The historic U.S. Brig Niagara is preparing to return home to Erie following a more than $5 million repair and refit project in Maine, though the ship may not be fully rigged under sail for its July 2 homecoming celebration.<\/p>\n
The restoration work has been taking place at Bristol Marine and is nearing completion. The vessel, owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, underwent what officials are calling a significant midlife overhaul.<\/p>\n
According to Cal Pifer, who also serves as a commissioner for the PHMC, Pennsylvania\u2019s investment in the Niagara is unusual among states that own historic tall ships.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of them will have official tall ships, but that\u2019s in name only \u2014 they don\u2019t fund them,\u201d Pifer said. \u201cThis is a $5 million midlife refit, so from Pennsylvania\u2019s standpoint, it\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The restoration has been overseen by Captain Greg Bailey, who recently announced he will resign June 1 for personal reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done a wonderful job with the restoration,\u201d Pifer said. \u201cThe ship looks beautiful. It\u2019s ready to return on July 2, but he won\u2019t be the captain bringing her back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taking over in an interim role will be Captain Richard Bailey, whose maritime career includes 16 years as master of the HMS Rose \u2014 the ship featured in the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World starring Russell Crowe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf viewers have ever seen the movie \u2018Master and Commander\u2019 with Russell Crowe, the ship the movie was shot on \u2014 this is that captain,\u201d Pifer said.<\/p>\n
While the Niagara is expected to return to Erie on schedule, officials say it likely will not be fully rigged for sailing by the July 2 celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely complicated,\u201d Pifer said. \u201cYou have to have the right trained people to do it, but at this point it doesn\u2019t look like she\u2019ll be fully rigged, which is disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even so, organizers say the public celebration will move forward. Pifer said Governor Josh Shapiro is expected to attend, and the Niagara will be open to visitors free of charge during the holiday weekend at the Erie Maritime Museum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor will be here, she will be open and free to the public all weekend long at the maritime museum,\u201d Pifer said. \u201cThe museum itself will be open free to the public. But in order to do the parade of sail and have the fanfare that we had all hoped for, she would need to be rigged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials expect a final decision on the ship\u2019s rigging status by the end of the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The historic U.S. Brig Niagara is preparing to return home to Erie following a more than $5 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[85368,85369,136,138,137,451,85365,85367,35858,85366,680,41204],"class_list":["post-191698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-bristol-marine","tag-captain-greg-bailey","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-governor-josh-shapiro","tag-historic-ship","tag-maritime-museum","tag-pennsylvania-historical-and-museum-commission","tag-refit","tag-restoration","tag-u-s-brig-niagara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}