A small two-master slipped into Great Cove Sunday evening (July 12), but she didn’t go unnoticed by those of us whose windows face the Cove – she was our first schooner sighting of the year here. The local email tom-toms sounded and it was determined that she was the Tree of Life out of Newport, Rhode Island.
She stayed the night and motored out of the Cove yesterday on an almost windless morning, when the images here were taken. She seemed to be carrying only a five-person crew, no tourists. Once she got well into the haze of Eggemoggin Reach, she found some wind and put up her sails.
The Tree is a luxuriously appointed 71-foot cruiser with a composite wood-fiberglass hull. She was launched in 1991 and has sailed the world. However, these plague-ridden times are hard on such tourist-dependent ships; in fact, the Tree is being advertised for sale by a high-end broker.
Thus, her unusual name – Tree of Life – is now ironic. Such a Tree appears as the source of eternal life in the Genesis description of the Garden of Eden. Variations of that concept appear in many religions, mythologies, and works of art. According to one report, this schooner was christened Tree of Life because an Irish folk song of the same name was playing when its owners were looking for a name. (Brooklin, Maine)