FIRST FOR HOME PRICE: $600

The Ellen C. Burke was a haddock schooner built in Essex, Massachusetts by Oxner & Story in 1902. She was a fine example of the round-stemmed schooner designed by Tom McManus, who designed almost 500 vessels in his career. Although she weighed 70 tons, she was really considered a small vessel. The narrow tucked-up stern and pronounced sheer were typically McManus, and represented the turnabout from the old clipper model. The Ellen C. Burke carried about 7,065 square feet of sail, which, when she was fitted out, cost about $1,000, and only lasted two to three years. The cost of a vessel of this type, ready for service, was between $9,000 and $15,000, which may not seem like so much now, but was a tidy sum in 1902.

The Ellen C. Burke sailed out of Boston, until she was sold to Gulf Fisheries in Galveston, Texas. She is shown here heading for market after a good catch on the Banks, that group of underwater islands that stretches from Nantucket past Nova Scotia and Newfoundland — almost a thousand miles. For the trip home, her dories are visible stacked and lashed on deck. The foreground dory with the two men still fishing is from another schooner that is not “full up” as yet.

Schooners like these once sailed in great fleets. Sometimes 500 or more would be plying their trade on the Banks at the same time. They are part of an American legend that has passed into oblivion — a visual loss that can only be recalled, as here, by such great marine painters as Thomas Hoyne.