The Heritage sailed into Great Cove Wednesday afternoon on her five-day “Summer Solstice Cruise.” She left yesterday morning, the beginning of the Solstice. She moored just off the WoodenBoat School pier and made us realize that the beautiful scene had been incomplete until she appeared.
She looked abandoned yesterday after most of her passengers rowed themselves ashore to explore the WBS campus and before they returned to the coaster for departure. But it was a good opportunity to study her lines.
Then, the Heritage raised sails with her 1921 on-deck hoisting engine. (In the old days, this type of engine was called a “H’ister” [hoister] , because it hoisted heavy sails and anchors; or a “One-Lunger,” because it had only one-cylinder, or a “Donkey Engine” because it brayed loudly. Schooners without a hoisting engine were known as “Hand-Pullers.”)
The wind virtually disappeared ("fushed out," as some here say) when the Heritage was ready to go -- and she has no internal motor. Not to worry: this 145-foot coasting schooner has a powerful yawl boat that pushes her in such situations, as the yawl boats of the commercial cargo coasters did in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Nonetheless, the Heritage is advertised as "the newest" of the Down East coast schooners. She was launched in 1983 in Rockland, Maine, where she was built and still hails from. Below, we see her departing Great Cove yesterday to continue her Summer Solstice cruise under bright sun.
All of her cruises are not under sunny skies, of course. We’ll leave you with one of our favorite images of the Heritage slipping into the Cove through a fog mull last summer:
(Brooklin, Maine)