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

Fannie A. Gorham

Type

Schooner

Period

19th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: The Fannie A. Gorham was a three-masted wooden coastal schooner launched in 1881 in Belfast, Maine, and is preserved in the historical record chiefly through BlueJacket Shipcrafters' scale model kit; BlueJacket, based in nearby Searsport, Maine, notes the yard is just eight miles from her building site. She was built for the coastal lumber and general cargo trade between New England and southern ports. Specifications: She was a three-masted wooden schooner distinguished by a centerboard and an off-center main mast, an unusual hull form and rigging plan for modelers to tackle. The BlueJacket kit renders her at 1:96 scale (1/8"=1') with a 24-1/2 inch overall model length, sold as a solid-hull kit rated for the intermediate builder. A conflicting retailer description gives a length of 246 feet, a beam of 38 feet, and an 1874 construction date by "Smith and Dimon" in New York; this text is internally inconsistent (it also repeats the 1881 Belfast launch elsewhere) and reads like promotional filler rather than a sourced registry entry, so those figures should be treated as unverified. Service History: Built for the northeastern U.S. coastal trade, the Gorham hauled lumber and other cargo along the Atlantic seaboard. A lumber schooner identified in period press accounts as the "Fannie H. Gorham" was reportedly among the vessels that assisted in the rescue of survivors from the March 14, 1886 sinking of the Cunard liner SS Oregon off the New York coast, alongside the Sandy Hook pilot boat Phantom; the name discrepancy means this association should be treated cautiously rather than as a confirmed link to this specific ship. Notable Facts: The ship's ultimate fate was as a total loss at sea with no survivors. BlueJacket has stated that it built a finished presentation model of the Gorham for the grandson of her commanding captain, commemorating the ship being "lost at sea, with all hands." Her off-center main mast, centerboard, and shallow draft make her, in the kit maker's words, an unusual and interesting subject for any modeler. Image Note: No verified period photograph or illustration of the Fannie A. Gorham was located. A Wikimedia Commons image of a schooner named "Fannie" is a different, unrelated New York pilot boat (No. 17) and should not be used for this vessel. The image supplied here is BlueJacket Shipcrafters' own product photo of the built model kit (box art), included as a model photo rather than a historical image; its reuse license is not independently confirmed, so it should be treated as illustrative only.