Two landmark vessels — one of them pictured on Maine’s state quarter — have been resting on the floor of the polluted Gowanus Canal since they mysteriously went under in July, and they now appear destined for the scrapyard.
The restaurant operators who own the boats are unwilling to spend what could quickly climb into the millions to raise Maine’s sunken Victory Chimes and the PILOT — a former research vessel once used by celebrated TV oceanographer Jacques Cousteau — from Brooklyn’s murky waters and restore them, sources told The Post.
“Total demolition. Garbage,” one insider said of the anticipated fate of the schooners, which together carry 232 years of maritime history.
Brothers Alex and Miles Pincus, who run Crew, a company known for transforming boats into fashionable floating restaurants and bars, had brought the vessels to the Gowanus Canal inlet months earlier for repairs.
The PILOT, built in 1924, is the longest-serving pilot, or guide, ship in U.S. history and had been moving toward possible National Historic Landmark status after years that included service as a Cousteau research hub. Under the Pincus brothers, it had also found new life as a popular floating oyster bar.
The Victory Chimes, launched in 1900, is the last surviving Chesapeake Ram schooner and already holds U.S. National Historic Landmark status. Its profile was featured on Maine’s 2003 state quarter, and plans had been taking shape to give it a similar second act.
Instead, both historic boats sank within days of each other in Red Hook’s Henry Street Basin over the July Fourth weekend.
Experts said the remote basin’s lack of shore power effectively sealed the vessels’ fate. Wooden boats of that kind can take on water quickly and need regular pumping and maintenance to stay afloat.
Insurance will not pay for the damaged ships unless the brothers have a concrete plan for them after they are refloated.
“There are three different scenarios,” said Zdenek Ulman, the owner of Marine Diving Service who responded to the scene and secured the schooners when they sank, referring to the boats’ future.
“It could be refloating the vessels and bringing them to the yard to have them fixed or they could be re-floated and be scheduled for total disposal. Or they can be disassembled right at the seafloor and the seafloor would be cleared out with the demolition in place.”
The brothers have not yet chosen a pathway — but an insider said the pair isn’t willing to spend the cash, especially when just refloating the boats could cost a minimum of $500,000.
That’s 558% higher than the relatively bargain $75,900 Crew bought the Victory Chimes for in 2023.
“The Victory Chimes is in worse condition than the other, and it may not be worth it to repair,” the source said. “Everything gets very pricey. The latest development is they might be leaning toward disposing both of these vessels.”
The brothers are reportedly so desperate to offload the Victory Chimes that they even begged its previous owner to take it back.
“The Pincus brothers called up the old captain and said, ‘I’ll pay to bring it back up there and give it to you,’ because they don’t want to f–king deal with it,” said Charlie Weidman of Charlie’s Marine Service, who once shared a dock with the Victory Chimes, the official Windjammer of Maine, during its storied time in the state.
“They wanted the oyster bar because they knew, ‘Hey, this is going to make money.’ … They got the Victory Chimes, years went by, and they didn’t have a location to put it.”
The potential undignifed end for the ships is especially enraging to Mainers who already had suspicions about the brothers’ plans to usurp the Victory Chimes into their popular floating restaurant chain.
“Nobody liked that it was going to be turned into a bar, but it was a better fate than having it be chainsawed into pieces,” said Quinton Donleavy, a photographer who helped create the original website for the Victory Chimes during its final years in the Pine State.
“There are worse things — and then the worst thing happens.
“Especially the way that it happened: the glorious boat of Maine that was on the 2003 state quarter. To go from that to it just sank in a bunch of back harbor filth along with some other boat that was hopeless, it’s just sad.”
Crew did not respond to requests for comment by The Post, only saying an investigation into the sinkings is ongoing.
