Phoenix of the Seas

In Phoenix of the Seas, Chester Brigham chronicles the three-ocean, three-centuries saga of the Gloucester schooner Ernestina-Morrissey, now the State Ship of Massachusetts. Written off as doomed again and again, this indomitable vessel has each time returned to glory in a new life: sailing to the Grand Banks from Gloucester for cod in the 1890s ... voyaging to the Arctic every year for almost two decades on scientific expeditions ... serving under both the U.S. Army and Navy in the Arctic during World War II ... crossing the Atlantic a dozen times as a packet ship, linking Cape Verdean-Americans in New England with family members on their home islands ... back in America under sail, educating boatloads of school children on the wonders of the sea. Brigham writes of the remarkable men and women who have commanded the vessel, first when she was the Effie M. Morrissey, then the Ernestina, and finally the Ernestina-Morrissey. They were Gloucester fishing captains Bill and Clayton Morrissey, Arctic navigator Bob Bartlett, Henrique Mendes on Cape Verde, round-the-world sailor Dan Moreland. Over the years the vessel has touched the lives of dory-trawling fishermen on the Grand Banks, scientists forsaking laboratory comforts to do field work in the tundra, Inuit hunters, GIs at remote radio shacks, Atlantic islanders, volunteers who have sacrificed much for love of the ship. The Ernestina-Morrissey had been laid up for a decade for lack of funding. But now, it is official: this Phoenix ship will rise from the ashes once again Thanks to a combination of state and private funding, the Ernestina-Morrissey is to be completely restored, then berthed at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. And then will begin the story of her next incarnation.