From collection Jake Gillison Collection
LB2016.15.449
The full-rigged sailing ship ST. MARY at a pier. She was built at Phippsburg, Maine in 1890 The ST. MARY was one of the last full-rigged wooden ships built in the country. It survived a collision at sea and a wild storm on its New York to San Francisco maiden voyage. Its damaged steering and a disputed course correction caused it to run aground; its fragmented wreckage landed on a beach near Fitzroy in the Falkland Islands. The captain felt responsible and committed suicide. During a dramatic "rescue," a section of the hull was removed from the wreckage site and transported home to Maine, where it became the centerpiece of a Maine State Museum exhibit - just 50 miles from the Phippsburg shipyard where it was built in 1890.
