Shearwater ( schooner ) The Shearwater is an wooden schooner docked in Lower Manhattan in New York City in the U . S . state of New York . The schooner was designed by Theodore Donald Wells and built by the Rice Brothers Corporation in East Boothbay , Maine in 1929 . During World War II , it was requisitioned into the United States Coast Guard to patrol for German U - boat s . The " Shearwater " completed a circumnavigation of the world in the early - 1980s and later worked as a research laboratory for the University of Pennsylvania ' s Institute of Environmental Medicine . Docked about west of the site of the World Trade Center , it is operated by Manhattan by Sail , which gives 90 - minute - long tours of New York Harbor , and is licensed to carry 48 passengers . The schooner was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 . Construction . The schooner is in overall length , extending on deck and along the waterline . At 36 gross tons , her maximum beam is and she draws of water . The design is a semi - fisherman type with a spooned bow , that was popular in the early 20th century . The full keel is made of solid oak and the hull is yellow pine over an oak frame . The floor timbers are oak , the stern is laminated mahogany , and the decks are teak . She has two spruce masts . The engine room below the deckhouse holds a Detroit 4 - 71 diesel engine . History . Her designer Theodore Donald Wells was a naval architect and marine engineer , who began his career as a member of the firm Herreshoff and Wells , N . Y . City in 1902 . From 1903 to 1907 he worked for Wintringham and Wells and then began designing ships on his own . Wells joined the Navy Department in March 1917 and became Superintending Constructor of the Baltimore District of the United States Navy . Rice Brothers was well known for building luxury pleasure yachts and produced about 4 , 000 hulls over a period of 64 years . Shearwater ' s keel was laid down on January 4 , 1929 and about 40 workmen helped in the construction . She was launched on May 4 , 1929 . Her first captain was Leon Esterbrook and her first owner was Charles E Dunlap , a member of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay , New York which became her first homeport after her fitting out was completed in late September 1929 . On November 7 , 1942 , after being requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration , she became a member of The United States Coast Guard ' s Coastal Picket Patrol . She was painted gray and bore the numbers CG67004 . Based at Little Creek , Virginia she patrolled the waters east of the Chesapeake Bay entrance and south towards Cape Hatteras . She was designed and built as a gaff rig ged schooner but during this period was changed to a Marconi rig . She first traveled through the Panama Canal in July 1946 and in the late 1970s and early 1980s completed a two and a half - year global circumnavigation . In December 1971 she was donated to the University of Pennsylvania ' s Institute of Environmental Medicine . She worked as a yacht - for - charter in 1966 while on the West Coast sailing to California ' s Channel Islands and was again used as a charter while owned by the University of Pennsylvania . The " Shearwater " was purchased by her current owners in 2000 . On the morning of September 11 , 2001 , she was hit by falling debris from the World Trade Center , but was sailed to New Jersey for safety . The " Shearwater " was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 9 , 2009 .