Here you see the schooner “American Eagle” entering Great Cove in the lowering sun Monday afternoon. This was her third visit this summer. She’s on a nine-night Down East waters cruise, according to her schedule.
The Eagle is not large as coastal cruisers in the Maine fleet go. The red-sailed boat in the above image provides perspective: that’s “Crackerjack,” a 12.5-foot Haven that is part of the WoodenBoat School classroom fleet. The Eagle’s overall length is 90 feet. However, she rides high and has a very clean, sweeping gunwale line from fore to aft that can make her look longer. She now hails from Rockland, Maine.
The Eagle overnighted in the Cove and awoke to torrential rains and drifting fogs yesterday. She kept her weather tarps up and her sails and passengers down (below deck) all morning, as far as I could tell:
She departed into rainy and foggy Eggemoggin Reach in that condition about 1:30 p.m. yesterday.
She was launched in 1930 as the Andrew & Rosalie, the last fishing schooner built in Gloucester, Massachusetts. During World War II, she was renamed American Eagle for patriotic reasons. She fished until 1983 and then went through difficult times until she was totally renovated in 1986 as a tourist schooner. She has since become a National Historic Landmark. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 22 and 23, 2024.)