Above, you see the schooner Lewis R. French waking up yesterday in steamy Great Cove after overnighting there. She’s on a six-night coastal cruise, according to her schedule. The French is the sixth windjammer that I’ve seen visit the Cove since the coastal cruising season opened in late spring.
Yesterday, she moved from her overnight anchorage off Babson Island to one nearer the Wooden Boat School. There was virtually no wind on that steamy morning, so her yawlboat pushed her:
The French is a gaff-rigged topsail schooner now out of Camden, Maine. . She’s reportedly 101 feet long, has a full keel (which is unusual for coastal cruisers), but no internal motor (which is not unusual). She was built by three brothers who named her after their father, a Maine storekeeper.
The French also is a famous old lady. She was launched in 1871 in South Bristol, Maine. According to the literature, she’s the oldest two-masted schooner in the U.S. and the oldest extant sailing ship built in Maine, where she always has been home-ported. She’s a designated National Historic Landmark
Her yawlboat also took two loads of her passengers ashore to visit the WoodenBoat Campus , shop at the gift store there, and return aboard.
The wind hadn’t picked up much when it was time to depart the Cove, so her yawlboat had to do more work:
The French didn’t raise her foremast sails or jibs while in the still-aired Cove, but may have done so when she reached the windier Eggemoggin Reach.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 24, 2025.)