itage Festival in June. The Van Liews came in and raised $1.5 million to resume Spirit’s construction in March 2005 after a 1-1/2-year hiatus. Now they want to raise the last $1 million of the ship’s $4 million cost before 2007. More money will be needed after that to fund endowments to maintain it and develop educational programs.

“It will be a school boat,” Van Liew says. “We’ll have a number of partners that will use it.” Youth will learn leadership and teamwork skills, as well as academic subjects like math, science and history while they sail. Others will crew the ship in Outward Bound-types of programs.

“It’s a real cool project,” Van Liew says.

Spirit’s ribs are of hewn live oak and planks of hard longleaf yellow pine. She has come together under a big tent in a field downtown where the foundation set up a temporary boatyard so passersby could see the eight shipwrights working on the project. Those shipwrights carefully wedged the last of the 200 hull planks — the so-called whiskey plank — into place July 21, sealing Spirit’s hull. The longleaf yellow pine was the wood of choice for planking when Charleston’s Samuel J. Pregnall & Bros. Shipyard built the 57-foot Frances Elizabeth in 1879.

“Charleston has a lot of tourists and a lot of history, but we’ve always focused on Fort Sumter and the Civil War,” says Mark Bayne, a co-owner and founder of Sea Island Boat Works, the builder. Important as that history is, Charleston also boasts a long maritime heritage.

“Charleston always has been a major port, and it still is,” says Bayne. “It’s the fourth-largest container port on the East Coast.”

Bayne, who also builds sportfishing, catamaran and sailing yachts in cold-molded wood at his shop in the Halsey Cannon Shipyard, sees the project as an opportunity to apprentice some young, aspiring workers, teach them wood-on-frame planking and keep that tradition alive. They have

PHOTO: CHARLES SNEED (TOP)

The “whiskey plank” is installed, sealing the ship’s hull.

been working with 2-1/2"- to 3"-thick planks up to 36' long.

Spirit of South Carolina’s designers — Peter Boudreau and Andrew Davis of TriCoastal Marine — also were involved in the design of the Schooner Virginia, Pride of Baltimore II and Amistad, among others.

Bayne says they scaled the 57-foot Frances Elizabeth up to a 91-footer (on deck, 140 feet overall) so it could operate as a school ship. She will carry 29 passengers and have a top speed of about 12-1/2 knots under sail. She also will carry twin 150- to 220-hp Cummins diesel engines.

Van Liew says the tall ship will be another attraction to the city’s waterfront, which boasts an aquarium, IMAX theater, maritime center and a new quarter-mile-long megayacht dock.

The Van Liews say they are seeking individual donors, foundation grants and corporate sponsorship. They invite volunteers to help out at the shipyard or with special events like the maritime festival, or make a donation to the construction fund.

Fifty dollars buys a foot of planking and a planking certificate.

“A great gift for dad or grandpa,” Meaghan Van Liew says.

www.scmaritime.org

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