The graceful three-masted schooner American Pride (red sails) was built in 1941, originally as a two-masted “schooner-dragger” and launched as the “Virginia”. She spent over forty years commercially fishing the Grand Banks and George’s Banks. Her career spanned the New Englandports of New Bedford and Gloucester in Massachusetts, Rockland in Maine. She was a working fishing boat, spending weeks at sea in search of Cod, Haddock, Flounder, and Ocean Perch. From 1968 to 1986 she was known as the “Lady in Blue”, named after a prayer, and was captained by Sam and Paul Frontiero, father & son who fished out of Gloucester. In 1986, she was completely rebuilt in Thomaston, Maine, and certified by the United States Coast Guard. The restoration included adding a third mast, watertight bulkheads, new deck, bulwarks, interior, rigging, machinery, etc. She was renamed the “Natalie Todd”, and operated as a charter boat out of Bar Harbor, Maine. In October of 1996, she was purchased by the Children’s Maritime Foundation, and began her historic 7,500 mile sail through the Panama Canal to her new home in Rainbow Harbor, Long Beach, California.

A 1926 John Alden Designed Schooner, Curlew has a rich and varied history, which continues to unfold. Recognized in 2009 as a Historic Vessel by the City of Dana Point, CA, Curlew is a remarkable relic of the golden age of wooden boat construction, sailing and racing.