K. A. Beals - The Arctic Schooner Bowdoin: One Hundred Years of Wind, Sea, and Ice

Published by Down East Books

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The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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Copyright 2022 by Kathryn Beals

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ISBN 978-1-60893-764-6 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-60893-765-3 (e-book)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

For Merlin, who was born September 27, 2010, and enjoyed his earliest months on the Atlantic at Indian Rest Lane in South Harpswell, Maine, later growing up on Spruce Head Island. He smiles whenever he sees the ocean.

Bowdoin to me is a monument of the finest adventure and richest experience I have ever known. She has existed to broaden mans knowledge and mens hearts, and at the same time has been a worthy tool for her Captains teachings.

BOWDOIN CREW MEMBER

ONE COOL MORNING IN SOUTHWEST HARBOR, MAINE, I STEPPED aboard the S/V Bowdoin, docked alone at a long finger wharf at the Great Harbor Marina. She was the centerpiece of the 1995 Wooden Boat Show, a gathering of more than fifty well maintained vessels, many originally fishing or trading vessels, now often converted for education or pleasure.

Her silence is eloquent, as I am aware each time I board her. Bowdoin barely creaks; her communion with the wind slipping over and the water rippling beneath her is serene; her response is controlled according to the heavy oak short frames and planking of her hull, built for lifting her out of northern ice, running into growlers, dodging icebergs, crushing pan ice, and opening and expanding leads. She is at rest in the North Atlantic on Mount Desert Island, with the unyielding weight of her substantial displacement: 66 tons. Built without a bowsprit, her waterline is less than 90 feet long.

All vesselsespecially wooden vesselsspeak. She whispers, murmurs, and groans, with the cracks, thuds, pops, and slap of the waves or shrieks of blowing wind against her hull. The whistling, whining, and clanking of her wooden mast, lines, and stays are gentle companions or screeching antagonists depending upon the weather gods. Bowdoin calmly acknowledges and asserts her presence. Designed for the heaviest weather, she is resolute and reliable, reassuring in her movements and motion underway.

I had been aboard her several times since first viewing her in the 1980s at Rockland Marine, a shipyard in the western corner of Rockland Harbor, one of Maines largest ports. She was on the waysa double ship railwayalongside the three-masted sovereign of the windjammers, the Victory Chimes. Together, the two vessels represented more than 200 years of sailing history. Bowdoin is to the Chimes as an icebreaker is to a skipjack: one a solidly built bark of exploration; the other a graceful fishing schooner.

Each time I examined her, visiting the Wooden Boat shows, then sailing in her from 2004 until the present; observing her deck replanking at the Wayfarer yard in Camden in 2017 and the final recent restoration of her hull at the Bristol Boatyard in Booth-bay Harbor in 2019, she exhibited only unperturbed stability and unconditional capability. Whatever her condition, she appears ready to set sail.

When underway, the Bowdoin remains firmly ensconced in the sea. While most sailing vessels are lifted into the winds realm and dance there until the sails are set, her sails seem to cleave the atmosphere, as if pushing aside the air to make way. She revels in the watery element, be it liquid, solid, or a combination.

The 88-foot vessel was created for exploration and research in the Arctic. It is appropriate that Arctic voyaging is once again becoming feasible, as Bowdoin celebrates her centennial and begins a new century. When she was acquired by Maine Maritime Academy in 1988, noted Captain Andy Chase first sailed the Bowdoin to Labrador in 1990, then above the Arctic Circle in 1991, returning her to the Arctic regions of original research, where people recognized the vessel from her earlier visits more than fifty years ago.

Captain Elliot Rappaport, the former first mate from the 1990 and 1991 voyages, returned to the Arctic with the Bowdoin in 1994. Her most recent Arctic voyage in 2008 was with Captain Rick Miller, a professor at Maine Maritime Academys Transportation Department. The present master, Captain Will McLean, plans a commemorative Arctic Centennial Voyage.

The Bowdoin supports her legacy through her stalwart constancy. She is the base which confirms the ability to achieve a safe voyage in the ice-filled waters of the northernmost Atlantic, and exudes the eagerness to set out upon it.

How does the centennial of the S/V Bowdoin herald the future? If past is prologue, then this may offer some indications.

April 9, 1921Present

Launched on April 9, 1921, at the Hodgdons Brothers Shipyard in East Boothbay, Maine.

Due to the United States Prohibition, instead of being traditionally christened, flowers were thrown over her bow by May Fogg, Donald MacMillans niece.

Began her first voyage down the Sheepscot River from Maine to Baffin Island, off Labrador, Canada.

Wintered over in Schooner Harbor on the southwestern coast of Baffin Island, returned to the United States the following summer.

Magnetic station established, nesting grounds of the blue goose located. Frozen in for ten months.

Wintered over in Refuge Harbor, northwestern Greenland. In September, the Bowdoin was Farthest North at 78 degrees 38 minutes, at Cape Inglefield, a world record for a 15-ton registered vessel.

Established a scientific station, took continuous meteorological and tidal observations for a year, received and sent shortwave radio messages from the United States in Morse code, placed a memorial tablet at Cape Sabine, Ellesmere Island, to honor the Greely Expedition. Frozen in for 325 days.

Accompanied by Admiral Richard Byrd, the Bowdoin and an auxiliary vesselthe Peary, captained by George Steeletook a summer expedition to northwest Greenland to test amphibious planes beyond the Arctic Circle.

Built tidal observatory station at Etah, took color photographs of the Arctic, maintained shortwave radio contact with the U.S. mainland and naval units around the world.

Summer expedition with the auxiliary ship Sachem, extensive marine life research and botanical studies at Labrador and Greenland.

Yearlong expedition with the auxiliary ship Radio, which returned to the United States after three months.

Scientific station established at Anetalak Bay, Labrador, and built the MacMillan Moravian School at Nain, Labrador.