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For more than a century, the Pilot and the Victory Chimes \u2014 two historic schooners with towering sails \u2014 have between them served the country in wartime, hosted the likes of Jacques Cousteau and graced the Maine state quarter.<\/p>\n
But an inlet just off New York City’s<\/a> famously polluted Gowanus Canal could be their final port of call.<\/p>\n The boats \u2014 now owned by a company that turns historic vessels into floating bars and restaurants \u2014 sank there in early July while docked on the Brooklyn waterfront.<\/p>\n Now many in the maritime community are calling on the company to do what it can to save them \u2014 and to account for how they sank in the first place.<\/p>\n The 121-foot (37-meter) Pilot, which is a little more than a century old, and the 128-foot (39-meter) Victory Chimes, which dates to 1900 and is the ship that graces the 2003 Maine quarter, are owned by New York City-based company Crew. Both schooners sank around the time of strong squalls, though the exact cause of the sinkings has not been fully determined.<\/p>\n Crew is working with insurers, marine salvage experts and marine surveyors to determine what to do about the sunken boats, said Alex Pincus, the company’s CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cRaising wooden vessels of this size is a highly complex operation that requires specialized equipment, careful planning and extensive coordination,\u201d Pincus said. \u201cThe vessels remain submerged as part of that ongoing process while assessments and planning continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Many in the maritime community are calling on the company to do what it can to save the ships and to account for why they sank. Brad Vogel, a member of a canoe club called the Gowanus Dredgers, whose members paddle near the site, called the potential loss of the ships \u201ca shame\u201d and \u201cin some ways unforgivable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Victory Chimes is on the National Register of Historic Places and is the last surviving Chesapeake ram, a kind of flat-bottomed schooner designed to navigate narrow and shallow waterways. Crew acquired it at auction about three years ago.<\/p>\n The loss of the ship is \u201cheartbreaking for Maine and the nation’s maritime heritage\u201d because it’s the last schooner of its type, said Steve Bromage, executive director of the Maine Historical Society.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile salvaging her requires tremendous effort and expense, it would be very unfortunate to lose such an important part of history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Pilot once ferried maritime pilots to larger ships in Boston Harbor. It also made trips for the Coast Guard during the World War II era. It became an educational and research vessel in the 1970s and 1980s, and Jacques Cousteau spent time aboard it during that period. Crew acquired the vessel in 2015 and turned it into an oyster bar.<\/p>\n Even if the ships can be raised, rebuilding them would be extremely difficult and expensive, in part because the kind of timber they were built with is no longer readily available, said Charlie Weidman, of Charlie’s Marine Service in Rockland, Maine, who once shared a dock with the Victory Chimes. He described himself as \u201cunsentimental\u201d about the sinking of the ships and the ill-fated attempts to turn them into floating restaurants.<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re not the saviors that they paint themselves to be. They’re like, we’re saving the boat,\u201d Weidman said. \u201cYou’re trying to monetize that boat. You’re just trying to make a buck here.\u201d<\/p>\n The schooners were docked at Brooklyn Bridge Park before being relocated to Henry Street Basin, just off the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood. The canal is a federal Superfund site<\/a> regarded as one of the most toxic waterways in the country, though a long-term cleanup is underway.<\/p>\n The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, which manages the park, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Coast Guard and New York City officials also didn’t respond to questions about the sinking of the ships.<\/p>\n The loss of the boats is \u201csad, but not entirely unexpected,\u201d because maintaining such historic schooners is very difficult, said Amanda Pleau, spokesperson for the Maine Maritime Museum. Most turn-of-the-century schooners lasted less than 20 years, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s also why historic vessels are so special; it\u2019s not uncommon in Maine to come across a home that\u2019s more than 100 years old, but the remaining ships are few and far between,\u201d Pleau said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n