Above, you see the schooner GRACE BAILEY being pushed into Great Cove by her yawl boat at mid-morning last week. (She has no internal motor.) She anchored where she could show off her 118-foot profile and exceptionally good lines for a lady well over 100 years old:
GRACE was launched in 1882 in Patchogue, New York, and named after the daughter of her original owner, Edwin Bailey, a ccording to her website. She hauled lumber and oysters along the East coast until she was worn out. She was rebuilt in 1906 and renamed MATTIE, after Edwin’s granddaughter, Martha. She was relocated to Maine in 1919, where she lived the hard life of a coastal cargo cruiser for 20 years.
She was converted to a coastal tourist cruiser in 1939, served in World War II briefly as a training vessel for the Maine Maritime Academy, and underwent another major restoration in 1989-90. That’s when she was re-christened with her original name, GRACE BAILEY. She homeports now in Rockland, Maine.
In the images here, GRACE was on a 6-night cruise that featured live music, among other entertainment, according to her schedule. She left the Cove by early afternoon as a fog was setting in:
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 11, 2026.)