the 1950s, Bowdoin sailed to Labrador and the following year to Disko Island, Greenland, 150 miles above the Arctic Circle. Captain Andy Chase led the expedition of M aine Maritime students, continuing the tradition of education and exploration MacMillan started nearly a century earlier. The Arctic these students saw wasn't the sam e Arctic MacMillan's students saw in the 1920s, but the learning experiences and the differences are equally important. In 1994, Bowdoin ventured 250 miles above the Arctic Circle to U manaq, Greenland, and she continued to sail regularly from the Maine coast through Canada's M aritime Provinces and north to Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2004, students at Maine Maritime Academy established a leadership club called the Schooner Crew that participates in schooner Bowdoin ac tivities. Students are involved with m aintenance, as well as sailing, navigating, and teaching others.
A new deck and an engine overhaul are two of many projects being done as part of her current restoration.
As Bowdoin approaches her 100'" anniversary in 2021, Maine Maritime Academy is taking steps to guarantee she will be in prime condition for the celebration. The academy launched the Bowdoin Centennial Campaign, with a goal to raise $ 1.6 million. More than $600,000 is still being sought to cover the costs for a new deck a nd new pla nking above the waterline. Other upgrades will include a new generator, electrical and desalinization systems, and an engine overhaul; the work will be completed by Andros Kypragoras Ship-
building, Inc., of Whitefield , Maine, in June of 2016. A dditional funds are needed to strengthen the existing endowment and to provide for ongoing maintenance in the yea rs to come. As is true with all historic wooden ships, maintenance is demanding, challenging, and expensive. The campaign will help protect Bowdoin's National Historic Landmark status and ensure that the academic, exploration, ethnological, and environmental education opportunities MacMillan offered his srudents in the early part of the twentieth century will be available to Maine M aritime Academy students through the twenty-first. To contribute to the Bowdoin Centennial Campaign, and to find our more about America's most famous Arctic exploration schooner, contact Kay Hightower (kay. hightower@mma.edu) in the Development Office at Maine Maritime Academy, Pleasant Street, Castine, Maine 04420 or call 207 326-8932. ,t
Maine Maritime Academy operates two very different kinds of training ships: the 88joot wooden schooner Bowdoin, a National H istoric Landmark; and the 500joot State of Maine, a converted oceanographic research vessel originally built for the US Navy. SEAHISTORY 155, SUMMER2016
Michael W Mahan is a writer and designer in Bowdoinham, Maine. H efirst covered the schooner Bowdoin during the 198 0- 1984 restoration at the Percy & Small Shipyard at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.
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