Staff reports
NEWBURYPORT — The much-anticipated mid-August visit of the sailing ship Friendship has been canceled, due to unexpected serious rot in its bow.
The National Park Service announced yesterday that deterioration in the 12-year-old ship is much more extensive than previously thought. It will require substantial repairs that the park service hopes to get underway at a shipyard in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, where the three-masted, 171-foot-tall ship is being examined by a team of experts.
The ship is a modern replica of a 1797 "East Indiaman" merchant ship built in Salem. It had been scheduled to be docked on Newburyport's central waterfront Aug. 13 through Aug. 17, and several community events had been planned around its visit.
"The ship's crew is really down in the dumps about this," said David Kayser, museum curator at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, where the ship is normally berthed. "We had a very ambitious sailing schedule. It's all going down the tubes. It hurts."
Kayser said the exact cost and extent of the rot isn't known. The ship underwent extensive examinations earlier this week, and a full report is expected by Monday. Rot was found in some of the key structural parts of the bow, including the beak, stem and the gammon-knee. The good news is it is all repairable, though the cost is estimated to be in excess of $10,000, Kayser said.
"Things are in a state of flux," he said in regard to the extent of repairs and the cost. "There's two options — a temporary fix that would allow it to limp back home, or get it all done right now. Everyone is of the opinion that we ought to get it done now, but it's a matter of finding the funding."
The ship will also have to cancel its appearance at the Salem maritime festival in early August, and a trip to a Nova Scotia Tall Ships festival. But park officials are hopeful it will be able to sail into Gloucester for a Labor Day weekend sailing festival.
Kayser said historically, wooden ships of the Friendship's age are prone to rot, and records are filled with references to ships of that age, or even younger, being pulled into port for extensive repairs.
"It's certainly not uncommon," he said. "Wooden ships of the 18th and 19th century had a lifespan of 20 to 30 years on average, and then they were done. That certainly tells you something," he said, adding that the park service expects that the Friendship will last "a lot longer than that."
Patricia Trap, the superintendent of the Salem maritime center, issued an apology to Newburyporters.
"The staff and volunteers at Salem Maritime National Historic Site and the Essex National Heritage Commission wish to express our extreme disappointment at not being able to bring the ship to Newburyport this summer. We are very sorry that this has occurred," she wrote.
Kayser uttered a refrain well known to boat owners.
"What is it they say? 'A boat is a hole in the water that you pour money into,'" he lamented.
