The extreme clipper schooner, Shenandoah, Capt. Robert S. Douglas, master, arrived at her home port, Vineyard Haven, during the weekend, and is due to sail this week for the Atlantic Ocean with her first passenger list. Named for a U. S. revenue cutter built in 1849, whose hull design and rig have been closely followed, the Shenandoah symbolizes all that was beautiful, judicious and distinct in the sailing craft that made America famous on the seven seas.
A convivial crowd filled the Black Dog Tavern Wednesday night for the first in this season’s Sail Martha’s Vineyard dinner lectures. Capt. Bob Douglas was the man at the microphone.
The U.S. Coast Guard investigated a mishap in which a fishing boat struck the yawl boat of the schooner Shenandoah Wednesday. The yawl boat, hanging from davits off the stern of the Black Dog ship, was destroyed; the two larger vessels were unharmed.
This week concludes Capt. Robert Douglas’ 50th summer skippering the Shenandoah, what amounts to the longest-running relationship between a captain and his boat he’s ever heard of.
“To my knowledge, no one has ever been tied up to the same boat, without interruption for 50 years,” he said this week on the porch outside his office in Vineyard Haven.
Down to the Sea with Love: They Come to the Island for a Memorable
Voyage
By JOHN BUDRIS and JAMES D'AMBROSIO
For three magic days they were not heart transplant patients or the
leukemia kids in the next ward. They were neither stuck with needles,
nor looped through high-tech machines.
For three magic days their parents forgot about blood counts, organ
rejection and the next visit to yet another specialist at Boston
Children's Hospital.
It's said that her name is Indian by origin and means Daughter
of the Stars, but in truth she is more like the daughter of Capt. Robert
S. Douglas. He planned for her, he provided everything she ever needed,
and in return, she has never gone anywhere without him.
Since 1964, the tall ship Shenandoah has brought picturesque maritime charm to Vineyard Haven, moored in the same place in the harbor. But maybe not for much longer.
The Army Corps of Engineers has written to the owners of the 150-foot wooden sloop, the Douglas family, threatening to suspend the permit for the ship to moor there unless they can come up with some solution that resolves persistent complaints from the Steamship Authority that the Shenandoah is a hazard to ferry operations.
A thoroughly refurbished schooner Shenandoah was relaunched Saturday morning at Boothbay Harbor in Maine.
The Shenandoah, one of the Black Dog tall ships that sail from Vineyard Haven harbor, had undergone about six months of extensive rebuilding at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard.
“We essentially did what is referred to as retopping — a rebuilding of the vessel from the waterline up,” said Bob Foster, a spokesman for the shipyard.
Shenandoah, the graceful 108-foot topsail schooner that has long been a landmark in the Vineyard Haven harbor, is laid up at a Fairhaven shipyard, her majestic hull stripped bare and her ribs exposed as she undergoes extensive work to reverse a botched restoration job performed by a shipyard in Maine last year.
Robert Douglas, who is both captain and owner of the Shenandoah, has sued the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard for the apparently shoddy work that left his schooner taking on seawater last summer while she was filled with school children.
