NEW YORK — The masts that graced the city of Duluth’s logo for more than 20 years are all that’s visible of the schooner Victory Chimes after it sank in Brooklyn last weekend.
The Victory Chimes, a 173-foot wooden schooner built in 1899-1900, arrived in Duluth in 1986 to great fanfare, with the hope that it would become a tourist destination and continue sailing.
The Victory Chimes’ image was incorporated in a Duluth city logo.
Duluth Media Group file photo
While it was added to the city’s logo that year, and used for the next 21 years, its time in Duluth was otherwise short-lived. After Domino’s Pizza purchased the vessel in 1987, it was taken to Drummond Island in Lake Huron and then, shortly after that, returned to the Northeast, even earning a spot on
Maine’s 2003 commemorative quarter.
It was sold in 2023 to Miles and Alex Pincus, brothers known for converting ships into restaurants for their business,
Awaiting its restoration, the schooner sank in Henry Street Basin in Brooklyn either late Friday or early Saturday, Crew said in a statement to the
in Maine on Monday.
Crew did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment.
Another Crew-owned ship, the Pilot, was stored next to the Victory Chimes and sank two days earlier.
“Wednesday morning we discovered that Pilot had sunk overnight while moored at her storage berth. Then, overnight Friday/Saturday morning, during an intense storm that affected New York Harbor and the waterfront, Victory Chimes, at some point began taking on water and ultimately sank alongside Pilot,” Crew told Midcoast Villager, adding that it hopes to salvage and restore the ships.
Tugboats position the Victory Chimes into a berth in Duluth Harbor, near what is now known as the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, on Aug. 29, 1986. This photo was taken from the stern of the William A. Irvin; that ship’s flag is visible in the foreground.
John Rott / Duluth Media Group file photo
Poet and advocate Brad Vogel posted video about the Pilot sinking last week, and then returned when he heard the Victory Chimes had gone under, too.
He stood in front of the two vessels, both with only their masts protruding from the water, in a
posted to Instagram on Sunday.
“There are a host of things that can bring down a historic boat and sink it,” Vogel said in the video. “But after Pilot sinks and you have all this attention, how? How do you not do more to prevent Victory Chimes from sinking? This is crazy.”
Forty years ago, hopes for the ship in Duluth had been high.
Then-Mayor John Fedo even declared the schooner an “honorary citizen” of Duluth and made Aug. 29, 1986, Jerry Jubie Day to honor the ship’s owner. And less than a month later, in Wisconsin, then-Governor Anthony Early declared Sept. 18 as “Victory Chimes Day” to honor Jubie’s decision to make the Port of Duluth-Superior its home.
In between voyages, the plan was to dock it in the Minnesota Slip, which was then being readied for the retired laker William A. Irvin, now a floating museum.
Jubie told the Minneapolis Star and Tribune that he had hoped Victory Chimes would become “as synonymous with Duluth as the Aerial Lift Bridge and Glensheen Mansion.”
While that dream was never realized — Norwest Bank foreclosed on the vessel’s mortgage less than a year later — the schooner’s mast came to symbolize Duluth during its 21-year run on the city’s logo.
Jimmy Lovrien covers the City of Duluth, environment and Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District for the Duluth News Tribune. He can be reached at jlovrien@duluthnews.com or 218-461-9718.