The Irish Piper did not go quietly. But finally it did go.
The 41-foot wooden boat, one of the more infamous vessels in Gloucester because of its previous owners' penchant for abandoning it at various boat yards and dockages, had its own Irish wake Monday when the city cut up the boat at Rose Marine and disposed of it. The city had recovered the boat Saturday from about 37 feet of water in the southeast harbor where it sank Thursday.
The Piper, however, did not give up all its secrets as it went to its final demise — most significantly, who legally owned the boat and abandoned it on the Gloucester Harbor mooring for nearly a month this summer.
"That's a little murky," said Gloucester Harbormaster T.J. Ciarametaro on Monday afternoon." All we know is some guy bought it at auction, but we haven't been able to track down exactly who. We've got several possible names, but we're not sure yet exactly who owned it, so I don't want to start naming anybody without knowing for sure.
"But now it belongs to the city of Gloucester and in a few hours, it's going to be in a Hiltz dumpster somewhere," he said.
