ROCKLAND, Maine — Forty-eight years after construction began, the 27-foot long Friendship sloop Persistence finally made it to the water.
Scores of people gathered at high tide Thursday afternoon at the city boat launching ramp adjacent to the Sail, Power & Steam Museum in Rockland for the christening and launching of the Persistence.
Capt. Jim Sharp, owner of the museum, gave the thumbs up and led a chorus of “hip, hip, hooray” when the sloop gently was led into the waters of Rockland Harbor. His wife Meg broke the bottle of champagne over the bow to the cheers of the crowd. Fellow Capt. Ken Barnes played the bagpipes.
The late Carlton Simmons, of Friendship, started construction of the sloop in 1966 but abandoned the project due to his wife’s health, the museum stated in a flier given out Thursday. John Lichtman, who was visiting Friendship from Oregon more than 30 years ago, saw the partially planked boat in a field and purchased it.
Lichtman settled in the midcoast area but never had time to work on the boat due to family and work commitments, according to the museum, so the vessel sat idle for 30 years.
Then Capt. Sharp approached Lichtman in September 2011 and the owner agreed to donate the under-construction vessel to the museum.
Sharp said Thursday that for the past three years, a handful of volunteers have worked each Tuesday and Thursday to complete the sloop.
The captain said the project was given a boost when a similar size sloop, Eagle, was abandoned at Spruce Head Marine boatyard and the company agreed to donate it to the museum. The hull of the boat was beyond repair but it had many parts that could be used for the Persistence, including an engine, iron keel, steering gear, a mast and sails.
The Persistence is constructed of cedar strips covering steam-bent oak frames.
The hull has been sheathed in fiberglass to reduce the amount of maintenance needed on it.
Sharp said the sloop will be used to take museum visitors out in the harbor to see how lobster traps were hauled in the days before power boats. He said Friendship sloops were used by lobstermen in the early 1900s.