Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Ellis.
Thomas, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I hired Harold Burnham a 29 year old, 11th generation boat builder from Essex Ma. His family has been building boats in the same spot cense 1643. October 1, 1996 I spent two months cutting about 100 trees from within 10 miles of my home in West Gloucester and trucking them the boatyard in Essex, Ma the next town just north of Gloucester We laid the keel December 3rd and six and a half months later on June 21. 1997 she was launcher into the Essex River. Over 2000 schooners were launched from Essex but this was the first in 50 years. We brought it to Gloucester to be rigged and three weeks later we were sailing. My wife Kay and I thought we could build a real Gloucester boat and share the rich history of the people that built boats that were the envy of sailors around the world and the brave men that sailed them. Harold took the lines for the Lannon from a schooner that Mal McClain, a Gloucester men of 50 years and the captain of 35 new vessels, designed to go sword fishing in 1903. So we have a real Gloucester schooner designer by a Gloucester fisherman and built by an Essex boat builder just the way they did it for 300years.
It has been a family business from the start. My wife Kay did the marketing. Kay got ovarian cancer 3.5 years ago and passed 1 year latter. Allen Estyes wrote a song about her called “The Humble Queen of Gloucester Harbor”. Local restaurants, hotels and attractions gave $15,000.00 to start a memorial scholarship fund in Kay’s name to help college students that are going into the Hospitality business. After 2 years we have given 6 scholarships for $3,000.00 for a total of $18,000.00. Our next fundraiser is August 20 and we expect to give $15,000.00 out next year. Kay had an amazing impact on our community. My oldest son Brian, graduated from Babson College had also helped with the marketing and setting up the business. His brother Heath went to Main Maritime and the New England Institute of Technology has worked on the boat every year is now the owner/captain of the Lannon and just won the The Best of the North Shore for a charter boat by the North shore magazine, editors and readers’ choice for the third year in a row!!! For 18 years we have done a program for 5th grade students in the Gloucester public schools. Every kid in Gloucester from 11 to 28 have the common experience of sailing the Lannon and hearing the story of 12 year oud boy that went on his first sword fishing trip in 1924 with his father on a schooner just like the Lannon.
We do team building, weddings, groups, family reunions, burials at sea, public sails and much more.
Has it been a smooth road?
When you put all of your own money into a business you just do whatever it takes to get the job done. When I have to work a little harder I try to be grateful that I can work hard, unlike so many people that have health problems or something else that prevents them from working.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a family business and we make each guest on our boat feel like they are part of our family too. We have taken every Gloucester fifth grade student for a sailing program for the last 18 years. We keep a well maintained boat. The Coast Guard says we have one of the best maintained boats in New England.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Gloucester is my home town and at one time it was the largest fishing port in the world. Gloucester is the place to tell our story.
Contact Info:
- Address: Fishermans Wharf
Gloucester MA - Website: www.schooner.org
- Phone: 1-978-281-6634
- Email: info@schooner.org
- Facebook: Schooner Thomas E. Lannon in Gloucester Massachusetts
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