Fishing Schooner
L.A. Dunton
Built: Arthur D. Story Yard
Essex, MA, 1921
Length: 123'
Beam: 24' 11"
Draft: 12' 3"
The L.A. Dunton represents the height of development among the all-sail ocean fishing vessels of the Northeast, before draggers like the Museum's Roann made them obsolete. Fishing with hooks and lines handled by hardy dorymen, these fishing schooners combined the best features of speed, maneuverability, and stability.
Designed by Thomas McManus, the Dunton was owned and commanded by Captain Felix J. Hogan from 1921 to 1934. The Dunton made about 18 trips a year, rangimg from Georges Bank off Cape Cod to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. She fished mostly for halibut in summer and haddock in winter, preserving her catch on ice for the trip back to Boston, then the nation's principla fish market. When she caught cod, it was commonly delivered to Gloucester to be salted and dried for shipment to distant markets.
When she retired from fishing during the Great Depression, Captain Hogan sold the Dunton to new owners in Newfoundland. As an engine-powered vessel with shortened masts and a pilothouse to shelter her wheel, she fished the Grand Banks for another 20 years.
The L.A. Dunton became a coastal freighter in 1955 and was purchased for preservation by Mystic Seaport in 1963. Beginning in 1972, the Museum's shipwrights have done extensive work to restore the vessel to her original configuration.
ID#1963.1705
Comments 0 comments