Wartime service, a Cousteau visit and Maine’s state quarter
Two historic schooners have remained submerged in a Brooklyn inlet since early July, when both sank while docked on the waterfront.
The 121-foot (37-meter) Pilot is a little more than a century old. The 128-foot (39-meter) Victory Chimes dates to 1900 and is the ship featured on Maine’s 2003 state quarter.
For more than a century, the two vessels have between them served the country in wartime, hosted Jacques Cousteau and appeared on the Maine state quarter, according to the Associated Press.
Both schooners are owned by Crew, a New York City-based company that turns historic vessels into floating bars and restaurants.
Both schooners sank around the time of strong squalls, though the exact cause of the sinkings has not been fully determined.
Many in the maritime community are calling on the company to do what it can to save the vessels and to account for how they sank in the first place.
Crew’s CEO, Alex Pincus, said the company is working with insurers, marine salvage experts and marine surveyors to determine what to do about the sunken boats.
“Raising wooden vessels of this size is a highly complex operation that requires specialized equipment, careful planning and extensive coordination,” Pincus said. “The vessels remain submerged as part of that ongoing process while assessments and planning continue.”
The inlet just off the polluted Gowanus Canal could be the schooners’ final port of call, according to the Associated Press.