CLASSIC SAILING NEWS – December 20. 2014 – Historic sailing vessel to get $6M restoration
New Bedford. Massachusetts — The state’s official sailing vessel is getting a sprucing up.
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation says a combination of private and public money will be used to rehabilitate and restore the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey, currently berthed in New Bedford.
The Boothbay Harbor Shipyard won the $6 mil bid to restore the Ernestina, the oldest surviving Grand Banks fishing schooner, listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1990 and serves as the official vessel of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Officials say the vessel will return to New Bedford after the work is completed.
The vessel was launched in 1894 in Essex. It was purchased in 1926 by Arctic explorer Robert Bartlett, and once reached within 600 miles of the North Pole. She later carried immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands to the United States.
Julius Britto, president of the nonprofit Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Association Inc. (SEMA), said the restored Ernestina will be moored at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay and serve as the school’s sail training ship – much like the schooner Bowdoin serves as the sail training ship for Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.