Schooner Sentinel

Schooner Sentinel, schooner ZODIAC at Point Wilson Lighthouse.

Artist James Williamson, ASMA
Signature Member of the American Society of... more

by James Williamson

Title

Schooner Sentinel

Artist

James Williamson

Medium

Painting - Watercolor

Description

Schooner Sentinel, schooner ZODIAC at Point Wilson Lighthouse.

Artist James Williamson, ASMA
Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists

Our imaginations are seized by elegant wooden boats, majestic vessels of gleaming brass, honed teak decks and brightly varnished hulls. Under their expansive canvas sails, the yachts evoke a vanished era when the waves were broken only by the power of the wind. The glorious age of sailing, as well as the modern enthusiasm for the classic vessel, is embraced by the Schooner ZODIAC. Whether sailing vigorously in a heavy wind, coasting serenely on the sea or docked in a picturesque harbor ZODIAC captures our attraction to the sea. ‘Schooner SENTINAL’ is a tribute to vintage wooden vessels as well as its current resurgence.

Historic Schooner Zodiac: Built in 1924 for the heirs to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals fortune, the two-masted schooner Zodiac has been based in Seattle since the early 1990’s. She is the largest wooden sailing vessel continuing to work on the West Coast of the United States. The Zodiac is presently operated by the non-profit Northwest Schooner Society for Elderhostel and youth training cruises, group charters, and day-sail excursions throughout Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, and Northwest waters. The vessel is currently berthed at the Alaska Ferry Terminal, which is located near the Fairhaven district in South Bellingham, Washington. She is prepared for cruises at this location and is a frequent sight on Bellingham Bay during the sailing season.

The Zodiac is a two-masted schooner weighing 145 gross tons with a deck measuring 127 feet from bow to stern with a beam of 25.5 feet. The ship sets over 7,000 square-foot of sail, all hoisted by hand, including the 4,000 square feet of canvas on her mainsail. The mainmast is over 100 feet high. Commissioned as a yacht for Robert Wood and J. Seward Johnson, she was designed by legendary naval architect William Hand Jr. on the model of a “racing fisherman” schooner popular in the Atlantic cod fishery during the early 1900’s. The Zodiac was built with painstaking care with everything top-of-the-line and state-of-the-art at the Hodgson Brothers Shipyard in East Boothbay, Maine. Designed as an ocean racing yacht, she was entered in the 1928 Trans-Atlantic Race from New York to Spain. A stout ship, Zodiac finished fourth due to light winds.

When the Depression hit, the Johnson’s lost interest in Zodiac and put her up for sale in 1931. This magnificent schooner, for which the Johnson’s had paid $150,000 in 1924, was sold to the San Francisco Bar Pilots for $15,000 – 10 cents on the dollar. The Bar Pilots renamed the ship California, and she served faithfully under this name for 41 years, transferring pilots to and from large ships as they navigated the treacherous waters off San Francisco Bay. California was retired in 1972 – the last pilot schooner in the United States. She was then purchased by a couple that moved her to Newport, Oregon, for rehabilitation as a sailing yacht. When this proved too daunting, the owners donated her to Karl Mehrer, a veteran seaman and then master of the Adventuress, another vintage schooner that had seen duty as a San Francisco pilot boat. Mehrer organized The Vessel Zodiac Corp. with his son Tim and wife June in the late 1970’s to rebuild and sail her as a charter and training vessel. They moved her to Seattle and began a 15-year labor of love to reclaim her former majestic glory. The vessel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and her original name was restored in 1984 on the 60th anniversary of her launching.

Uploaded

June 6th, 2022