This ship is located on New Bedford's waterfront and a sign which refers to it by one of its names, the Ernestina, ...a ship reads:
"From Cape Verde to New Bedford
For many Cape Verde Islanders, the New bedford
wharf area was the first view of America. At the height
of immegration between 1900 and 1921, more than
a dozen packet boats ran between Cape Verde
and New Bedford, the main port of entry. Packet boats
carried freights and passengers on a regular schedule.
After World War II, as air travel increased, Ernestina became
one of only two vessels making the regular trip to Cape
Verde. The schooner continued to do so - often without
engine or radio- until 1965. She was the last sailing ship to
bring immigrants across the Atlantic to the United States.
Many of those Cape Verdeans - people of Portuguese and
African descent still live in the New Bedford area."
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
Effie M. Morrissey (now Ernestina) was a schooner skippered by Robert Bartlett that made many scientific expeditions to the Arctic, sponsored by American museums, the Explorers Club and the National Geographic Society. She also helped survey the Arctic for the United States Government during World War II. She is currently designated by the United States Department of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark as part of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. She is the State Ship of Massachusetts.
History
Designed by George McClain of Gloucester, Massachusetts to withstand North Atlantic gales, Effie M. Morrissey was the last fishing schooner built for the Wonson Fish Company. Built with white oak and yellow pine at the John F. James & Washington Tarr shipyard, she took four months to build and was launched 1 February 1894. Her hull was painted black and her first skipper was William Edward Morrissey, who named her after his daughter Effie Maude Morrissey.
Grand Banks Fishing Schooner
Effie M. Morrissey fished out of Gloucester for eleven years. Considered a high liner, on her first voyage she brought in over 200,000 pounds (91,000 kg) of fish, enough to pay for her construction. One of Effie M. Morrissey?'?s more notable skippers was Clayton Morrissey who went on to skipper the racing schooner Henry Ford. A statue to Clayton Morrissey by sculptor Leonard Craske entitled the Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial can be seen on Gloucester's Western Avenue.
In 1905 under a new owner, Captain Ansel Snow, Effie M. Morrissey began fishing out of Digby, Nova Scotia. In 1912, the Montreal journalist and photographer Frederick William Wallace sailed on the vessel as a member of Snow's crew. His epic poem about his time aboard Effie M. Morrissey, "The Log of the Record Run," was widely read and adopted by east coast fishermen with such authentic results that it was mistaken as a very old traditional song by folklorist Helen Creighton.
Then in 1914, ownership moved to Brigus, Newfoundland where Harold Bartlett used her as a fishing and coasting vessel along the Newfoundland and Labrador shoreline.
Early 20th century: exploration
In 1925 Harold Bartlett sold her to his cousin, noted Arctic explorer Capt. Bob Bartlett, who installed an auxiliary engine and reinforced the hull so the vessel could be used in Arctic ice. In 1926 with the financial support of the well known publisher George Palmer Putnam, Bartlett embarked on two decades of Arctic exploration using this vessel."