I haven't updated or checked this blog in months, obviously. But that doesn't mean people aren't stumbling across this page while googling for info about our beloved schooner.
Yeah... the deal fell through. Again. In fact I don't think there's any chance that she'll ever go to Puerto Rico. Maybe it's best. Who knows. Less teredos where she's at now. Wonder what LAMI will do with her...
The following was found in the comments of the last post, and I decided to post it here, in case people miss it. Forgive him for his caps!
MY NAME IS MIKE SCURLOCK,I WAS ONE OF THE FIRST CREW MEMBERS ON THE BILL WHEN IT WAS OWNED BY (BOB BERTON)VISION QUEST.SHE WAS IN RUFF SHAPE WHEN WE GOT HER. A CREW OF 33,KIDS AN STAFF WE SAILED FROM ST.MICHAELS.MD TO ROCKLAND AN BY THE TIME WE GOT TO ROCKLAND SHE WAS THE FINIST SCHOONER SAILING THE ATLANTIC.I LEFT HER IN 1990 AN THE WAY VISIONQUEST WAS THEY WOULD NOT TELL YOU ANYTHING ABOUT HER. SO IF ANY ONE KNOWS WHY THEY SOLD HER OR WHERE OUR SECOND MATE MR GOMES IS I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MY EMAIL MSCURDOG34@VERISON.NET THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS SINCERLY MIKE
2 comments:
So great to learn the Bill of Rights is alive and well! Wondering why she's in limbo, trust her future's secure?
Just in case anyone wants to contact me for tales of the early days of the topsail schooner Bill of Rights, I was chief cook (and bottle-washer) aboard for about seven months in 1973. Then Captain and owner Joe Davis (who built the schooner as a "Bill of Rights" with his father, he said, [contact me for more to this tale, exactly as Joe told it to me], was a fine down-East skipper and he sailed the Bill in the stalwart New England tradition, highly skillful in navigation and ship-handling -- and as feisty as a Nor'east gale!
My memories of one adventure after another abound, as you may imagine, sailing the wide Atlantic out of Newport, Rhode Island with no engines and only the winds and tides our muses.
I left the steward's position to take a writer job with National Geographic Magazine and a few years later wrote a cookbook called The Sailing Chef, based in large part upon recipies I gathered from vessels who crossed our wake (Published by Walker, NY and picked up by Book of the Month Club, though now long out of print).
I have long wondered what happened to the Bill of Rights and it's so great to learn she is still afloat and doing good deeds. All interested in those days, now decades ago, are welcome to contact me at tyharrington@hotmail.com The Schooner Bill of Rights is a legacy, long may her banners wave.
Hi Mike, I remember you my name is Tracie Hoffecker I was on the New Way before the Bill of Rights. I sure do miss those days and Capt Chase and Mr Gomes. I would love to sail her again.
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