MARBLEHEAD – Abbot Public Library will host Captain Michael Rutstein, owner and operator of the schooner Fame, of Salem on Wednesday April 6, 7:00 p.m. The original Schooner Fame’s dramatic actions as a privateer in the War of 1812, and the meticulous construction of a full-scale replica of Fame, now sailing from Salem’s Pickering Wharf.
The original Fame was a ‘Chebacco boat’ that was commissioned as a privateer when war broke out in the summer of 1812. She was the first American privateer to bring home a prize, and made 20 more captures before being wrecked in 1814. The new Fame is a full-scale replica of this famous schooner. Framed and planked of white oak and trunnel-fastened in the traditional manner, Fame was built in Essex by National Heritage Fellow Harold Burnham in 2003. For the last 13 years, she has conducted public sails, private charters, and a summer day camp from her dock next to the Victoria Station restaurant at Salem’s Pickering Wharf.
Capt. Mike will be talking about the history of the original Fame as well as the building of the replica at the Essex boatyard of Harold Burnham. Burnham is a National Heritage Fellow who has been known to bring his own schooner, Ardelle, into Marblehead for special events.
Capt. Mike Rutstein is the owner and operator of the Schooner Fame – a familiar site to Marblehead’s boaters and waterfront residents! He is the author of two books about the War of 1812, and also the publisher of Marlinspike, a quarterly magazine devoted to tall ships and sail training.
For more information on the Schooner Fame, please visit www.schoonerfame.com.
The Abbot Public Library is located at 235 Pleasant Street, Marblehead, MA 01945. For additional information, please call 781-631-1481 or visit www.abbotlibrary.org.
