As hundreds of historic vessels from across the globe sail into New York Harbor this week, one of New York’s own mysteriously sank beneath Brooklyn waters.
The PILOT — a schooner-turned-restaurant once used by researcher Jacques Cousteau — buckled beneath the waves in the middle of the night Wednesday, sending bar stools, restaurant equipment and other debris into the Henry Street Basin near Red Hook.
Videos taken by kayakers show the giant masts of the 102-year-old former racing schooner sticking out of the surface and its wooden chairs floating in the mucky water nearby.
The historic boat’s owner described the situation as a “nightmare.”
“We are heartbroken to share that our beloved Pilot sank overnight at our maintenance location in Red Hook. At this time, we do not yet know the cause of the incident. Most importantly, no one was aboard and no one was harmed. We are deeply grateful for that,” Alex Pincus, CEO of Crew, told the blog, South Brooklyn History.
“Our immediate focus is on working with the appropriate professionals and authorities to understand what happened and determine the safest path to raise Pilot. We are devastated but remain hopeful that she can be salvaged.”
The PILOT had served as a popular bar and oyster restaurant at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 7 until last summer, when it was it replaced with the Fireboat, a retired 1960s FDNY boat-turned-bar owned by Crew.
Crew, which owns numerous floating restaurants throughout the city, had moored PILOT in the Henry Street Basin earlier this year for repairs, with kayakers noting that it appeared in “rough shape.”
“(There) was really deteriorated wood along the side of the hull and in places. More so than I had ever really had a sense of last year when I was on it or near it,” Brad Vogul, of the Gowanus Dredgers, told the blog.
The sinking comes just days before the largest flotilla of US and international ships are set to sail through the New York Harbor in honor of the US’s 250th birthday.
The aging ship was not set to participate.
It also comes as the PILOT is in the process of become a National Historic Landmark, according to Crew.
The ship was built in 1924 and is one of the two remaining racing schooners from the International Fisherman’s Cup.
After it’s racing days, it served as a harbor pilot in Boston and, during World War II, was used by the Coast Guard to guide troop transport and supply ships in Boston harbor.
She was also bought by a group that had dreams of circumnavigating the globe in the 1970s, but the crew only made it to Fiji before she was sold to researched in the Galapagos — which is where Cousteau boarded the iconic vessel.
Pincus and his brother Miles purchased PILOT in 2015 and did a full restoration to transform it into the popular oyster restaurant.
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