Shearwater

The Shearwater is an wooden schooner docked in Lower Manhattan in New York City in the U.S. state of New York. The schooner was designed by Theodore Donald Wells and built by the Rice Brothers Corporation in East Boothbay, Maine in 1929. During World War II, it was requisitioned into the United States Coast Guard to patrol for German U-boats. The Shearwater completed a circumnavigation of the world in the early-1980s and later worked as a research laboratory for the University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Environmental Medicine. Docked about west of the site of the World Trade Center, it is operated by Manhattan by Sail, which gives 90-minute-long tours of New York Harbor, and is licensed to carry 48 passengers. The schooner was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.<ref name="NysNrhpNom"> [http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=102747 Accompanying 3 photos from 2008']</ref> Construction The schooner is in overall length, extending on deck and along the waterline. At 36 gross tons, her maximum beam is and she draws of water. The design is a semi-fisherman type with a spooned bow, that was popular in the early 20th century. The full keel is made of solid oak and the hull is yellow pine over an oak frame. The floor timbers are oak, the stern is laminated mahogany, and the decks are teak. She has two spruce masts. The engine room below the deckhouse holds a Detroit 4-71 diesel engine. History Her designer, Theodore Donald Wells, was a naval architect and marine engineer. Wells began his career as a member of the firm Herreshoff and Wells, N. Y. City in 1902. From 1903 to 1907 he worked for Wintringham and Wells and then began designing ships on his own. Wells joined the Navy Department in March 1917 and became Superintending Constructor of the Baltimore District of the United States Navy.