A windjammer is a commercial sailing ship with multiple masts that may be square rigged, fore-and-aft rigged, or a combination of the two. These ships, sometimes referred to as “coasties,” were specifically designed to carry cargo along the coasts. The informal term “windjammer” arose during the transition from the Age of Sail to the Age of Steam during the 19th century.
Windjammers were built as shallow draft cargo ships propelled by sail, but in the late 19th century they soon faced competition with the advent of steam ships and the growing use of railroads to haul large loads. The schooners were able to survive Down East in the early 20th century, where building and operating sailing vessels was still possible. Cargo vessels continued to be built and operated during World War I and the Depression, but operational costs made it difficult for them to endure.
Maine Windjammer Cruises continues a proud 89-year history reflecting the vision and custodianship of just four owners. In 1930 a New Yorker named Frank Swift started summering in Maine, after training at the Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Point NY. He soon began to charter schooners for annual sailing trips with local campers. It was the highlight of their vacations, and by 1935 Frank relocated permanently to Maine with the idea of carrying passengers instead of cargo on a schooner.
Swift contacted the owner of a small schooner named Mabel and arranged to charter her for one year. He retrofitted the interior and started taking out ads for “Vacations under Sail” in city newspapers. His first season operated at a loss, but he was convinced that his dream could work. Frank’s big break came near the end of that season, when a travel writer featured him in the Boston Sunday Herald, describing his cruises as “gateways to pure enchantment.”
By 1938, Frank had three vessels, and additional feature articles appeared in leading East Coast newspapers and journals, along with a cover story in Life magazine. Bu 1940, Swift owned five schooners and Camden became known as the “Windjammer Capital of the World.”
After the United States entered World War II, Swift offered his fleet for war service. Mattie became the first training vessel for the Maine Maritime Academy. He purchased more schooners as they retired from cargo service, and by war’s end Frank owned nine vessels. He continued to get news coverage and passengers from all walks of life from around the country.
They loved being able to help with deck chores and share a sailing experience previously only available to wealthy yachtsmen. Frank’s fleet had come to be known as “Maine Windjammer Cruises,” differentiating it from similar businesses in the Caribbean and elsewhere. In 1949 Swift went into partnership with Captain Jim Nisbet, calling their new company “Vacations Under Sail.”
By 1951, many of Swift’s vessels needed extensive repairs and a hurricane late that year caused more damage. Many of his ships had already served for over a half-century. He worked on some and sold others. By 1957, Frank’s fleet had been reduced to just two vessels, his largest: The Mattie and the Mercantile. He sailed them proudly for four more years, having created a new tourism industry and re-purposed many venerable boats. During his 25 years at the helm of Maine Windjammer Cruises, Frank Swift had operated 13 vessels!
In 1961, Swift sold his business to his former Vacations Under Sail partner Jim Nisbet, who continued operating the Mattie and Mercantile for most of the decade, acquiring a new smaller schooner along the way. Mistress combined the tradition of a schooner with the lines of a private yacht, and she became the princess of the fleet.
Throughout most of that decade, Nisbet operated his fleet of three, simultaneously conducting another sailing business in Florida. By 1969 he sold Maine Windjammer Cruises to a couple who had visited Camden and fell in love with it and the schooners. Les and Ann Bex took up the company’s helm, operating Maine Windjammer Cruises for the next 17 years.
In 1982, a young couple living in St. Croix learned about Camden and the windjammers while reading an old issue of Wooden Boat Magazine. Ann Williamson taught school and Ray Williamson captained a local charter fleet. They were captivated by Camden’s coastal charm and its historic vessels.
Soon thereafter, they moved to Camden and Captain Bex hired Ray on as a deckhand on the Mattie. He studied the business operation, learned the waters of Penobscot Bay and the workings of the schooners. For the second season, Ray was signed on as Captain of the Mistress. The following summer, he was offered the helm of the Mercantile. Now Ray and Ann had become totally commit- ted to this new enterprise and way of life. In 1985, Ray offered to purchase the Mercantile.
Captain Bex was only interested in selling his entire fleet, so Ray and Ann began lining up financing while doing fleet repairs that winter. Early in 1986, Maine Windjammer Cruises had new owners!
During their early years, the Williamsons sailed and worked as a family, with their young children also learning the ropes. Ray leased an abandoned shipyard in Rockland so that work on his small fleet could proceed during the winter months. He soon found experienced tradesmen to join his maintenance team. Mattie and Mercantile both required extensive repairs, but during the course of that work, Ray and his team discovered many of the original features and wood used when the boats were first constructed. He vowed to take no shortcuts and use the same materials and methods of construction on the boats’ restoration as had been originally used.
During the course of Ray’s restoration work, he was contacted by the National Park Service’s chief maritime historian, James Delgado. He later wrote that the Mattie and Mercantile were “some of the finest ship restorations I’ve ever seen.” Shortly afterward, Ray’s two schooners were among the first to be designated as National Historic Landmarks.
Captain Ray and Ann Williamson have been operating Maine Windjammer Cruises now for thirty nine years. Looking ahead to their eventual retirement, in 2021 they purchased another small vessel they had long observed and admired as she sailed around Penobscot Bay. Now called Swift, after the company’s founder, this new boat had been designed by a well-known naval architect for use as a private yacht.
Ray and Ann began fitting her out as a six-passenger luxury schooner. Her first sailing season under Captain Ray’s command was in 2023. They are looking forward to “Keeping the Tradition Alive” for many more seasons, and to welcoming a new generation of passengers as well as those who return year after year.
The coastal schooner Mabel, launched at Milbridge ME in 1881, was the first in Capt. Frank Swift’s windjammer fleet.
Mattie was built as the Grace Bailey in 1882 in Patchogue NY Sold in December 2021
Mercantile was built in 1916 in Little Deer Isle ME Sold in March 2024
Mistress was built in 1960 in Deer Isle ME Sold in April 2023
Swift was built in 1983 in East Boothbay ME from a Murray Peterson 1937 design. Originally intended as a private yacht, she was refurbished in 1921-23 as a six-person luxury vessel, and is the new flagship of Maine Windjammer Cruises.