Wartime designation: USS Bowdoin (IX-50)
Type: Two-masted Auxiliary Schooner:
LOA: 88’0″ / 27.00m – LOD: – LWL: 72’0″ / 22.00m – Beam: 21’0″ / 6.40m – Draft: 10’0″ / 3.00m – Displacement: 66 GRT – Sail Area: – Original Owner: Donald B. MacMillan – Original Name: Bowdoin – Year Launched: 1921 – Designed by: William H. Hand, Jr – Built by: Hodgdon Brothers Shipyard – Hull Material: – Documentation or State Reg. No.:
Historical:
The schooner Bowdoin was designed by William H. Hand, Jr., and built in 1921, in East Boothbay, Maine, at the Hodgdon Brothers Shipyard now known as Hodgdon Yachts. She is the only American schooner built specifically for Arctic exploration, and was designed under the direction of explorer Donald B. MacMillan. She has made 29 trips above the Arctic Circle in her life, three since she was acquired by the Maine Maritime Academy in 1988. She is currently owned by the Maine Maritime Academy, located in Castine, Maine, and is used for their sail training curriculum. She is named for Bowdoin College.
Bowdoin was declared the official sailing vessel of the state of Maine in 1986. In 1989 Bowdoin was designated a National Historic Landmark in recognition for her significant role in Arctic exploration.
WWII service
On 22 May 1941 the United States Navy purchased Bowdoin from MacMillan for use in the war effort. She was placed in commission as USS Bowdoin (IX-50) on 16 June 1941. She was one of the very few sail powered vessels commissioned in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her first commanding officer was her previous owner, Lieutenant Commander Donald B. MacMillan. (MacMillan had received a commission in the Naval Reserve in 1925 and was retired for age in 1938 but volunteered for active duty in 1941 at the age of 66.) MacMillan was soon reassigned to the Navy’s hydrographic office. As of March 1, 1942, her commanding officer was Lieutenant (junior grade) Stuart T. Hotchkiss.
Bowdoin was assigned to the South Greenland Patrol but did not report for duty at Ivigtut. The Greenland patrol existed for two major purposes: to assist in the defense of Greenland and to support the Army in its task of setting up air bases on Greenland as stopover and fueling points for aircraft being ferried to Great Britain. Bowdoin provided services in conjunction with air base site surveys and construction. That assignment lasted about 27 months.
During that time, in October 1941, the two portions of the Greenland Patrol — the northeast and Bowdoin’s south — were combined into a single command, the Greenland Patrol, Task Group 24.8 which took its orders directly from Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet. About two years after that event, on 23 October 1943, the auxiliary schooner was placed in reduced commission.
On 16 December 1943, Bowdoin was placed out of commission at Quincy, Massachusetts. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 16 May 1944. She was sold as a hulk on 24 January 1945 through the Maritime Commission’s War Shipping Administration. Purchased by friends of MacMillan, the battered schooner was refitted once again for Arctic exploration.
Bowdoin was one of a very few sail powered vessels in commissioned service in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Notable Guest, and Reunion Information):
Owner/Guardian: (1921) – (1941) – Donald B. MacMillan
Owner/Guardian: (1941) – (1945) – US Navy
Owner/Guardian: (1945) – (1959) – Donald B. MacMillan
Owner/Guardian: (1959) – (1967) – Mystic Seaport
Owner/Guardian: (1967) – (1988) – Schooner Bowdoin Association, Inc.
Owner/Guardian: (1988) – (current) – Maine Maritime Academy
