Making Virginia - In the Water
By May 2022, it had been 11 years since construction started on Virginia and 23 years since the design started. After several delays including a global pandemic, a launch date of June 4, 2022 was selected and a huge celebration with thousands of people was planned. Hundreds of items needed to be completed to launch, but this was not the end of the story of making Virginia; it was only the beginning of the end.
Before Virginia could be launched, we needed a wharf to attach her. During much of the construction, the boatyard was separated from the river by a 6-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. There was a narrow path between the boatshed and the fence.
In November 2020, the center section of the fence was taken down, and a landing was constructed. In December 2020 and January 2021, two dolphins and a gallows were pile-driven into the river bed from a barge. In the spring of 2021, five floats were built by volunteers, and a 42-foot ramp was ordered.
Two months before the launch, the fence along the Kennebec River was taken down, and 3 weeks before the launch the floats and ramp were installed. We now had a place to put Virginia.
The area near the wharf is full of posts that are the remnants of an 1870 wharf used by the train ferry, and later as a freight wharf.
Virginia’s boatshed was constructed in August 2011, and rebuilt in November 2012 after being heavily damaged by hurricane Sandy. When originally constructed it was almost twice the length of the keel, but Virginia had grown to fill the entire building. The plastic roof had been repaired several times, and again badly damaged in October 2021, so that winter we needed to shovel snow off Virginia. The boatshed needed to be demolished from around Virginia to launch her.
Two and a half weeks before the launch the boatshed was demolished, giving a complete view of Virginia for the first time. All of the scraps of the building needed to be cleaned up, as this is where hundreds of people would be standing to watch the launch.
Even with the boatshed gone, a frenzy of work continued to ready Virginia for launch. The below water areas of the ship were fully painted, but many areas of the ship needed to be painted before the launch.
One large work item was the bulwarks in the bow area. Most of the bulwarks are 1-inch pine, but we were unable to bend the pine for the bow area bulwarks, and ordered oak. The delivery was delayed by Covid, and we did not receive it until mid-May 2022. So with only 10 days before launch the bow bulwarks were installed. Some of these areas did not get painted until after Virginia’s first move.
The last major piece of construction before launch was the installation of the rudder. To do this, we needed to haul the 1400-pound rudder, and dig a hole so that the top of the rudder could be lifted up onto the deck. Then with brute strength and a number of attempts, the pintles of the rudder went into the gudgeons on the stern of the ship, and the top of the rudder attached to the tiller.
With just 4 days until launch, the rudder needed three coast of paint, so within minutes the paint brushes were out, and the final coat was applied when Virginia was in her launch position.
Various methods of launching Virginia were discussed, but in the end, we used two large cranes to lift Virginia into the water. The water next to the Bath Freight Shed is full of posts from an 1870 wharf, so we launched from a spot in front of the next building over. To get there we used a single crane to make two swinging moves from the boatshed location to the launch location. After each move we brought out ladders and continued painting.
During these moves, we also did leak tests and test of the bilge pumps. We loaded a couple of gas-powered pumps just in case we had a bad leak.
The day before the launch, we stepped the main mast (with the top mast) and the bowsprit. We chose to use two cranes so that we did not need to swing Virginia with several thousand people nearby, but this also allowed us to use a crane to step these masts before the launch.
Under the main mast we placed an 1587 Elizabethan shilling, similar to the one found at the Fort St George site.
Following the ceremony, the Bath City Band started playing Anchors Aweigh as two cranes slowly lifted Virginia up, out, and finally down to the water. The band was in their third repetition before Virginia splashed gently into the Kennebec River. Both canons fired along with a number of muskets, and Virgina was slowly towed the 250 feet to her wharf.
The first bilge pump came on as Virginia was being lifted to remove water from the leak tests. Once in the water, the bilge pumps easily handled the seepage before the planking swelled.
The volunteers who had worked so hard for many weeks to prepare for the launch had a party and took a few weeks off
In mid-June 2023, with the wharf at the Bath Freight Shed repaired, Virginia sailed the short trip from the Maine Maritime Museum to her wharf. The first long sailing trip was to join Windjammer Days at Boothbay Harbor as the newest ship with the oldest design.
Three more port visits and crew training sails continued thru the summer of 2023.
In September 2023, Virginia received a UPV certificate from the USCG. This allows us to take up to 6 paying passengers.
The construction work on Virginia continues, and the maintenance work increases. While this work continues, Maine’s First Ship as an organization is in transition from a ship building effort to an organization using a ship for education and community.
We invite you to visit us and to become a member or volunteer.