With the ultra modern cruise ship
Regatta anchored across the harbor in a small corner of Rockland a
tradition over 85 years years old played out this morning. The
historic schooner J&E Riggin was hauled out of the water for her
annual inspection and maintenance.
Donald
H. Rolfs in his book, “Under
Sail, The Dredgeboats of Delaware Bay” gives a wonderful history of
the Riggin.
“Undoubtedly,
the most legendary schooner that ever sailed the bay was the J.&E.
Riggin.
This dredgeboat was 76 feet [accurate length is 89 feet], 4 inches
long with a 22 foot, 3 inch beam. The J.&E.
was
polish rigged and carried 4,000 square feet of canvas. Captain Ed
Riggin involuntarily glows from stem to stern as he relates the
exploits of the grand old boat. “My gosh,” he said, “it was
almost as if sea was a live creature a – risin’ up out o’ the
sea, runnin’ before the wind, a-goin’ wing and wing. I would
have to climb up on top of the wheel box to see where I was goin’.
You know, she was never beat in a race. Many of the ‘old gents’
thought they could take her but nobody ever did. Sunday afternoons
they used to wait for us at the mouth of the river to give her a try,
but there weren’t nobody could ever take her.
Captain
Frank Hinson concurred with Captain Riggin’s estimation of the
J.&E.
“I
believe it was the way she was rigged up,” said Captain Frank.
“She was hung just right. We were comin’ down the bay one day
and I had the Richord
Lore,
an old time boat, pushin’ down with the yawlboat . . . there wasn’t
a bit of wind, not a bit, to plant . . . looked up and here come
theJ.&E.
Riggin down
the bay. She was comin’ on so fast we thought she was pushin’
down with her yawlboat. She went by us and didn’t even have her
yawlboat down! She had a line from her main boom to the rigging on
one side and a line from her fore boom too the riggin on the other
side . . . had her wung out . . . and that thing was a-goin’ down
the bay just the same as us. Yep, she was hung just exactly right .
. . take a little breeze of wind and you would just have to reef her
down to nothing to hold her dredges on the bottom.”
Today
the Riggin sails Penobscot Bay still paying her own way in this world
that has moved on. She is a quiet haven in a world that is moving
far to fast to be enjoyed.
For
more information on the Riggin go to :
http://www.mainewindjammer.com/
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