Schooner Statistics

• Length on Deck: 64.5 ft
• Length Over All: 90 ft
• Beam: 18 ft
• Main Top Mast Height: 73 ft
• Fore Top Mast Height: 70 ft.
• Tonnage: 48 tons
• Displacement: 54 tons
• Draft: 9 ft
• The Thomas E. Lannon is named for owner Tom Ellis' maternal grandfather, who fished out of Gloucester from 1901-1943.
• She is framed with white oak and black locust, from trees grown locally and donated by the Essex County Greenbelt and private landowners.
• She is held together with 2000 black locust treenails (pronounced trunnels) and with silicon bronze fasteners.
• She is planked with white oak below the waterline, mahogany above the waterline, has white pine bulwarks and white oak rail caps.
• The white spruce used for the original masts, gaffs, and booms came from trees grown on Hog Island, Essex that were donated by the Trustees of Reservations. The mainmast, foremast, and bowsprit have since been replaced with new sticks that Tom made out of laminated Douglas fir. The gaffs and booms were replaced in 2011 with new ones that Tom and Heath made out of spruce.
• The first trees to be used for the Lannon were felled in October, 1996.
• The Lannon was launched a few minutes before midnight on June 21, 1997 and received her Coast Guard certification on July 18, 1997.
• She is licensed to carry 49 passengers.
• The Lannon was designed by Capt. Harold A. Burnham, whose family has been building boats in Essex since 1650.
• The Thomas E. Lannon's lines are based on those of the Gloucester fishing schooner Nokomis, designed by Capt. George Melville McClain in 1903. Several changes were made by Capt. Burnham.
•  The Nokomis was built in Essex in the Tarr & James Yard (now the site of Perkins Marine).
• Mel McClain captained 35 Gloucester schooners over the course of 56 years. Over 100 vessels are believed to have been built to his designs.

Did you know?

• That Gloucester is the oldest working seaport in America?
• That Essex built more two-masted schooners than any other town in the world? Over 4000 schooners were built in Essex, yet a sawn-frame schooner like the Schooner Lannon hadn't been built there for almost fifty years.
• Who posed for the statue of the Gloucester Fisherman at the Wheel? Captain Clayton Morrissey of the Schooner Effie Morrissey, now the Ernestina.
• That Gloucester was settled in 1623 and was the second permanent settlement of early Pilgrims in America, after Plymouth in 1620?
• That 1879 was the worst year for Gloucester fishermen? That year saw 249 fishermen lost at sea.
• That another statue has been erected along Stacy Boulevard? This one is of a fisherman's wife and children, looking to sea in hopes of seeing the masts of her husband's ship coming into port. The statue was dedicated in August, 2001, after years of fundraising efforts by the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association.

For more Gloucester history, take a look at our History page