Below you’ll see the sleek schooner J&E Riggin. She’s hosting festivities on the beach at Babson Island In Great Cove in Sunday’s haze and fog. Her schedule said that she was on a private charter.
She moved about 100 yards and overnighted in the center of the Cove, where she became part of an especially diverse marine community yesterday:.
She raised sails, did a sweeping come-about, and gracefully departed the Cove through the southern passageway:
The Riggin was built in 1927 as an oyster dredger for Charles Riggin of New Jersey. He named her for his two sons, Jacob and Edward (“J&E”) Riggin. She’s 120 feet long overall with a beam (widest part) of 23 feet. She dredged for oysters in the Delaware Bay area until the 1940s, when she was sold, converted to power, and sent out in search of mackerel and other fish.
In the 1970s, she was sold again and reconverted to a passenger vessel. In the process, her inboard engine was removed to make more room for cabins. Now out of Rockland, Maine, the Riggin still cruises the area waters without an inboard engine; she relies on her diesel-powered yawl boat to push her when she’s not under sail. (Images taken in Brookland, Maine, on August 5, 2024)