PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend Main Street is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the schooner Adventuress with a limited-edition Christmas ornament.
Since the 1990s, Port Townsend Main Street has offered collectible Christmas ornaments.
The choice this year represents a theme the agency has focused on all year, said Executive Director Mari Mullen.
“We are helping the Adventuress celebrate the 100th anniversary of the boat,” she said.
Mullen said the Adventuress, launched in 1913, was included in the community portrait in March as it sailed by behind the assembled crowd.
The theme, “Sailing on Silver Seas,” is appropriate for a maritime community, Mullen said.
The Adventuress is the flagship of Sound Experience, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of Puget Sound.
“It’s an honor to be associated with Port Townsend Main Street and the great work they do building our local economy and preserving our past,” said Catherine Collins, executive director of Sound Experience, based in Port Townsend.
The ornament features a photo of the Adventuress by Elizabeth Becker of Seaport Photography.
At the top of the ornament are the words “Victorian Holidays in Port Townsend 2013.”
At the bottom is written “Schooner Adventuress 1913-2013.”
“It’s a centennial of the boat so it’s kind of special,” Mullen said.
Only 250 ornaments are available.
The Adventuress, a two-masted, gaff-rigged schooner, was designed by B.B. Crowninshield and built at the Rice Brothers Yard in East Boothbay, Maine, Mullen said.
The owner, John Borden II of Chicago, commissioned the vessel for his personal use to embark on an Arctic expedition to collect specimens for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, with the particular goal of adding a bowhead whale skeleton to the museum’s exhibits.
He did not carry through with his plans, and the Adventuress moved on to other owners and other endeavors, including several decades of service to the San Francisco Bar Pilots.
Adventuress came north to Seattle in 1952. The vessel carries more than 3,500 passengers each year on educational expeditions and has become “an icon for environmental awareness and stewardship,” according to Sound Experience’s website.
Ornaments are on sale for $12 at Quimper Mercantile, 1121 Water St.; Maricee, 913 Water St.; Sport Townsend, 1044 Water St.; Elevated Ice Cream & Candy Co., 631 Water St.; Jefferson Museum of Art and History, 540 Water St.; Maestrale, 821 Water St.; Sea Salt Cottage, 1007 Water St.; the Wooden Boat Chandlery at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St.; Perfect Dreams Cupcakes, 909 Water St.; Closet Space — Pop Up Shop, 1038 Water St.; Port Townsend Safeway, 442 W. Sims Way; and the Port Townsend Visitor Information Center at the Haines Place Park and Ride.
Proceeds benefit the Port Townsend Main Street Program.
For more information, visit www.ptmainstreet.org.
