A year ago, when Emily Pearce was applying for the position of executive director for the Schooner Adventure in Gloucester, she spent an afternoon at waterfront dive bar Pratty’s, asking locals what they thought about the vessel. What she heard was a long succession of fond memories and stories about the schooner’s place in the community. She heard pride.
“I wanted to be a part of it,” she says. Today, Pearce is part of the all-women team leading the Schooner Adventure organization as it celebrates its 100th anniversary and prepares to sail into its second century. Pearce oversees programming and strategy, and Captain Christa Miller-Shelley is in charge of the schooner itself, supported by chief mate Natalie Warren. (Labrador retriever Bonnie, another female, boosts morale.)
The Schooner Adventure was one of the last wooden vessels built for commercial fishing in Essex. It took to the sea in 1926, fishing for cod, haddock, and halibut out of Gloucester. In the 1950s, it retired from fishing and was transformed into a passenger vessel, with cabins built where the fish hold used to be. In 1988, the schooner returned home when the owner donated the Adventure to the people of Gloucester.
A nonprofit was formed to steward the vessel. For nearly 30 years, the organization was dedicated to restoring the schooner to its historic configuration and appearance. This work was completed in 2015, along the way earning designation as a National Historic Land – mark, one of just two in Gloucester (and the only one that is a seafaring vessel). The organization then shifted its focus to preservation and education. Central to both those missions is sailing the schooner regularly. When wooden ships move, it creates air flow that helps stave off deterioration, Miller-Shelley explains, but when the vessels languish at the docks, rot can set in.
To get the vessel ready to ply the waters, dedicated volunteers spend each winter hours cleaning, sanding, repainting, and repairing the Adventure to ensure it is ready and well-maintained for the season to come. “Those volunteers are the reason we’re sailing,” Pearce says. Sailing is also a vital element of educating the public about Gloucester’s maritime history. Throughout the summer public sails allow visitors to experience the, well, adventure of cruising across the water, powered by the wind. Many of these voyages are just about the ride itself, while others include themed talks on topics like dory fishing or the history of women on the waterfront.
The schooner also partners with other local institutions to broaden the education they can offer. On educational field trips with middle and high school students, for example, they might work with Maritime Gloucester to collect sea – water as they sail, use microscopes to identify the plankton they find, they discuss the importance of the tiny organisms to the marine ecosystem, and thus to Gloucester’s fishing heritage. “We’re trying to tell the history of schooner fishing,” Pearce says.
The all-female leadership team al – lows the organization to offer education through a new lens, Pearce says. Women —wives and mothers and sisters and daughters—were always a linchpin of Gloucester’s fishing industry, keeping things together on land while the ships were at sea. Yet, their contributions have not often been shared, Pearce says.
Today, the Schooner Adventure helps tell those stories, and prepare girls and women to write new ones. The Girls on Adventure summer program brings girls in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade onboard to learn about the maritime world and career opportunities from sailing to working in marine sciences. It’s traditionally been difficult for women to get jobs in the maritime space; Pearce and her team want to shift that narrative. “Ultimately our goal is to give them some tangible skills, and a whole lot of joy,” she says.
In honor of Adventure’s centennial year, the nonprofit is planning several celebratory events. A gala fundraiser took place in May, and the schooner will participate in the Sail Boston tall ship festival in July. In September, on Adventure’s actual birthday, the organization is hosting a party on the Gloucester waterfront, open to the public. There will be cake, Pearce emphasizes. “It’s very much intended to be a love letter to Gloucester from the schooner,” she says. “Adventure is Gloucester’s vessel, and we take that very seriously.”