Schooner Adventure is a 122-foot historic wooden dory fishing schooner built in 1926 in Essex, Massachusetts. Constructed of white oak and yellow pine, she was fashioned as a “knockabout”—a design without a bowsprit for the safety of the crew. The Schooner Adventure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places,  an Official Project of Save America’s Treasures, and the flagship of Gloucester, Massachusetts, America’s oldest fishing port founded in 1623. She is being restored to serve as a living monument to Massachusetts’ fishing heritage and to the over 5,000 fishermen who sailed out of Gloucester and never returned.Once fully restored, the Schooner Adventure will sail as a floating classroom with hands-on education. Our mission is to offer educational programs focusing maritime history and culture, the fishing industry past and present, local geography, environmental issues, and marine studies.

 

History

The Schooner Adventure was designed by the famous marine architect Thomas McManus as a “knockabout”‑‑without a bowsprit for the safety of the crew. The schooner was built in 1926, in Essex, Massachusetts, by the John F. James and Son Shipyard. She measured 121.6 feet in length, 24.5 feet in breadth, and 14 feet in depth. Her gross tonnage was 130 and her net tonnage 62. When built, Adventure was powered by a 120 horsepower engine turning a single screw in a cutout space in the rudder.

FISHING THE BANKS

Schooner Adventure fished for cod, haddock and halibut in Georges and Browns Banks. Carrying a sailing rig, diesel engine, and 14 dories, Adventure was an exceptionally fast and able vessel, the ultimate evolution of the fishing schooner.  Schooner Adventure was a “highliner,” the biggest moneymaker of all time, landing nearly $4 million worth of cod and halibut during her fishing career. When retired in 1953,  Schooner Adventure was the last American dory fishing trawler left in the Atlantic.

Schooner Adventure 

4 Harbor Loop

Fitz Henry Lane House

Gloucester, MA 01930

Office Telephone: (978) 281-8079 http://schooner-adventure.org/