This watercolor of the "Mary E. Crosby" was painted by Mina Keyes Goddard probably between 1884 and 1896-98. I have been curious about the ship for years, and in January, 2001, I went to the Phillips Library at the wonderful Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem. Yellowed books there told me the bare outline of the schooner's story. Mina Goddard's painting shows me other things about daily life aboard. Here's what I learned:

Coasting schooners were the eighteen-wheelers of the coastal seas throughout the nineteenth century, disappearing only in the first decades of the twentieth century. They didn't get much respect, though--they didn't partake of the deep water romance of the square-rigged ship-- the China trader, the whaler, the clipper ship-- or even the Gloucester Grand Banks fishing schooner. The "coasters" could be built on almost any tidal creek. They went from port to port in New England or along the East Coat with prosaic cargoes: timber, stone, coal, ice, anything. Before and even after the advent of rail, they carried the heavy goods and miscellaneous stuff of the young coastal nation.

Three-masted coasters (called "tern schooners") were a relatively late innovation. Only 18 three-masted schooners had been constructed along the Atlantic coast by the mid-19th century and only 39 had been registered by 1864. But soon there were more. Combining hauling capacity with nimbleness, some tern schooners were constructed with one or two centerboards. Centerboards were useful in shoal waters and made the schooner easier to handle when the vessel was light, though they occupied valuable space and were difficult to maintain. By the 1880s, three-masted schooners formed the backbone of the New England coaster fleet. They dominated the lumber trade and for a period the coal trade, until they were displaced by huge 5 and 6-masted schooners vessels. A total of about 1500 tern schooners were built on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts before all but a token few rotted away.

Built in 1873, she was a Nantucket vessel for about a dozen years. Our "Mary E. Crosby" was built in 1873, thus at the start of the boom in tern schooners. She was launched as the "Imogene Divert" in Dennisville, New Jersey. She was not a large schooner: 111.3 feet in length, 23.4 feet in breadth, 8.6 feet in depth, and of 188 gross tons. She was of oak and pine, and iron-framed. She had a center board. The "Imogene Divert" had a twin sister, the "Deborah H. Divert," built the following year. The "Deborah" and the "Imogene" stayed together in New Jersey until 1884, when "Imogene" came to Nantucket as her new home port. Her new owner-master, John L. Brooks, changed her name to the "Mary E. Crosby." Details are sparse.

[INSERT: Lifesaving award. To my delight and out of the internet blue, I received in August 2002 the following e-mail message about the "Mary E. Crosby" and her master:

"Dear Steve,
I'm researching the background of my Great-grandfather, Capt. Fred A. White of Belfast, Maine, and have learned that my cousin, Thom White of Bar Harbor, has a document pertaining to the history of the 'Mary E. Crosby.' It seems Capt. White and his wife Jennie were presented a citation by the Massachusetts Humane Society for rescuing three men from a sinking yacht off Cape Cod on 24 June, 1892, while aboard the Mary E. Crosby. I'm assuming he was the Captain of the vessel at that time. We're fortunate that you and Ms. Goddard have given us the opportunity to view an image of her... Thank you! /s/ Jay R. White"

The certificate that Mr. White sent me reads in part:

"Fred White and Jennie V. White Master of the schooner Mary E.Crosby were voted by a meeting of the Humane Society of Mass. on 15 Oct., 1892 to be awarded the certificate for assisting in saving three men when their yacht capsized on 28 June, 1892."

The names of the saved men were Burt Winslow and Ned MacNoon; the third man is unknown.

(Reading the citation, though, I could not help but wonder which of the two was the master of the vessel-- Fred or Jennie (or both)?)]

The schooner's deck was caulked in 1893, and she was caulked from keel to deck in 1895 and "docked" (drydocked?) in 1898. She continues to appear in Registries as a Nantucket vessel until 1896 or 1898, when the Registries say her owner-master Edwin Crowley took her to a new home port of Portsmouth or Exeter NH. After 1899, when she would have been twenty-six years old, she disappears from the Registries. Her home port documentation in Nantucket and Portsmouth perhaps can tell us more. (My son David gave me an old picture of a tern schooner like the Mary E. Crosby being towed up the homey Squamscot River to Exeter NH.)

Where was she moored when Myna Goddard painted her? This puzzled me for a while, but I think the location is shown below:

In the middle-right of the Bird's Eye View 1881 lithograph (see Lancaster [1979] plate 30A) is a two-masted schooner offloading to a trestle and into a building. The vessel is moored at the west end of the basin between Commercial and Old South Wharves in Nantucket:

Furthermore, a late 19th century photo taken from the Unitarian Church (detail below; see, plate 39 of Lancaster) shows the mast and gaff of a vessel moored at this location. The shape of the nearby buildings is consistent with the painting. The enclosing wharves would have given Mina Goddard an excellent vantage point for her painting:

That's what I've learned about the "Mary E. Crosby" so far. I like my new friends, the tern schooners, so much I have made a small page showing small tern schooners going about their daily lives.