Victory Chimes, a historic schooner beloved in the state of Maine and commemorated in a 2003 quarter, sank in Red Hook over the weekend. Victory Chimes becomes the second historic schooner owned by Crew to sink in less than a week, as the schooner Pilot sank last Wednesday.
Images of the sunken vessel were first posted to Instagram by Brad Vogel. In an interview with South Brooklyn History last week when the Pilot sank, Vogel expressed concern about Victory Chimes, worrying it would meet the same fate as the Pilot.
“I think this certainly raises a question in the minds of some like what is the level of stewardship and care for some of these historic resources,” Vogel said. “They’re privately owned but in a sense, when you’re a national registered eligible vessel like pilot was, well, then there’s a little bit of a public obligation.”
Victory Chimes was not listed as owned by Crew on their website, however, Midcoast Villager reported that the ship was bought by Crew’s owners, Miles and Alex Pincus, at auction in May of 2023 for $75,900. The ship was built in 1900 and originally was named the Edwin & Maud. It served as a cargo ship in the Chesapeake Bay until 1946 where it was converted to a passenger ship. It relocated to Maine in 1954 and was used as a “windjammer”, a term used for a boat used as a sailing pleasure ship for paying guests. It was purchased in 1987 by then Detroit Tigers and Domino’s Pizza owner, Tom Monaghan, and was remanded the Domino Effect. Monaghan restored the boat but put it up for auction in 1989 and was purchased in 1990 to be used once again as a windjammer. That same year, the Maine Legislature honored the ship as the “Official Windjammer of the state of Maine”. In 1996 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and would become a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
In 2018, the ship was purchased by it’s last owner in the state of Maine, Sam Sikkema, who operated the ship until 2022. Sikkema sold the ship according to the Midcoast Villager as a result of, “upcoming Coast Guard compliance, cost and availability of materials for upcoming maintenance, the lack of ability to haul the ship in Maine and the losses of the 2020 season have all become a hill too big to climb.”
At the moment, it is unclear how both Victory Chimes and the Pilot sank, leading to speculation online. After the Pilot sank, Alex Pincus told South Brooklyn History in a statement:
“We are heartbroken to share that our beloved Pilot sank overnight at our maintenance location in Red Hook. At this time, we do not yet know the cause of the incident. Most importantly, no one was aboard and no one was harmed. We are deeply grateful for that. Our immediate focus is on working with the appropriate professionals and authorities to understand what happened and determine the safest path to raise Pilot. We are devastated but remain hopeful that she can be salvaged.”
Crew operates many other vintage boats turned restaurants in New York City as well as Montero’s Bar & Grill on Atlantic Avenue. The company replaced the Pilot last year at Pier 7 with Fireboat, a Caribbean inspired-bar aboard a retired 1960s FDNY boat. The Pilot was discovered last Wednesday morning by the head engineer for Crew in Red Hook off of Henry Street where it had been moored since early this year, according to an Instagram post by Alex Pincus.
Later that night, Danielle Butler who is a local resident, was canoeing around the Henry street basing when she stumbled upon the carnage. “I came up to them (the boats) and saw that the masts were offset. I kept thinking this isn’t what I think it is,” Butler said. “Then I went up to it and got to experience that super creepy feeling of a boat submerged under water with its masts sticking out.”
Last Thursday morning Brad Vogel biked over to see the wreckage for himself and posted a video to his Instagram page. “I was somewhat surprised too just to see the floats that had been alongside the ship as well as some of the barstools were all jammed down at the head of the basin,” Vogel said. “It looked a little more catastrophic than I thought it would be for a vessel sinking essentially in place.”
Vogel said that he had noticed the vessel in rough shape earlier in the spring. “From that moment when we first paddled over in the spring, the Pilot looked in rough shape,” Vogel said. “(There) was really deteriorated wood along the side of the hull and in places. More so than I had ever really had a sense of last year when I was on it or near it.
South Brooklyn History reached out to both Crew and Victory Chimes former owner, Sam Sikkema, for comment but they did not respond by the time this article was posted. This is an ongoing story and will be updated as more details become available.