Port Jefferson Harbor And The Liberty Clipper: A Match Made In The 'Schoonerverse'

PORT JEFFERSON, NY — Call it a match made in the schoonerverse.

Dylan Salvmann grew up in Key West, FL, drawn to the water. He began working on the sea as soon as he was "old enough," laboring first as a deckhand before achieving the rank of captain.

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He had worked on the more than 100-foot Liberty Clipper under three different owners, and when the previous owner was looking to retire, he reached out to Salvmann.

The price was too steep for the longest time.

But in the last proposal, in 2023, he told Salvmann that he was either going to scrap the ship, or sell it as a floating restaurant.

"The last thing I wanted to do was see this boat go become a floating restaurant, and so I kind of did everything I could to purchase it, and then scrambled to do some repairs," Salvmann said.

He and his partner, Zoe Moncheur, and "a few friends" up in Maine, "worked on the boat in the yard for a year and a half, adding repairs to the hull, replacing all the running rigging, doing a lot of cosmetic work, but just to keep the boat afloat and keep her sailing."

The couple began refurbishing the ship, and it was 18 months before it was even out of the boatyard. It recently made Port Jefferson Harbor its home, making it the tallest ship on Long Island.

The 125-foot Baltimore Clipper ship, which was built in 1983 in Mystic, CT, is a traditionally rigged, historically accurate tall boat based on the ships prevalent in the 1700s.

Believe it or not it takes a crew of only 11 to man it.

A few years back, Salvmann was the captain of a ship out of Salem, MA, when Port Jefferson Village’s Historian Christopher Ryon reached out, pitching the idea of a schooner docking in the village’s harbor, where there's a rich maritime history in boatbuilding and shipping. From there, Salvmann was put in touch with local government leaders, and they began a dialogue on the possibility.

It ended up being a good move.

The Clipper arrived in Port Jefferson in June.

“We were only there for the remainder of June, but we had a pretty warm welcome from all the local businesses, and a lot of locals came sailing with us,” Salvmann said. “I think primarily right now it's been Long Islanders that have been coming sailing with us, and maybe a few tourists sprinkled in there."

"We only sailed a total of seven days, but we had a good turnout for all of those," he said.

An Invitation To The Harbor

Ryon said the village has been investigating inviting tall ships for the past 10 years or so because one side of the village’s dock was not being entirely used. As part of that, they developed relationships in the schooner community, and invited the ships to come down and stay. In the past, they have hosted ships such as the Amistad, the Lady Marilyn from Baltimore, and some others.

“I have a relationship with what is jokingly called the schoonerverse in that community,” he said.

Through his contacts, he was able to get in touch with Salvmann, and the rest, as they say, is history.

It was a good match as the schooner vessel has a past in the harbor.

In the early 1800s, builders started constructing ships in Port Jefferson.

“It was just a deep-water port; a nice place to build ships,” Ryon said. “You could build them on the beach, and then slide them into the water into a deep harbor. There was wood available, and Port Jefferson became a huge shipbuilding village.”

It was originally named Drowned Meadow due to it being a swampy area that frequently flooded, but it was switched in 1836 to Port Jefferson to honor founding father and former president, Thomas Jefferson, who died 10 years earlier and was an important figure in maritime affairs.

“And, that's when things really started to build up with lots and lots of shipyards all along the beach there,” Ryon said.

The bigger shipyards included the Mather Yard, a name that continues today in Mather Hospital.

“Probably somewhere around 500 big ships were produced, basically from the early 1800s to about the turn of the century, 1900,” he said. “It was a major shipbuilding port.”

When wooden boat-building slowed down, the U.S. government bought up a lot of the buildings and began manufacturing steel boats, like tugboats and freighters.

“The Port Jefferson Village Center is the last remaining building of the Bayless Steel Boat Yard from World War I,” Ryon said.

A Sail To Remember

The Clipper was invited to sail in the roughly 45-boat parade for the U.S.'s 250th anniversary celebration in Manhattan on July 4th in a moment that was breathtaking and one to remember for its crew.

"It was one of the best days of my life," said Moncheur, the Clipper’s manager, of the ship's journey as the escort vessel for BAE Guayas, which is Ecuador's naval training ship.

“It was one of the most exciting things I've ever been a part of,” she said.

Moncheur said the parade, which started at the Verrazano and ended near the George Washington Bridge, featured tall ships and warships from all over the world.

"There must have been thousands of spectator boats," Moncheur said of the crowd that gathered as they were coming under the Verrazano Bridge.

"There were so many flyovers from all different countries and all different parts of the military," she recalled. "They had the Blue Angels, they had the [U.S.] Coast Guard, they had French planes with red, white, and blue. They had American planes with the American flag in the sky."

There were also helicopters and rarely-seen bombers.

"It was insane," she said. "There were so many different flyovers straight across all the tall ships going down the river."

Moncheur, a native New Zealander who studied maritime law, but opted for a life on the sea back in 2018, had not seen anything like the spectacle before. She and Salvmann sailed in the Great Lakes tall ship event, and spent the winter in Key West, but there remains no comparison.

"It didn't even come close," she said. "These were like the world's most iconic tall ships from all different countries. The planes were from all different countries, the warships are from all different countries.”

“If it was just America's tall ships out there — they're gorgeous and they're amazing — it would be cool to see, but something on this scale required countries from all over the world participating,” she added.

The parade attracted 300-foot, four-masted “beasts” from all over the world, according to Moncheur.

But the Clipper is just as formidable.

Built for speed, and able to hold a lot of cargo, schooners have a history of being used to hunt down slavers and pirates.

Salvmann called the sail a once-in-a-lifetime event.

“It was pretty cool to be able to escort a foreign flagship in support,” he said.

“They were blasting Ecuadorian music and dancing on the deck,” he said. “They were excited to be in New York City. A lot of them have never been, so it was a cool experience to sail alongside them, and then to add to all the excitement, the flyovers from, I think, three different nations. It was just quite the air show, flying directly overhead, seeing aircraft that most people never get a chance to see, ships that nobody … you never see together like that.”

“It was definitely once in a lifetime,” he added.

It was cool to be the center of attention and to see that there is still so much interest in tall ships.

It was also nice to have 65 passengers sailing aboard who were interested in the experience.

“Those who show interest and come sailing on these types of boats are the reason that they're still afloat in the tradition,” Salvmann said.

Rockets Red Glare

The 250th parade was not the only spectacle that day.

Afterward, the Clipper was docked at South Street Seaport, right in front of Macy's barges for the fireworks spectacular.

"We were front and center for the fireworks, and I have some gorgeous photos from that," Moncheur said.

It was a great ending to an exciting day, but it wasn't without some arrangement.

The community of tall ships is a small, close-knit group, and that is how the historic sail was able to happen for the Clipper.

“We reached out, they reached out; basically it was a joint effort,” Salvmann said. “They reached out to us about the same time we were trying to get a hold of them, and we got the invite. It is something that anyone with a historic vessel, or traditionally rigged schooner could partake in, if they wanted to.”

After sailing in the parade, the clipper made its way up to Boston for a similar event.

Boston’s event is just as big, and for the crew it’s a second chance to witness something epic again.

"She's just a gorgeous boat; she has a great reputation," she said. "As owners, we're just really excited to do events like this, and we're so grateful that they put them on, and that they help us support the boat, and let her be seen in the world.”

"These America 250 events are kind of our chance to debut everything that we've worked on, and just how much we've been able to improve the boat over the last few years," Moncheur said.

Plans For An Extended Stay

After Boston, the Clipper will head to Portsmouth, NH, before returning to Port Jefferson on Aug. 8, where it will remain in the harbor offering public sails through October Columbus Day, depending on the weather.

Ryon called it “wonderful” that big schooners like the Liberty Clipper are “coming back” to Port Jefferson.

“I mean, they're eye candy on the dock, obviously,” he said. “They attract tourists. They look great out there, you know?

“Hopefully, they will be able to woo some over there, and they can make money, and bring that feel, and that shipbuilding legacy back to Port Jefferson again.”

It’s something that the Liberty Clipper’s captain and crew also look forward to as they are hoping to make the port their new long-term home.

“We were there for the last two weeks of June, and it went really well,” Moncheur said. “The city is incredibly welcoming. It's a beautiful place to sail. We want to make it our long-term home.”