The Last of ...

There are many ships that are in the class of “last of …” and I’ve tried to visit as many of them as possible before they all disappear. Wooden boats deteriorate quickly without constant maintenance, much like myself, and I’d like to see as many as I can before the wreckers yard gets them.

One of my recent excursions was when I was in Key West, FL for training with the US Navy; while my friends went to Duvall Street, I went in search of the schooner Western Union. Built in Florida in 1939 to maintain signal cables in the Caribbean for the Western Union Telegraph Company. She sailed between Cuba and Key West, with frequent excursions throughout the Caribbean until 1974. She became a passenger vessel after that and in the 1980’s was renamed the New Way as a platform to help troubled youth. She was added to the National Register of Historic Places at this time.

In 1997 she returned to Key West after purchase by a private company, which used her to run sunset sails for tourists. Not an unworthy endeavor, since that type of sail is what got me into sailing. She was subsequently purchased by a non-profit dedicated to keeping her in Key West. After extensive repairs, they operated her as a passenger vessel, becoming Florida’s official tall ship in 2013. However, by 2014, when she failed a USCG inspection and the non-profit worked to secure funding for restoration. She was brought to a boatyard in Tarpon Springs, FL for repairs. However, as is the case with many of these old girls, there’s not a lot of people out there that know how to restore wooden vessels. The restoration failed and in 2019 she was towed back to Key West and has been there ever since.  

She is the last of the Florida-built working schooners and I wanted to find her. I knew she was on the hard somewhere in Key West and managed to find Robbie’s Marina on Stock Island with the help of several locals. The marina staff were kind enough to let me examine her, after signing a waiver of course…

She was once 92 feet length on deck (130 feet with her bowsprit); had 23 feet beam; and 8 feet draft. Now a hollow shell of what she once was, her Cayman mahogany frames are partially exposed to the sun and the Florida pine hull planks are totting away. She was a sorry sight, but I’m still glad I found her and was able to pay my respects before she’s gone.