Roseway (schooner)

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Roseway as a pilot boat
Career (United States) Flag of the United States
Name: S/V Roseway
Builder: John F. James & Son
Launched: November 24, 1925
General characteristics
Length: 137 ft (41.8 m) overall; 112 ft (34.1 m) on deck; 90 ft (27.4 m) at waterline
Beam: 25 ft (7.6 m)
Draft: 13 ft (4 m)
Propulsion: Sail, 400 h.p. diesel engine
Sail plan: gaff-rigged schooner, 5600 sq. ft. (520.3 m²) total sail
Notes: Hull material: Wood (white oak, native pine, Douglas fir)
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Location: Seasonal
Built/Founded: 1925
Architect: John F. James & Son
Designated as NHL: September 25, 1997[1]
Added to NRHP: September 25, 1997
NRHP Reference#: 97001278
Governing body: World Ocean School

The Roseway is a wooden gaff-rigged schooner launched on November 24, 1925 in Essex, Massachusetts. She is now restored and listed as a National Historic Landmark.

She is currently operated by World Ocean School, a non-profit educational organization based in Camden, Maine.

Contents

[edit] History

Roseway in Boston Harbor, 2006
Roseway in Boston Harbor, 2006

Roseway was built for Harold Hathaway of Taunton, Massachusetts at the John F. James & Son shipyard in Essex. Hathaway's intention was to build a boat which might best the Canadians in the international fisherman's races popular at that time; to that end, Roseway was impeccably maintained and used only occasionally as a fishing boat.[2]

In 1941, Roseway was purchased by the Boston Pilot's Association to serve as a pilot boat for Boston Harbor. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor later that year, mines and anti-submarine netting were installed to protect the Port of Boston, and all lighted navigational aids were extinguished. Roseway was fitted with a .50 caliber machine gun and continued her piloting duties in this challenging environment, for which service her pilots were awarded a bronze plaque from the Coast Guard at the end of the war.[3]

Roseway continued to serve as a pilot vessel until 1973, at which point she was the only pilot schooner still in service in the United States. She was sold and converted into a passenger vessel for the tourist trade. Roseway changed hands several times in the ensuing decades, operating primarily out of Camden, Maine and the US Virgin Islands. In 1997, she was listed as a National Historic Landmark. Roseway, at that time, retained between eighty and ninety percent of her original hull fabric and was badly in need of repairs.[1] She remained docked in Rockland, Maine until she was repossessed by the First National Bank of Damariscotta, which in 2002 donated the vessel to the newly founded World Ocean School.

Following two years of restoration in Boothbay Harbor, Roseway again set sail in 2005. She currently serves as the platform for the World Ocean School, which offers various educational programs in St. Croix and the northeastern United States.



[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b ROSEWAY (schooner). National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
  2. ^ http://www.worldoceanschool.org/roseway_history.htm |accessdate=2008-03-25
  3. ^ http://www.worldoceanschool.org/roseway_history.htm accessdate=2008-03-25

[edit] External links