BATH — A little more than 110 years after the schooner Mary E was launched here on the Kennebec River, the oldest Bath-built wooden vessel known to be still afloat will soon return home for good.
The Maine Maritime Museum is set to acquire the Mary E, a two-masted clipper built by shipwright Thomas E. Hagan in 1906, later this month from its current owner, Matt Culen of Pelham, New York.
The museum has raised $350,000 of the $1.5 million needed to buy the boat, complete its restoration and maintain the historic vessel as a public exhibit in perpetuity. A campaign to raise the rest will begin soon.
“Our goal is to sail her from time to time for special events and have her be an ambassador for the museum and for the city of Bath,” said Amy Lent, the museum’s executive director.
