''Bagheera'', formerly ''Beacon Rock'', is a historic

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

normally berthed at the Maine State Pier in Portland, Maine. She is a two-masted auxiliary rigged schooner, built in 1924 by the noted naval architect John G. Alden, and is noted for her racing success on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

. She is now owned and operated by the Portland Schooner Company, which offers sailing tours of

Casco Bay Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. The city of Portland sits along its south ...

, using ''Bagheera'' and '' Wendameen''. ''Bagheera'' was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2009.

Description and history

''Bagheera'' is a wooden-hulled auxiliary schooner, measuring in length with a deck of . Her beam is , and she has a draft of . Her frame is white oak, with pine planking, flooring, and ceilings. Her rails are mahogany, and her bowsprit and spars are sitka spruce. The deck is fiberglass (a replacement for the original teak), laid on oak beams. The outside of the hull is painted black. Her present rigging, similar to the original, is gaff rigging. The auxiliary power is provided by a c. 2000 82 horsepower Westerbeke diesel engine. The interior retains substantial woodwork and equipment, including its original wheel. ''Bagheera'' was built at the Rice Brothers Shipyard in

East Boothbay, Maine Boothbay is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,003 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of Back Narrows, Dover, East Boothbay, Linekin, Oak Hill, Ocean Point, Spruce Shores, and Trevett. The Boothbay regi ...

, in 1924, to a design by John G. Alden, by then already a well-known designer of sailing ships. Her design is of a class known as Malabar schooners, although she is both longer and wider than most instances of the class. She was built for Marion Eppley, and was originally called ''Beacon Rock'', after her estate in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

. Eppley berthed her at Newport, and sold her in 1928 to Robert Benedict. He renamed her ''Bagheera'', and moved her to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where she embarked on a successful racing career on the

, which lasted roughly until 1938. She was used as a training vessel during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and was shipped to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

in the 1950s and sailed back to the United States. In 1948 her gaff rigging was replaced by a Marconi rig. By the 1980s she had been sailed to the west coast, and outfitted for passenger trade. "Bagheera" is now being used as a floating universal classroom for students and professors from Saint Joseph's College's Environmental Science Semester. Weather permitting, the schooner becomes a temporary home and lab, carrying the crew Downeast for two weeks to study climate change and glacial geology, field methods, marine ecology, and oceanography.

References

External links

Portland Schooner Co. web site
{{National Register of Historic Places Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine 1923 ships Schooners of the United States National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Maine Ships built in Boothbay, Maine Sailboat type designs by Alden Designs

Description and history

See also

References

External links