Schooner Bowdoin Returns to the Arctic

On a crisp May morning, the schooner Bowdoin began her return voyage to the Arctic, the region she was specifically built to explore 103 years ago. The Bowdoin is an American treasure, recognized as a National Historic Landmark, the official vessel of the State of Maine, and the flagship of Maine Maritime Academy. While Bowdoin is more than a century old, she is certainly not obsolete and remains a vital teaching tool, well-suited for exploration in the extreme maritime conditions of the Arctic, and timeless marvel of naval architecture.

The Schooner Bowdoin’s Background

The Bowdoin was built by Donald MacMillan, the son of a schooner captain lost at sea off the coast of Newfoundland when Donald was nine. MacMillan was captivated by ships, the ocean, and the Arctic from the time he was a young boy. He made his first trip to the Arctic in 1908, at the age of 33, on an expedition to the North Pole led by Arctic explorer Robert Peary.

In 1913, MacMillan led his own voyage to the Arctic in search of what Peary believed to be a landmass he called Crocker Land. Sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, the American Geographical Society, and the University of Illinois, the journey was expected to last two years, but lasted four after their ship, the steamer Diana, struck ground attempting to avoid an iceberg. Successive vessels sent to aid MacMillan and his crew were unable to reach the party due to the extreme conditions.