BUZZARDS BAY, GLOUCESTER, MA : Massachusetts Maritime Academy   is proud to announce that the SSV Ernestina-Morrissey will take part in Maritime Gloucester’s 39th annual Gloucester Schooner Festival.

The festival takes place from Thursday, August 31, and concludes Sunday, September 3, with the schooner race.  The Gloucester Schooner Festival has become a community-wide celebration of the age of sail in Gloucester Harbor.  Every year schooners from all over travel to Gloucester to race and to show off their beauty and grace both under sail and as a dock-side attraction.

The SSV Ernestina-Morrissey will be open for deck tours on Saturday, September 2, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. during Maritime Heritage Day.  She will also be participating on Sunday in the Mayor’s Cup Race.

The SSV Ernestina-Morrissey was built in 1894 at the James and Tarr Shipyard for the Gloucester fishing fleet.  Originally a fishing vessel, over the course of her long history she sailed to within 600 miles of the North Pole and later brought immigrants to the U.S.  Returned to the U.S. in 1982 as a gift from the newly independent Cape Verde, she sailed as an educational vessel until 2005.  Sitting dormant for many years, after a seven-year refurbishment in Maine under the care of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, she has returned to the Commonwealth.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy will focus the efforts of the Schooner SSV Ernestina-Morrissey on undergraduate sail-training and leadership training for cadets, K-12 STEM programming, community outreach and awareness within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond. These three pillars will look to ensure the legacy of SSV Ernestina-Morrissey as an educational asset for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The SSV Ernestina-Morrissey homeport is New Bedford, MA; however, she is part of the permanent fleet of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The National Landmark is operated by the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.