Updated May 21, 2026 at 4:00 AM CDT
BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine — A day before USS Niagara is scheduled to go back into the water — after a nearly year-long refit and restoration — shipyard workers are still, quite literally, plugging holes.
Ross Branch, the lead shipwright at Bristol Marine, is installing a valved water intake in Niagara's underside, using a marine sealant called Sikiflex.
"The launch is tomorrow, and Sikiflex can cure underwater. So, it's a good choice in this instance," he says, holding the fitting from the bottom while another worker cinches it down flush and watertight.
It's one of a long list of tasks that must be completed before Niagara slips back into the water, capping the extensive restoration at the Boothbay Harbor shipyard that includes work to the hull, deck and other structural parts.
Once completed, the two-masted, 20-gun brig — credited with a pivotal victory in the War of 1812 — will head home to Erie, Pa., just in time for America's 250th anniversary celebrations.
Captain Greg Bailey first volunteered aboard Niagara when he was just 12, more than 30 years ago. He says that the preservation of such tall ships is important to keep nautical traditions alive. "If we aren't actively working to pass on these maritime traditions, they just go away," he says.
Likewise with the construction techniques. Bristol Marine's Samples Shipyard is one of the few in the country that combines the kind of local expertise for restoring a historic wooden-hulled vessel with the facilities to dry-dock a vessel the size of Niagara, which is about 200 feet from the tip of the bowsprit to the transom.
"We specialize in this type of work. … This project is very much a job that's right in our wheelhouse," Branch says. It combines "traditional boatbuilding techniques with the need to achieve Coast Guard certifications."
That sign-off from the Coast Guard is necessary because Niagara — normally berthed at the Erie Maritime Museum — is more than a floating exhibit. Each summer, the ship serves as both a training vessel used to teach teenagers to sail and a goodwill ambassador on the Great Lakes, sailing under a 15-star, 15-stripe American ensign — the version of the flag that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner" — alongside Niagara's famous "Don't Give Up the Ship" battle flag.
The spirit, if not the substance, of the original Niagara
To meet modern safety standards while preserving its historic character, Niagara incorporates contemporary systems and materials. The ship recently received new diesel engines, along with electrical generators, plumbing and modern galvanized fasteners securing replacement hull components in places where the original vessel would have relied entirely on wooden pegs known as treenails.
Technically speaking, the ship is a replica of the vessel that Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry commanded in his decisive defeat of the British at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. The original was intentionally scuttled in the shallow waters off Erie a few years after the war to keep it from rotting and preserve it for possible future use. But it wasn't raised until 1913 to play a ceremonial role in the battle's centennial celebration.
After undergoing multiple extensive rebuilds over the years — including this latest one in Maine — little of the original remains. Bailey likens the today's Niagara to the Ship of Theseus, the ancient philosophical paradox that asks whether something can still be considered the same object after all of its parts have been replaced.
"There are pieces of the original that are in there," he says, but not many. What counts more is the people who sail Niagara and the vessel's mission, he says. "It's still very much the same ship."
The year of careful work has taken longer than the approximately eight months required in 1813 to complete Niagara and its sister ship Lawrence, which was destroyed in the September battle that year. The two largest and most powerful ships in the American lake flotilla were built in extreme haste to meet an impending British threat.
The original Niagara was made from "all green wood" — not great for ship construction, but there was no time to season any timber, according to Bailey. "They only needed it for one summer. Whether it was going to be captured, destroyed or victorious."
In fact, Niagara emerged victorious and helped secure the Great Lakes and America's northern frontier against the British.
Last-minute preparations
The day before Niagara's momentous relaunch, Branch and about a dozen other workers are busy getting last-minute items crossed off the punch list.
José Hernández-Juviel is a subcontractor who specializes in traditional rigging. He started out as a biologist, but about 20 years ago, took a class on rigging. He's found his niche.
"There's probably a handful of us," he says. "This is my passion. This is my bliss. It was a hobby that turned into a second career."
Niagara's rigging is a blend of materials, including modern high-tech Kevlar and traditional tar, so "there is still some of the traditional smells aboard," he says.
Down below, some sections of Niagara have only a few feet of headroom. That's where Sam Perkins is putting a galley stove and counter back in around the foremast. Although working on a traditional vessel like Niagara is something of a specialized trade, Perkins came into it by chance.
"I answered an ad on Craigslist," he says. "It said 'enthusiasm counts more than experience.' And I was like, 'I got that.'"
Lilian Kiser Taylor, Niagara's newly hired third mate, also took a circuitous route to the job. For starters, she's from landlocked Tucson, Ariz. She only began sailing a few years ago. "I started as an engineer … on a rebuild of a boat," she says.
She will be helping bring Niagara home, but under a new captain — after overseeing the refit, Greg Bailey is stepping aside for Richard Bailey (no relation). Since part of the masts and Niagara's square sails are back in Erie, the ship's new engines will power it for the approximately 2,000-mile voyage through the St. Lawrence River, with its extensive lock system.
Kiser Taylor is looking forward to a summer of sailing on the Great Lakes. "I think one of the most beautiful things about [Niagara] is just having square sails, which we have on both masts," she says. "You're climbing aloft every day to set a square. … It just becomes something that's a part of your life here in the sky all the time, which I love."
But right now, she's focused on getting Niagara back to home port. The biggest challenge for this voyage? The "skeleton crew" of just 14. "When you're underway, you have a 24-hour watch cycle that's just very challenging on your body and mind," she says. "I think it's just the endurance part of getting so little sleep."
On launch day, Niagara is ready to make a splash — at least metaphorically. There are no champagne bottles to be smashed or ribbons to be cut — and no dramatic lurch as the ship meets the water. Instead, a signal is given and the hull is slowly eased into the harbor, accompanied by the screeching and groaning of a massive chain attached to a cradle running on rails.
The ship will spend another two weeks at the dock in Maine before shoving off for the return to Lake Erie, the waters that made its name famous more than two centuries ago.
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