page_title: Constellation (schooner)
section_title: History & Ownership
hierarchical_section_title: Constellation (schooner) / History & Ownership
caption_attribution_description: English: "On the Deck of the Yacht Constellation," watercolor, by American artist John Singer Sargent. Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
context_page_description: Constellation was the largest steel schooner when completed, having been designed by the yacht designer Edward Burgess and launched in 1889. She was built at the Piepgras Shipyard on City Island in the Town of Pelham on Long Island, New York. It was built for yachtsman Edwin D. Morgan III, who was a commodore of the New York Yacht Club, and grandson of New York Governor and state senator Edwin D. Morgan.
context_section_description: The Constellation was launched in June 20, 1889 in front of a crowd of 300 people, along with designer Edward Burgess, and christened by E.D. Morgans wife, Elizabeth (Moran) Morgan.Once it entered service, E.D. Morgan kept it anchored off his Newport, RI  estate "Beacon Rock" where it raced as part of the New York Yacht Club fleet. Morgan sold it after only two years, on September 10, 1891.
  Bayard Thayerof the Thayer family of Boston and Lancaster, MA, purchased the schooner for a low price of $40,000. Thayer would continue to sail the Constellation as a racing yacht, where it won many races in her class. Eight years later, in 1899, Thayer sold the Constellation to Francis Skinner of the Eastern Yacht Club, in Marblehead, MA. 
  The Constellation's final and longest time owner was Herbert M. Sears, who purchased it in 1914 after fellow yacht club member Francis Skinner's death. He was commodore of the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts and the Constellation served as the flagship of the yacht club known as "Queen of the Eastern", leading the fleet for all the races. The schooner would undergo a refit in 1914 with the addition of a auxiliary motor and updated interior cabin fitting. In 1921 George Lawley & Son of Boston would build a new 22' motorized tender launch for the vessel. A 4 cycle, 6 cylinder Winton Diesel engine was installed in 1924. The original rig, the bowsprit, masts mainmasts were reduced as well. In 1934 the original centerboard was taken out, and a false metal keel was substituted.
  Commodore Sears was painted by famed artist John Singer Sargent standing on board the deck in the painting titled "On The Deck of The Yacht Constellation" around 1924 along with "Rainy day on the deck of the yacht Constellation".
  Due to the pending war on the Atlantic, the yacht was laid up for the summer season of 1941 at George Lawley & Son shipyard, and would never end up returning to service. In September 1941, Herbert Sears decided to donate the much needed metal from the hull to the war effort. The Constellation was scrapped in Neponset, Boston that same year. The stern board, wheel and many other elements were salvaged, and now displayed at the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
caption: Herbert M. Sears in John Singer Sargent painting "On deck of the yacht Constellation"
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