Historic Schooner to Visit Rockland County

The historic schooner Pioneer will visit Haverstraw from September 20-27, according to a press release from the South Street Seaport Museum.

On board, local students will participate in educational programs, learning skills such as hauling lines to raise sails and measuring water quality. In the process, they will learn the science, math, and technology of sailing, according to the press release. 

The Pioneer, originally built in 1885 to carry sand, has a long and varied history. "In the days before paved roads, small coastal schooners such as Pioneer were the delivery trucks of their era, carrying various cargoes between coastal communities: lumber and stone from the islands of Maine, brick on the Hudson River, and oyster shell on the Chesapeake Bay," the Seaport Museum says in the release. During the following decades, the Pioneer was outfitted with an engine in place of its sails, only to be turned back into a sailing vessel in 1966. 

Today, the ship acts as a "floating classroom" for local students. It will spend most of its time in Rockland County serving school groups, but tickets are also available to the general public, with departures as follows: