The Governor Ames was the first five-masted schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

. In the late 19th century, she was the world's largest cargo vessel.

She was launched on December 1, 1888 by the Leavitt-Storer shipyard

Shipyard

Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...

 of Waldoboro, Maine

Waldoboro, Maine

Waldoboro is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 4,916 at the 2000 census. Waldoboro is a picturesque fishing and resort town.-History:...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and named after Oliver Ames

Oliver Ames

Oliver Ames was a U.S. political figure and financier. He was the 35th Governor of Massachusetts . He was the son of Oakes Ames , a United States Congressman who was censured in the Credit Mobilier scandal, and the nephew of Oliver Ames, Jr..-Biography:Ames was born in North Easton, Massachusetts...

 (former Governor of Massachusetts

Governor of Massachusetts

The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...

). The Governor Ames was owned and operated by the Atlantic Shipping Company based in Somerset, MA.

Although the Governor Ames was the first five-masted schooner, she was preceded by the five-masted Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

 barkentine David Dows, which was confusingly called a schooner despite having a square-rigged foremast. The David Dows was longer than the Governor Ames but otherwise smaller.

The schooner's first voyage, in ballast

Sailing ballast

Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of...

 to Baltimore, Maryland, resulted in disaster on December 11, 1888 when the foremast snapped in high winds, taking the other masts with it and dismasting the Governor Ames completely. The anchor chain also broke, and the schooner ran aground on Georges Bank

Georges Bank

Georges Bank is a large elevated area of the sea floor which separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean and is situated between Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia ....

.

Refloated and towed to port, the vessel was remasted with shorter masts,
following which it sailed from Maine to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 with a cargo of 1896000 board feet (4,474.1 m³) of spruce

Spruce

A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...

 and pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

 lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

 valued at $29,868, believed to be the largest or second largest cargo ever taken by an American vessel at the time.

The lumber trade proving profitable, she was employed for the next five years in that trade, venturing far away from the Eastern seaboard and its coal trade for which she was built. She rounded Cape Horn

Cape Horn

Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...

 to bring lumber to Redondo Beach, California

Redondo Beach, California

Redondo Beach is one of the three Beach Cities located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 66,748 at the 2010 census, up from 63,261 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.Redondo Beach was originally part of...

 and was then employed hauling lumber from Pacific ports

West coast lumber trade

The West Coast lumber trade was a maritime trade route on the West Coast of the United States. It carried lumber from the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and Northern and Central California mainly to the port of San Francisco.-Lumber schooners:...

 to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Returning to the waters of the Eastern United States via Cape Horn once more, she entered the coal trade finally in Fall 1894.

On May 30, 1899, the Governor Ames grounded in eighteen feet of water near Key West, Florida

Key West, Florida

Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...

.
With assistance from the tug Childs and other schooners and the jettisoning of 200 short ton of coal, the Governor Ames was refloated the next afternoon without major damage.

The Governor Ames was wrecked in a gale on December 13, 1909, four miles off Cape Hatteras

Cape Hatteras

Cape Hatteras is a cape on the coast of North Carolina. It is the point that protrudes the farthest to the southeast along the northeast-to-southwest line of the Atlantic coast of North America...

 on the North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 coast, having sailed on December 9 from Brunswick, Georgia

Brunswick, Georgia

Brunswick is the major urban and economic center in southeastern Georgia in the United States. The municipality is located on a harbor near the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 30 miles north of Florida and 70 miles south of South Carolina. Brunswick is bordered on the east by the Atlantic...

 bound for New York with a cargo of railroad tie

Railroad tie

A railroad tie/railway tie , or railway sleeper is a rectangular item used to support the rails in railroad tracks...

s piled high on her deck. The schooner was driven onto Wimble Shoals and broke up within two hours. Thirteen of the fourteen aboard perished, including the master, Captain King, and his wife. The sole survivor was one Joseph Speering of New York.