Emma C Berry

Emma C. Berry is a fishing sloop located at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut, United States, and one of the oldest surviving commercial vessels in America. She is the last known surviving American well smack. This type of boat is also termed a sloop smack or Noank smack. Emma C. Berry was built in 1866 at the Palmer Shipyards in Noank, Connecticut by James A. Latham. Well smacks were designed to keep the catch alive in an internal water-filled compartment known as a wet well. Seawater circulated through large holes in the bottom planking. The Noank design was imitated in other regions of the United States, but well smacks had appeared in England previously in about 1775.

The boat was named for Captain John Henry Berry’s daughter. In 1886 Emma C. Berry was rigged as a schooner then in 1916 a gasoline engine was added. She was restored in 1931 to her original condition. Emma C. Berry was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994.

Owners

Originally, John Henry Berry had a 1/2 stake with Moses Wilbur, William Latham, Charles Spencer and Amos Lanplear each owning 1/8 stake. Ownership changed by September 1866 with, including Berry having no stake in the ship. In 1870, the ship was owned by Henry Chapel with 5/8 and Henry Brown with 3/8. In 1872, Robert Westcote was the sole owner and master of the Emma C. Berry. Henry Chapel became the managing owner in 1886 and later the sole owner in 1887 and the Emma C. Berry was re-rigged as schooner. It changed ownership several times throughout the 1895 through 1910 when it became owned by the Marston Lobster Pound Co. (5/8), Sargent Land and Co. (1/8) and by Charles A. Baker (2/8). Just two years later in 1918, S. A. Skilling and Son had a 6/8 stakes and Clarence A. Baker retained his 2/8th stake. From 1918 through 1929 various individuals came to own the Emma C. Berry. Her career as a fishing vessel ended around 1924 and she was left on the flats of Beals, Maine. In 1926, the Emma C. Berry was purchased by Milton Beal and used as a coastal freighter. F. Slade Dale purchased the ship in 1931 and restored it and registered the ship in Philadelphia. Dale retained ownership until it was donated to the Mystic Seaport in 1969.

Restoration

After its arrival at the Mystic Seaport, the Emma C. Berry underwent the first phase of its restoration, lasting from 1969 to 1971. The restoration restored the original sloop rig and wet well and renewed the stanchions and rotting frames and floor timbers. After additional research and a collection of photographs were acquired, the Mystic Seaport began a second restoration from to restore the deck, horn timbers, spar ironwork and sails. The Mystic Seaport drew upon literature and other sources to accurately restore the Emma C. Berry to its original configuration and period. The painting of the hull black follows the Rattler, an 1855 Noank smack built by R. & J. Palmer; previous to it hulls were painted “bottle green”. A claim further evidenced by the painting of the 1867 Noank smack Mary E. Hoxie by Elisha Baker, depicting the black hull.

The choice to restore the ship to its original sloop condition was not universal. Jack Wilbur, a Noank boat builder and master mariner, believes the return to the sloop rigging was nonsensical because it went against the way the ship survived and lived from its early years, as a schooner. Wilbur states that the schooner rig preserved the Emma C. Berry longer than the entire lives of those who made the decision.

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