The Project

The vision of the PILGRIM III FOUNDATION started with  an interest in replacing the  vessel PILGRIM II of Dana Point after it’s demise. The ship PILGRIM II was an interpretation of the original ship PILGRIM of Boston featured in the classic book ‘Two Years Before the Mast’ by Richard Henry Dana Jr. – and created on a hull of a northern European sailing trading schooner built in 1945. The historical and cultural significance of the original PILGRIM, particularly in the telling of the development of the New England shipbuilding industry, the expansion of the young United States maritime trade and development of California through trade in the early 19th century, places the building and subsequent operation of a representation of this particular ship in a top position of value to tell the stories and provide the experiences of early 19th century maritime endeavor.

The original PILGRIM was built alongside the Mystic River in the community of Medford, Massachusetts by Sprague and James shipbuilders. Development of the shipbuilding industry in Medforfd started in the year 1803, when the first established builder, Thatcher Magoun, laid the keel for his first vessel Mt. AETNA. The shipbuilding community expanded rapidly with eventually ten distinct builders arrayed along the banks of the Mystic on what was then known as Ship Street. The location, approximately nine miles northwest of Boston harbor, offered superior access to the western forests and upriver to materials used for building the ships and, with tidal action on the Mystic, an easy way to launch the ships and tow them downriver for outfitting in Boston.

Sprague and James established their shipyard in 1816 with the launch of their first vessel, the 180 ton Brig BOCCA TIGRIS, for the Mediterranean Trade. Work for Sprague and James progressed over the next nine years with one or two launches a year of all types of ships, brigs, sloops, etc., and tonnages up to 450 tons burthen. In 1825, Sprague and James launched two ships: the Brig PILGRIM, 180.5 tons and the Ship SHEPHERDESS, 274 tons. The Brig PILGRIM, commissioned by a Boston syndicate which was composed of businessmen and the shipbuilders, was destined for the West Coast hide trade – and to become a feature in the book ‘Two Years Before the Mast’, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

In the post War of 1812 period in which the PILGRIM was built, the shipyards were very busy and prosperous participating in the rapidly expanding US Maritime Trade. A new ship would take approximately six to nine months to build with a crew of about 35-40 shipwrights, journeymen, carpenters, caulkers, inboard and outboard joiners and apprentices working from sunrise to sunset six days a week. Pay was about two dollars a day for the trades and 40-50 dollars a year plus room and board for apprentices. When the hull, with fittings, was completed the vessel would be launched into the Mystic at high tide and floated downriver for stepping the spars, rigging and final outfitting. The vessels were designed for carriage of large volume goods over long distances and were stoutly built with materials readily available in the surrounding New England area.

The Medford-built vessels participated primarily in the Mediterranean/European Trade: rum/salt fish from New England to the Southern States or West Indies, thence cotton, tobacco, sugar to the Mediterranean or European ports, the Fur Trade: fur seal pelts collected in South/Central Americas, seal and otter pelts collected in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, thence to China and return with silks, spices, pottery, lacquered  and other Chinese goods, the Pepper trade to Sumatra and other western Pacific “Spice Islands”, and the Hide Trade: New England manufactured goods to the West Coast of North America traded for hides, horns/hooves and tallow and return to New England.

The Medford-built PILGRIM (1825) participated in the Hide Trade at a significant time in the development of what was to become the State of California in the country of the United States. The southwest coastal region of the North American continent, eventually to become part of the developing United States of America, had recently (1822) gained it’s independence from Spain in the Mexican revolution. These Spanish Land Grant regions of the area were further rather independent in their own right and developed a lively trade with the northeastern coastal region of the United States – hides/horns/hooves/tallow for manufactured goods and tools, helpful in the development of society and industry in the region – via the independently owned trading ships such as the Brig PILGRIM.