"The Schooner Ram Victory Chimes"
by Ellen Rice
Formerly the Edwin and Maud, built in Bethel, Sussex County, Delaware in 1899,
launched in April 1990, and at the time of the Bicentennial pictured here in the Tall Ships Regatta, still proudly sailing.
This July 4th, 2026, our nation's 250th Anniversary, The Victory Chimes sank
during a squall in New York City Harbor. There is hope that she will be raised and restored.
We are following and will report what happens.
Original 20" x 24" pen & ink by Ellen Rice (sold)
Created in celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial and Bethel, Delaware's part in the Tall Ship Regatta
Several options for prints are available. Click the button for options.
"The Victory Chimes"
a ship and a story close to my heart
by Ellen Rice
Victory Chimes is the last Delaware Schooner Ram to have been in passenger service. My pen and ink portrays the ship's 1976 passage through the Chesapeake Bay in the U.S. Bicentennial's historic Tall Ships Regatta, when she was 76 years old.
There are many stories about and photos of the 128-year-old Edwin & Maude/Victory Chimes through the years. Her sinking on the night of July 4th tugs at my heart. Built a few miles from my former home in Seaford, Delaware, the whole community took pride in her. I once worked in a large building (newspaper offices and printing) by the Nanticoke River that very likely was a warehouse for cargo ships including the ship we now know as The Victory Chimes.
The Edwin & Maude spent 45 years hauling sawn lumber, coal, and cargo across the Chesapeake Bay. During WWII, she assisted the U.S. war effort by monitoring regional anti-submarine minefields.
She was converted into a passenger cruise vessel in 1946 and was renamed Victory Chimes by Capt. Frederick Boyd Guild after an earlier vessel christened on November 11, 1918—the day World War I ended—inspired by church bells ringing across the country that were poetically described as "victory chimes".
An example of Sussex County shipbuilding in the late 1800s.
She was purchased in 1954 by Maine Schooner Cruises, a syndicate out of Belfast, Maine. Capt. Guild, a part owner, skippered her for two years under her new name.
The syndicate wasn't successful, though, and in 1956 another change of hands was to take place. The Victory Chimes was sold via a phone call for $21,000 during a U.S. Marshall’s sale, The new owners were an executive of General Motors and the mortgage holder. The latter wanted the ship to remain on the Maine coast and turned away higher offers to allow locals to buy her if they wished.
It was then that a gentleman named Henry Elliott offered to employ a Maine coast sailing master familiar with the cruise schooner trade to operate her passenger service, and over three years he built a thriving windjammer business with the Victory Chimes.
But fate stepped in once again, when Elliott developed health concerns and decided to sell the vessel.
That's when former Victory Chimes skipper Capt. Guild purchased her, this time on his own, and, assisted by his wife, Janet, and a crew of nine, he operated her until 1984.
Capt. Guild sold her to another Duluth banker in 1985, Thomas Monaghan of Domino's Pizza.
Now once again renamed, this time"The Domino Effect," with her hull painted white and new portholes created for passengers' enjoyment, she was used to offer cruises to Domino's employees as incentives.
"...while many people in Maine remember Domino's Pizza only for having changed the vessel's name, Domino's should be remembered for having saved the vessel's life." ~ Virginia Thorndike, in a book about Maine windjammers.
"...while many people in Maine remember Domino's Pizza only for having changed the vessel's name, Domino's should be remembered for having saved the vessel's life." ~ Virginia Thorndike, in a book about Maine windjammers.
Operating in fresh water was taking a toll on the salt water vessel, though, so Dominos took her back to a Boothbay, Maine shipyard known for working on vessels of her kind, for an extensive retrofit.
In the spring of 1990 the Edwin & Maude, ne Victory Chimes, ne Domino Effect, was purchased by Captains Kip Files and Paul DeGaeta, who renamed her once again, The Victory Chimes.
Here is a link to an interesting story and picture of the white Victory Chimes during the time she was the Domino Effect:
In 1991, the State of Maine honored The Victory Chimes with a special Joint Resolution recognizing her as one of the premier vessels in the American Windjammer Fleet. She was the only Maine windjammer to receive this distinction. When cruising during Maine summers she carried up to 40 passengers with a crew of nine.
"She is a relatively easy boat to sail.... She makes a lot of leeway going to weather. But in general, she is surprisingly handy.... She likes a good breeze -18 or 20 knots is ideal - and her size and heft make her an impressive lady underway." her skipper said.
During her years in Maine, the 126-year-old vessel was named a National Historic Landmark and placed on the National Register of Maritime History. In 2003, she was placed on Maine's official state quarter.
The ship was widely celebrated as a tribute to the historic windjammer. She was the last surviving Chesapeake three-masted schooner ram.
Until 2023, the Victory Chimes was the largest historic vessel still sailing in the United States. It is said that she owed her survival to hard working owners and crews, who kept her in working condition, using replacement-in-kind as their matter of course.
According to her owners, Covid made her retirement necessary. The Victory Chimes could not take passengers for a year, so there was no income for upkeep and necessary repairs.
Victory Chimes was sold at auction in May 2023 for $75,900. Her new owners, New York City-based restauranteurs Miles and Alex Pincus, operate a historic ships-turned-floating restaurants Pilot and Sherman Zwicker.
Victory Chimes was relocated to New York City later that year and remained docked at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The state of her disrepair over the next three years was evident and heartbreaking, as demonstrated with the photo at left. She had been sailing only a few years earlier.
The beloved vessel sank on July 4th, our nation's 250th birthday, docked next to the Pilot, which sank two days earlier. Unused as a restaurant, Victory Chimes had been moved to the shallow Henry Street Basin adjacent to the Red Hook Grain Terminal.
When Pilot sank at her moorings sometime during the night of July 1–2, 2026. Victory Chimes began to take on water at her moorings in the midst of New York City's Sail250 festivities.
The exact cause of her sinking has not yet been determined. Her owners have hired maritime salvage experts to formulate a recovery plan, assess hull damage, and safely raise the vessel alongside Pilot..
As of August 30th, 2026, The Victory Chimes is still sitting at the bottom of the harbor, not being improved the longer she is mired in the muck. She was insured, but it is not known publicly for how much. Published in the New York Post, there is talk that the effort to raise and restore her is too costly and after all she's been through, after all of her triumphs, she may be demolished.
I was hoping to hear that there were public efforts to raise funds to buy, raise and restore her, but I'm not hearing anything. Still hoping she is saved.
Ellen