Pictured: a built model of this ship — not the historical vessel.

Elsie

Type

Schooner

Period

20th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: Elsie was a Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing schooner designed by naval architect Thomas F. McManus and built in 1910 at the Arthur D. Story shipyard in Essex, Massachusetts. She is remembered both as a hardworking Grand Banks salt-cod producer and as the losing American challenger in the 1921 International Fishermen's Trophy races against the Canadian schooner Bluenose. Design and Specifications: Elsie carried a semi-knockabout schooner rig, in which the forestay landed inboard on a retained bowsprit rather than eliminating the bowsprit entirely as on true knockabout schooners. She was designed by Thomas F. McManus in 1909, his design number 152, built in 1910 by Arthur D. Story, and this type is called a semi-knockabout. She was fitted out for hand-line dory fishing, and the Model Shipways kit based on her is based on surveys by naval architect and historian Howard Chapelle, plus photographs and contemporary descriptions of the original vessel. Service History: Elsie was designed by Thomas F. McManus of Boston and built in 1910 at the Arthur D. Story Shipyard in Essex, Massachusetts for the Atlantic Maritime Co. of Boston, and she was registered there until 1916. On her maiden trip she landed over 280,000 pounds of salt cod, and she was later sold to the Gorton-Pew Company, then the Frank C. Pearce Co., and in 1934 to Captain Levi Kearnly of Newfoundland. In 1921 she represented Gloucester against the Canadian schooner Bluenose in the International Fishermen's Trophy races but lost after the Canadian elimination race, with Bluenose then defeating the American challenger Elsie for the International Fishermen's Trophy, returning it to Nova Scotia in October 1921. Loss: Under Canadian ownership in 1935, her seams opened at the stem rabbet and she foundered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ending the career of one of Gloucester's most storied fishing schooners. Notable Facts: A detailed scale model of Elsie by master model maker Erik Ronnberg Jr., built for descendants of the Pearce family, is on display at the Cape Ann Museum; the model shows the schooner under full sail with 10 dories on its deck, and crewmen are depicted aloft and working on the deck, engaged in the everyday activities associated with the cod fisheries. The Model Shipways 1:96 scale kit of Elsie remains popular among ship modelers and is based on Chapelle's surveys plus period photographs and contemporary descriptions of the vessel.