amed after the maverick Senate Chairman William Pierce Frye of Maine who in 1900 wrote a subsidy bill that briefly re-ignited Maine shipbuilding, the Windjammer W.P. FRYE was one of the first efforts out of the Sewall Shipyard of Bath, Maine to be built with the U.S. Government in a partnership effort. Coulter shows her glory: six courses of sail, a broad beam and her white beauty. Built to be capable of carrying large cargoes at a competitive speed, she was hired by Washington State interests within a year of her 1901 launching, and headed west.
Coulter has performed fine in her honor, with a great vertical presentation of compositional scale while showing figures on deck, an expansive blue sky and the rolling Pacific Ocean. The ship is bright and crisp with promise, and the Sewell Houseflag rides proudly atop the main.
The ship later owns a historic World War I significance in that she was sunk by a German submarine on January 15, 1915 while carrying a 5,200 ton cargo of wheat bound from Seattle to Queenstown, New Zealand. America was still a neutral nation at the time, courted by both sides. The investigation helped expose a German spy network in America and after the sinking of the MAURITANIA, further pushed America's entry into the conflict.
