Pacific Schooner Wawona

Lumber Schooner
 
Built in 1897 in Fairhaven, California by noted Scandanavian shipwright Hans Ditlev Bendixsen, the Wawona was one of the largest three-masted schooners built in North America. Designed to carry lumber from Washington State to California and more distant ports, the Wawona sailed with a mimimal crew and without ballast for the Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company.
 

Fishing Schooner
 
In 1914, the Wawona was sold to the Robinson Fisheries Company in Anacortes, Washington. She was refit to fit for cod, exchanging piles of timber for stacks of dories, and some of her immense cargo hold for crew bunks. Using the "dory-and-mothership" fishing system of the Grand Banks cod fishery, the Wawona and her crew caught more than 7.2 million cod over 33 years.
 

During World War II, the US Army took control of the Wawona, removing her masts and using her as a barge to transport lumber and other supplies along the Pacific coast. Following the war, she fished for another two seasons, then was retired and ultimately purchased by Northwest Seaport, then Save Our Ships, in 1964.

Heritage Schooner
 
As a heritage vessel, the Wawona hosted countless thousands of visitors between 1964 and 2003. School children, museum goers, old salts, and those just curious toured her cargo hold, captain's cabin, and decks, while dedicated volunteers put thousands of hours of labor into maintaining her as a museum vessel.
 
However, as a large wooden vessel originally built to last only a few decades, the Wawona eventually degraded beyond repair. After conferring with many experts in the maritime heritage field, locally and across the nation, Northwest Seaport created a plan to preserve key artifacts from the vessel. In March, 2009, the vessel was carefully deconstructed in a local shipyard and artifacts (including wooden knees, beams, and paneling) removed for storage and later display in on-land exhibits and memorials.