Two historic schooners are resting at the bottom of the Henry Street Basin in Red Hook after sinking in July, leaving their future uncertain and raising concerns over the loss of two vessels with significant maritime histories, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.
The 121-foot Pilot and 128-foot Victory Chimes sank while docked along the Brooklyn waterfront. Both vessels are owned by Crew, a New York City-based company that operates historic ships as floating bars and restaurants.
The vessels sank around the time of strong squalls, although the exact cause has not been determined.
“People in Maine, people in New York City, do want answers and want to know what’s going on. And it’s not at all certain that there is a commitment to raising the vessels,” said Brad Vogel, a member of the Gowanus Dredgers.
Crew is working with insurers, marine salvage experts and marine surveyors to assess the vessels and determine whether they can be raised. The schooners remain submerged as those assessments continue.
The Victory Chimes, built in 1900, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the last surviving Chesapeake ram, a flat-bottomed schooner designed to navigate narrow and shallow waterways. The vessel also appeared on the 2003 Maine state quarter.
The Pilot, which is more than a century old, previously transported maritime pilots to larger ships in Boston Harbor and served with the Coast Guard during World War II. It later became an educational and research vessel and hosted oceanographer Jacques Cousteau before being converted into a floating oyster bar.
The schooners had previously been docked at Brooklyn Bridge Park before being moved to Henry Street Basin near the Gowanus Canal in Red Hook. The canal is a federal Superfund site undergoing a long-term cleanup.
Whether the vessels can be saved remains unclear. Even if they are raised, restoring the wooden schooners could be difficult and costly because the type of timber used to build them is no longer readily available.
For now, the vessels remain submerged while salvage options and their future are assessed.
