Ship Quits Seas After 69 Years

That's the headline from a 1958 edition of the Tonawanda News that I came across while researching information about the ship Eva S. Cullison.  The Eva S. Cullison was a schooner owned by my great great grandfather John Aaron Jackson.  He used her to harvest oysters from the Chesapeake Bay.

 The article I found reads:

Rockland, ME, The two masted schooner Eva S. Cullison has been dry docked after 69 years of sailing along the East Coast.  The all white craft recently was towed into Lermond's Cove here where she will be used a a training ship for the local unit of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.  The vessel was built in Baltimore in 1888 and formerly plied the Bahama fruit trade.  Since 1951,  Capt. Frank Swift of Camden, ME had operated the Eva S. Cullison as one of his summer windjammer cruise ships.  She has been called the last of the Baltimore-built Chesapeake Bay coastal schooners.

My great great grandfather owned the Eva S. Cullison after she was used in the Bahama fruit trade and before she was sold  to be used in Capt. Swift's windjammer fleet.

Eva S. Cullison

The schooner Eva S. Cullison was built in 1888 in Baltimore, MD and was used at the time for the Bahama fruit trade.  At some point in her history, she was owned by my great great Grandfather John Aaron Jackson and was used in the Chesapeake Bay to fish oysters. 

Eventully the Eva S. Cullison ended up in Captain Swift's Windjammer fleet in Penobscot Bay in Maine sometime in the late 1940's.  Capt. Swift considered her to be among the best sailors in his fleet.  According to the information at mainwindjammercruise.com, "Her sails had exceptionally deep reefs.  The club of that big jib was sheeted to a traveller across the the foredeck and things could get pretty wild there when coming about."

Postcard of the Eva S. Cullison

The Eva S. Cullison was taken out of service after the 1952 or 1953 season and was placed in her berth in Camden after 1954.  It was here in that famous artist Andrew Wyeth painted her.

 

Andrew Wyeth's The Slip

Sometime after she was retired from the Windjammer Fleet, the Eva S. Cullison was sold to an amusement park where she was used as a pirate ship themed attraction.  After that, she was nothing more than a dying hulk off Cape Ann Massachusetts.  The Maritime Museum in Mystic Connecticut had plans to restore the schooner if a sponsor could be found.  Sadly, the Eva S. Cullison was never restored and was eventually dismantled.