The oldest Maine-built wooden fishing schooner that is still afloat returned to its homeport Sunday, 110 years after it was constructed on the banks of the Kennebec River.

The Mary E arrived at the Maine Maritime Museum on Washington Street in Bath, where it was greeted by dozens of people.

On its Facebook page, the museum posted an aerial view of the arrival of the 73-foot-long ship and a brief message that read, “Welcome home, Mary E.”

According to the museum, the Mary E, a two-mast schooner, was built in Bath in 1906 by Thomas E. Hagan.

The schooner had spent the last several decades under different ownership before the Maine Maritime Museum board of directors authorized its purchase from Matt Culen of Pelham, New York, in December. Museum workers will restore the vessel before the Mary E is relaunched in 2018.

The Mary E has a long history of being used as a fishing vessel, mail carrier and for coastal trade. Former owner Clarence Leveille of Gloucester, Massachusetts, abandoned the vessel in 1960 before it sank in a Thanksgiving Day hurricane in Lynn Harbor.

The Mary E was restored on the grounds of the museum between 1965 and 1967 by William R. Donnell II of Bath, the great-grandson of Bath shipbuilder William T. Donnell.

The Mary E had been housed at the Connecticut River Maritime Museum, where it ran river tours since 2006.


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