SCHOONER ERNESTINA-MORRISSEY

Good Morning and have a great day

Today I will share some photos and some of the History of a tall schooner that is now based here in New Bedford

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Built in four months at a cost of $16,000 and launched on February 1, 1894 at the James & Tarr shipyard in Essex MA, EFFIE M. MORRISSEY (now ERNESTINA) was owned by Captain William E. Morrissey and the John F. Wonson, Co. of Gloucester, MA. The vessel was named after Captain Morrissey’s daughter. The ship’s illustrious career began that same year, when the 156-foot-long schooner carried Gloucester fishermen to the Grand Banks, Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland in search of cod, haddock, hake, halibut, pollock, and other species and to carry freight.

Later under Captain Bob Bartlett she sailed to within 600 miles of the North Pole, and later brought immigrants to the U.S. under the power of sail.

Captain Henrique Mendes purchased MORRISSEY and renamed her ERNESTINA, after his daughter, and sailed the vessel as a packet, carrying immigrants and goods to and from Cape Verde Islands and the United States from 1948 until 1965

She was returned to the US in 1982 as a gift from the newly independent Cape Verdean people, she sailed as an educator until 2005 when, the vessel was not granted its U.S. Coast Guard certification as a small passenger and sailing school vessel due to her deteriorated stem, stern, and transom
Eventually funds were raised and she was renovated and is back sailing out or New Bedford Harbor

Since I talked a lot about her time at sea I thought I should start with a couple of shots of het out on the water