The sailing ship Pilgrim sank at its berth in California’s Dana Point Harbor on March 29 and is not expected to be returned to service.
The vessel, used by the Ocean Institute’s educational program, was built in 1945 as a three-masted schooner for trading in the Baltic Sea out of Denmark but was converted to its present configuration in 1975 at Lisbon, Portugal and brought to Dana Point six years later. Since then, more than 400,000 fourth and fifth-graders from throughout Southern California have spent nights on the ship as part of the Institute’s Living History program.
Wendy Marshall, executive director of the Institute, said the 75-year-old ship, which had been suffering a slow water leak mitigated by a pump, is likely beyond repair.
