1978: The Launch of a Wooden Schooner off the Coast of New Hampshire

August 22, 1978 

Appledore II, a privately owned two-masted wooden schooner, was launched from the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This vessel — with an overall length of 86 feet (26 meters) — is larger than her sister ships Appledore I, III, IV, and V. All of these ships were constructed for Herbert and Doris Smith. The source of the shared name of the vessels is Appledore Island, which is part of the Isles of Shoals and located about seven miles (11.3 kilometers) off the coast of Maine. Doris Smith grew up on Appledore Island.  

Appledore II was designed by renowned naval architect Bud McIntosh. This vessel turned out to be the last schooner built by the Harvey Gamage Shipyard in South Bristol, Maine. Other well-known schooners built by this longtime company included the Harvey Gamage and Shenandoah. Appledore II was specially outfitted to better withstand both turbulent weather and the open ocean.

The maiden voyage of Appledore II began in November 1978, when the Smiths departed from Portsmouth on board the schooner for a circumnavigation of the world. By the time the vessel returned to Portsmouth 18 months later, the Smiths had taken her to a large number of ports of call across the globe. Herbert Smith wrote about this voyage in his books Dreams of Natural Places, A New England Schooner Odyssey and Sailing Three Oceans. In 1988, Appledore II was purchased by John and Jane McKean.

Over the years, this schooner has been used extensively in the Caribbean region for tours as well as educational purposes. She long served as a vessel for marine biology majors from New York-based Southampton College, which closed in 2005. In addition, Appledore II has been frequently used for day trips from her home ports of Camden, Maine, and Key West, Florida. Twice a year, this schooner makes a 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) offshore voyage between those ports.

Photo Credit: John McKean (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en)

For more information on Appledore II, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appledore_II