One year ago, the PA Historical & Museum Commission (PHMCThe Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the state agency that stewards the U.S. Brig Niagara and Erie Maritime Museum. The PHMC is responsible for the collect...) announced that Niagara would not be attending Tall Ships Erie. To compound that disappointment, a May 16 Erie Times-News article reported that PHMC has shifted from promising Niagara’s return for the PA 250 celebration on July 4, 2026, to now saying they cannot make that commitment. What was once presented as a simple delay has turned into open uncertainty. This timeline was entirely avoidable, and unfortunately, it has become all too familiar given PHMC’s long track record of delays. Keep in mind, all estimates and proposals from the Flagship Niagara League in our RTKA Right to Know (RTK) request is a request for information from a state or local government body in Pennsylvania. You are allowed to request any kind of information, and aside from... records had Niagara slated to be fully restored and rigged for this year’s Tall Ships Erie Festival because FNL intended to begin the process in fall 2023, not wait until fall 2024 to even start the process by completing a below waterline survey. See here for an email with former Niagara Captain Billy SabatiniFleet Captain William "Billy" Sabatini is the executive director and fleet captain of the Flagship Niagara League. Sabatini grew up in southeastern Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and ... discussing the impacts of PHMC missing the fall 2023 shipyard timeline. After PHMC’s delay, the US Coast Guard put Niagara into an inactive status which closed her to the public and prevented any public deck tours at the Erie Maritime MuseumThe Erie Maritime Museum (EMM) is a cultural institution located in Erie, Pennsylvania, dedicated to preserving and showcasing the region's maritime heritage. Established in 1997, ....
Adding to this, PHMC continued to state on their own website that they “hoped” Niagara would participate in Tall Ships Erie 2025—even though internally they had already known for months that this was not going to happen. It was not until Protect Brig Niagara prodded PHMC leadership that the website was updated in December 2024 to indicate that Niagara could no longer attend Tall Ships Erie. That kind of disconnect between what is said publicly and what is acknowledged privately raises difficult questions about trust, transparency, and accountability.
It is great news that Niagara is finally getting the work that was announced and funded back in 2014 completed. It is just disappointing that PHMC’s delays in completing the current shipyard period have caused her to miss out on Tall Ships Erie. An event where more people attend in one weekend than visit the Erie Maritime Museum in three years. And an event where in one weekend, there is a larger economic impact on the Erie economy than the maritime museum has in 8 years. It is even more disappointing that PHMC was able to delay to the point of missing out on this great event without suffering any consequences for their actions.
For more on why Niagara is absent from Tall Ships Erie 2025, and how it could have been prevented, revisit our article Talk is Cheap: Why PHMC Has a Trust Problem. In addition, our article Consequences Begin: Niagara Removed From Tall Ships 2025 (Article Link) explores the real impacts of this absence on our community.
Yet despite these choices, Tall Ships Erie will still carry the torch forward and empower good work. The state’s leadership may be failing us here in Erie, but the community is the reason Niagara was renovated and made seaworthy again in the first place. We did that. The citizens of Erie and the wider community who showed up.. Let’s carry it forward and make next weekend a true celebration of our maritime history. See you at Tall Ships Erie!
Is there a source of information about the extent of the problems that are being repaired? It would help to have regular progress reports.
The current skipper keeps up a blog on the subject. I suspect that since we are talking about a state owned vessel being repaired with state funds, that a detailed report of the findings, work performed, and work needed but not performed as well would be prepared by the shipyard for the PHMC and available to the public. It may be the case that such a document will not be available until the project is completed. It would be interesting to see the report from the last survey and compare that document to what is coming out of Boothbay.
https://www.eriemaritimemuseum.org/blog/journey-of-the-us-brig-niagara
” May 16 Erie Times-News article reported that PHMC has shifted from promising Niagara’s return for the PA 250 celebration on July 4, 2026, to now saying they cannot make that commitment. What was once presented as a simple delay has turned into open uncertainty. This timeline was entirely avoidable, and unfortunately, it has become all too familiar given PHMC’s long track record of delays. …”
You people need to make up your minds about what you want for this ship. You claim on the one hand that everything is about the ship first and foremost, then you complain when restoration work might take longer than expected and deprive you of something to look at for a festival next year. I am in agreement with 95% of your stated objections to how things have been managed for the last several years, but it is beginning to sound like you are complaining about any convenient downside just for the sake of sticking it to PHMC.
When you put a wooden ship into a yard and open it up, it is like a season of the “This Old House” TV show. You always find problems that are going to extend the project if you really want to do it right. Having the ship in Maine, out of the water, opened up, and work in progress is in truth an opportunity to get required work done when it is easily accessible. Putting it off makes it extremely easy to forget about the hidden problems and never address them. We already know that PHMC shitcanned several aspects of the current restoration at Boothbay because of all the pressure to keep the timeframe within 1 year and within the allocated budget. Budgets and timelines are for business administrators, not elderly ships in need of work. Has all of this bellyaching about festival attendance enabled PHMC to justify doing less repair work in Boothbay than is really required? It sounds to me like that may be the case.
Not so elderly but you make some good points especially regarding the necessity to fix the stuff you can’t see until the ship is opened up.
20 Years was considered old for any wooden boat or ship throughout the Age of Sail. The fleet America went to war with in 1812 was considered old because it was largely built in the 1790’s. They became more expensive to keep up than to replace. This fact of life did not change because we are now in the 21st Century. The schooner “Spirit of Massachusetts” was built new in Boston in 1984 and has been retired from active sea voyaging and sail training because she was falling apart. She has been reduced to a floating oyster bar for the time being. There are many other contemporary examples. NIAGARA in her current form was rebuilt in 1988 with some remaining timbers from the 1812 original. That in itself puts her in the same age class as USS Constellation and USS Constitution, both of which are beyond old, they are ancient.
NIAGARA also has the somewhat unique problem of spending most of her life in a freshwater environment. In saltwater the process of rot can be kept in check somewhat by salt water deck washes. Freshwater may not have the problem the Sea has with Toredo Worms, but fresh water enhances rot spores rather than inhibits them. Historic or historically styled wooden ships with period correct decking, ( planks payed with oakem and tar) are particularly poor at shedding water. Unattended snowfall left on an idle deck of this type for any period of time is as much a death sentence for the ship as an unrepaired leaking roof on a house, which is why the lubberly job of covering the ship last winter was called out as a crime on this blog.
Considering the age of this ship and the environment she lives in, it is a near miracle that she still exists in a seaworthy state with authentic period materials and was until recently sailed just as hard as when she was built. It is a testament to the dedication and professionalism of the past crew and volunteers who maintained the highest possible standards in keeping her alive all of this time. If that dedicated community is not rebuilt, NIAGARA will be in an increasing state of jeopardy in the future.