Cruising through time
Schooner makes local stop to end summer journey along Erie Canal
The replica 1862 canal schooner Lois McClure made a quick stop in Halfmoon last week allowing history lovers and maritime aficionados a last chance to see her before the ship was moved to Waterford and winter quarters.
The Lois McClure is an 88-foot long canal schooner designed and built from studying the wrecks of two similar class ships discovered at the bottom of Lake Champlain. Owned by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, the ship has made regional journeys through many of the waterways of the Northeast since being launched July 3, 2004.
This year’s journey was titled “The Legacy Tour: Waterways and Trees- Stewarding Their Interconnected Relationship”. As the ship and crew traveled the area’s waterways, including a trip up and down the Erie Canal to Buffalo, they handed out small shrubs and pine trees to be planted in areas where the ship had docked.
The Lois McClure pulled up the Crescent Dock, assisted by the tug, C.L. Churchill, on Oct. 5. The docking was the second to last stop on a return leg from Buffalo. By 4 p.m. the sun was low, the water calm, and the crew more than welcoming to any visitor who wanted to see the canal schooner up close.
“Do you want to come on board the ship,” asked smiling volunteer crew member Ron Kermani. “Come on and see the boxcar of the 1860s.”
Kermani’s week-long shift on board was coming to an end. An early retiree, he owns a summer home on Lake Champlain where sailing ships like the Lois McClure would have gone by his front door step.
“What an adventure to spend a week on a historic replica with such seasoned and knowledgeable mariners,” he said referring to the full-time crew. “My property was witness to incredible history and now I’m getting to relive it.”
The Lois McClure is similar in design to a canal boat in length, width and draft but has masts for sailing under its own power when on large bodies of open water like Lake Champlain or the Hudson River. When it would enter a canal, as it did for the enlarged Erie Canal, the crew would take the sails down, stow the masts and it would be pulled along by horses and mules as any other canal boat.
For a narrow ship it has a lot of cargo capacity, 4,400 cubic feet, 60 to 120 tons. When fully loaded it draws six or seven feet of water. Since animal power is long gone from the canal, the Lois McClure travels with its own power source on the canals, the C.L. Churchill tug.
“The Lois McClure is a new boat replica built to bring to communities on interconnected waterways that have a shared history with this boat,” said Art Cohn, captain of the tug and retired director of the Maritime Museum. “We’ve visited all the ports on the Erie Canal, the Champlain Canal, Hudson River, Richelieu River, St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain, Ottawa, and Rideau Canal. We’ve
gone to all these places because this boat is a connection between us and them.”
Though there was no school group on board late Thursday afternoon, Cohn said the ship had been visited by school groups during the past two weeks.
According to a brochure for the 2017 journey at each port of call and school visit the crew planned to involve students in handson activities exploring forest ecosystems, the history of forestry, different uses for wood products and the crucial role the forest plays in fostering clean water, soil health, and rich habitat.
The Lois McClure’s crew is made up of staff from the Maritime Museum and a rotating group of volunteers like Kermani who share a love of history and sailing.
As Cohn sat in the aft section of the main deck looking out at the setting sun he expressed joy at being able to ply the Erie Canal.
“The canal is adapting to our time and serving our communities in an invaluable way,” he said. “It’s so special. It’s such a gift to be able to be on it. We love it.”
The captain of the schooner and Maritime Museum co-director Erick Tichonuk widened the view of the ship’s 97-day journey.
“It’s bliss,” Tichonuk said of the trip. “I always feel privileged. People appreciate the history they’re disconnected from and where people reconnect and share their enthusiasm for that history it’s always rewarding. It makes the long days worth it.”