BATH, Maine — Salisbury’s Mary Burchard was in Bath, Maine, at the Maine Maritime Museum on the Kennebec River on April 23 to see a schooner called the Mary E.
Built by Thomas Hagan in Bath in 1906, the Mary E. is the last wooden schooner built on the Kennebec still afloat.
For the first 50 years she was used as a fishing and coastal trade boat. She was abandoned in 1960 and was sunk by a hurricane in Lynn Harbor, Mass., in 1963.
Burchard’s brother, William R. Donnell, bought the Mary E. in 1965, brought her to Bath by truck and spent two years restoring her. He and his family sailed her out of Rockland, Maine, as part of the Windjammer Fleet for several years.
After he sold her she was used as a party sailing boat and was moved to the Long Island Sound.
Last year the Maine Maritime Museum purchased the long-lived schooner. She will undergo some work at the museum this year and will begin taking people sailing next year.
The Mary E. arrived under sail at the museum on April 23 and all women whose name is Mary E. were invited to be present to welcome her return. Burchard, or more properly Mary Elizabeth Donnell Burchard — or Mary E. — and her daughter, Brenda, traveled to be on hand for the docking of the Mary E.
“Given my history with both the museum and the ship we made the trip,” Burchard said.
More information is at MaineMaritimeMuseum.org