VICTORY CHIMES

Victory Chimes returned to the large railway at BBH Shipyard for seasonal maintenance. 

Victory Chimes, built in 1900, as Edwin and Maud, which was named for the two children of her first Captain, Robert E. Riggen, is the only surviving example of the Chesapeake Ram type schooner in existence today. She was built for the mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes where it was necessary for a schooner to fit through shallow navigational canals. Her original cargo consisted of lumber, grain, soft coal and fertilizer, which she carried in and out of Chesapeake Bay until 1945 when she was converted to carrying passengers. 

In 1954, she was purchased by a syndicate, brought to Maine and re-named Victory Chimes.  Victory Chimes operated as a successful charter business on the coast of Maine until 1984 when she was sold to a Minnesota banker who brought her to the Great Lakes. Shortly after, 
she was purchased by the owner of Domino’s Pizza, Mr. Thomas Monaghan, and re-named
Domino Effect and used by the company for employee incentive cruises.  In 1988, Mr. Monaghan had the schooner restored by Samples (now Boothbay Harbor Shipyard) and can arguably be credited for saving her life. 

In 1989 she returned to the coast of Maine and subsequently in 1990, was purchased by her
current owners, Capt. Kip Files and Capt. Paul DeGaeta who named her Victory Chimes once again and returned her to the passenger trade carrying up to 50 passengers. Honored by the State of Maine as “The premier schooner of the Maine sailing fleet” in 1991, by the United States National Parks Service as a “National Historic Landmark” in 1997.  She remains a successful and well kept “working” vessel steeped with important U.S. maritime history.