Photo by Brad Vogel.
BY COLE SINANIAN
cole@queensledger.com
RED HOOK — Local maritime enthusiasts are mourning two historic sailing ships owned by the same company that sank in their Red Hook berths within days of each other last week.
Pilot — a racing schooner built in 1924 — sank in Henry Street Basin on the night of July 1 and was discovered the following morning. Victory Chimes, a much larger vessel built in 1900 that was a National Historic Landmark and the last surviving schooner of its kind, was found sunken on the morning of July 5th, after a vicious storm had blown through overnight.
Both vessels were owned and operated by Alex and Miles Pincus of Crew NY, a company that acquires historic sailing ships for preservation. The company, which also runs buzzy waterfront restaurants like The Yacht Club, Drift In, and Montero Bar & Grill, had been operating Pilot as an oyster bar.
“It’s been a tough few days at Crew,” read a statement from a spokesperson from the company. “In incidents last week, two of our out-of-commission vessels sank in their berths. Both were in storage at our maintenance facility in Red Hook as they awaited restoration. We are grateful that there were no injuries in either incident.”
“In response to both incidents, our team called in maritime salvage experts to make a plan to safely raise the vessels, determine the cause of the sinking, and assess any damage to the hulls,” the spokesperson continued. “We remain hopeful they can be salvaged and restored.”
According to Gowanus resident and maritime enthusiast Brad Vogel, Pilot had sunk with its restaurant seating still on board. Vogel paddles in the basin regularly with his canoe club, the Gowanus Dredger, and first saw the sunken vessel on July 2.
“Both vessels had been in need of care for months in the basin,” Vogel said. “It was very evident, deteriorated wood patches here and there.”
While on the water on July 3, Vogel noticed that the three masts of Victory Chimes were upright. But by the morning of July 5th, Victory Chimes — which hails from Maine and was once called “Domino Effect” — was also submerged. As of July 6, both vessels’ masts poke above the water, and were surrounded by floating puddles of oil and booms to prevent it from spreading, Vogel said.
Photo by Brad Vogel.
In their statement, the Crew spokesperson attributed Victory Chime’s sinking to the storm.
“Overnight Friday/Saturday morning, during an intense storm that affected New York Harbor and the waterfront, Victory Chimes, at some point began taking on water and ultimately sank alongside Pilot,” they wrote.
But Vogel, who spends much of his time on the water observing the moored ships, wondered whether there were other factors at play.
“There’s a lot of reasons that an old boat can sink,” Vogel said. “But then in less than a week to have Victory Chimes also go down— that really set off alarm bells in my head. What’s going on here? Something is off.”
Vogel recalled discussing the sunken vessel with a Maine resident, who wondered why there had not been a ship keeper on board the vessel to help pump out water.
“The storm was really a freak storm in a lot of ways,” Vogel said, “I don’t think it was the thing that caused Victory Chimes to sink, so far as I can tell, but I’m sure it didn’t help. Old boats take on water through the wooden seams, and you’ve got to be pumping them out on the regular.”
“It raises questions,” he continued. “If this happened to two vessels in this broader fleet that this company owns, what are we to think is the state of affairs with the other vessels, and are they being properly cared for?”
