Spirit of South Carolina & Piloting
It Started with the Schooner Frances Elizabeth
Origins: A Ship and a Harbor Built for Work
Though almost twice as long and three times as heavy, Spirit of South Carolina is designed after the Frances Elizabeth, a pilot schooner built and launched in Charleston on October 30, 1879, by Samuel J. Pregnall and Brothers Shipyard.
The Pregnall Shipyard was established around 1868 at the current site of Union Pier on Concord Street—almost exactly where Spirit of South Carolina was launched in March 2007. Samuel Pregnall was only in his twenties when he started the business, and it wasn’t long before the yard became one of the best-known shipyards of the 1800s. Pregnall Shipyard served as the primary boatbuilder, caulker, spar maker, sailmaker, and rigger on the Charleston Peninsula until its closure in 1915.
Design Lineage: Speed, Competition, and Power
Frances Elizabeth—named after Sam Pregnall’s wife, Frances Elizabeth Richardson of Sullivan’s Island—was largely designed after the original schooner yacht America. In 1851, American sailors beat twelve British yachts to win the "100 Guinea Cup", later known as the America’s Cup, inaugurating what remains the longest winning streak in sports history.
Beyond racing, America played a role along the southern coast as a blockade runner before being captured by the Federal Navy Blockading Fleet and converted into a vessel used to chase blockade runners. It is likely that Pregnall obtained either a half-model or actual line plans through a marine broker specializing in the acquisition and sale of such models or plans.
Frances Elizabeth was known as a fast schooner. One of the few photographs known to exist shows her winning a pilot schooner regatta off Tybee Island, Georgia, in 1889.
Piloting: A Competitive and Dangerous Profession
Frances Elizabeth served as a working pilot, guiding larger cargo ships in and out of port for thirty-three years. Though owned by Pregnall, the vessel was likely leased to Charleston Harbor pilots for the fifteen years she operated in Charleston Harbor.
The design of a pilot schooner was critical to the success of harbor pilots at the time. There was no association to allocate work among pilots; the first pilot vessel to hail or reach an incoming ship earned the job and the fee. This made speed and seaworthiness essential qualities for a pilot boat.
Pilots met ships offshore and transferred a pilot aboard the visiting vessel to guide it safely into the harbor—often in challenging conditions.
Sale, Modernization, and Loss
In 1894, Frances Elizabeth was sold to a group of pilots in Fernandina Beach, Florida, and again in 1911 to three harbor pilots from Southport, North Carolina. In keeping with the times, the Southport pilots purchased and installed an expensive Globe marine-gasoline engine, valued at $5,000 in 1911 (over $170,000 in 2026).
Tragically, it was this new engine that led to Frances Elizabeth’s fiery end. On July 21, 1912, she sank off North Carolina’s Cape Fear River following an explosion.
The Morning Star newspaper of Wilmington reported on July 23, 1912:
“Captain Bertram Adkins, son of Captain J.J. Adkins, was horribly, probably fatally, burned Sunday afternoon, when gasoline leaking from the tank of the pilot boat Frances Elizabeth, bound from Southport to Wilmington, caused an explosion of the engine and tank about two miles this side of Southport, setting fire to the craft, which was consumed by flames.”
Rediscovery Beneath the River
Frances Elizabeth lay on the seafloor, nearly forgotten, until 1993, when Richard Lawrence and a team of underwater archaeologists stumbled upon her remains. Lawrence and his crew were surveying the Cape Fear River for shipwrecks ahead of planned dredging when they were hailed by a ferry boat captain reporting the presence of a wooden wreck.
After years beneath the riverbed, the charred hull of Frances Elizabeth was found under approximately two to three feet of silt near Southport, North Carolina.
Fast forward to June 2000. A fleet of tall ships visited Charleston for a festival, prompting renewed reflection on the city’s neglected maritime heritage. Over beers one evening, Mark Bayne, a forty-three-year-old shipwright, shared that building such a ship had been his lifelong dream. His friend Charlie Sneed suggested forming a nonprofit foundation to support the effort.
Soon after, the catalog of historic ship plans ordered from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History set the group to work. They selected plans identified as the Francis Elizabeth of Charleston.
Further research into the source of the ship’s plans—and a visit by volunteer Dan Machowski to the Mariners’ Museum in Mystic, Connecticut—revealed a half-hull model resembling the hull of the schooner yacht America, likely the original source from which the Francis Elizabeth’s lines were taken. America was designed by George Steers, a New York–based designer renowned for his fast and capable pilot schooners.
TIMELINE: THE MAKING OF SPIRIT
Sailing Spirit: The First Four Years
During the first years after launch, sailing under the auspices of the South Carolina Maritime Foundation, Spirit of South Carolina carried out a full schedule of educational programs serving more than two thousand young people from the Lowcountry.
Under the supervision of Education Director Sarah Piwinski, Captains Tony Arrow and Ben Hall, and with the support of a large volunteer base, the schooner ranged along the state’s coast and beyond—to Bermuda, the Bahamas, Washington, D.C., and New York.
Despite the success of these programs, Spirit of South Carolina launched with significant debt. Program revenues covered operating expenses but were insufficient to address the underlying financial burden. In 2012, the bank called the loan and assumed control of the vessel in preparation for auction. For the next two years, Spirit lay at anchor or dockside, diligently cared for by a volunteer crew.
Stewardship, Refit, and Return
In July 2015, the auction was held aboard the vessel. Two Charleston businessmen, Tommy Baker and Mikey Bennett—concerned about the ship being taken out of state—pooled resources and successfully acquired Spirit.
After two years of neglect, Spirit of South Carolina required a major refit to resume her mission. Additional funding enabled delivery by a mixed crew of professionals and volunteers to Newport Shipyard, where she spent five months undergoing a comprehensive refit.