Link to Past : Institute Ties Up Pilgrim II After 4 Years

After years of trying, the Orange County Marine Institute on Thursday became the owner of the brig Pilgrim II, which has lain at anchor in Dana Point Harbor since its arrival there in 1981.

As a light breeze drifted across the water, a brief ceremony was held aboard the 98-foot square-rigger, which is a replica of the ship that Richard Henry Dana sailed on when he first visited Dana Point 150 years ago.

The institute has been trying to buy the ship for four years, but to do so it had to overcome numerous obstacles, according to Stanley Cummings, the institute’s director.

Terms of the agreement reached between the institute and the ship’s former owner, Salinas-based BJW Expeditions, call for the institute to pay about $450,000 for the ship over a five-year period. The institute will make monthly payments of $3,500 for five years and will pay the balance at the end.

The Pilgrim’s fate fell into doubt last year when the Pacific Ocean Foundation, which mounted a fund-raising effort to buy the ship for the institute, fell into arrears on its $75,000 annual payment to BJW Expeditions.

A lawsuit was filed against the foundation by BJW, but the purchase agreement reached Thursday between the Orange County Marine Institute and BJW paved the way for resolution of that suit.

Lionel Aiken, the attorney representing BJW managing partner Marion Barich, said he would drop the year-old suit today.

In exchange for releasing its claims to the Pilgrim, the foundation reached a separate agreement with the institute under which the institute will reimburse the foundation for $25,000 that it spent refurbishing the Pilgrim after its arrival four years ago.

Still another barrier to the agreement was overcome earlier this week when the county Board of Supervisors satisfied itself that the county would not be responsible for paying for the ship should the institute default on its payments.

Freed of Liability

On Tuesday, the board voted unanimously to approve a change in a joint-powers agreement under which the institute is run. The change freed the supervisors, the Orange County Department of Education and the four community college districts that form the joint-powers authority from any liability for the ship’s purchase.

With the purchase out of the way, Cummings said, the institute will mount a fund-raising campaign to meet the five-year purchase agreement.

The Danish-built brig currently is used as a stage for plays and dramatic readings from “Two Years Before the Mast,” Dana’s chronicle of life at sea during the early 19th Century. The ship is also used for overnight visits by groups of children, who get a taste of life in the days of wooden ships and iron men.

“Obviously, we have a lot of money to raise,” Cummings said. “We can run the ship from the fees . . . but we can’t service debt. We have to raise that money through appeals to the community.”

Wants Floating Pier

Cummings, who also is pushing for a $425,000 floating pier that would give visitors ready access to the Pilgrim--getting there now requires a short trip in a launch--envisions the ship as a sort of floating museum that could support itself through admission fees for tours.

Robert Wingard, programs manager for the Orange County Environmental Mangement Agency, said his agency has “prepared plans and specifications for a mooring and dock for the Pilgrim.”

However, no project to construct the dock, which would encompass the ship on three sides, can get under way until the budget is approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Although making Dana Point the Pilgrim’s home port has been a struggle for the last four years, Cummings believes that the ship, which he said “provides a link to the past” for local residents, will continue to be a part of the scene for a long time to come.

“This ship will be here for 150 years after this,” he said. “As long as the community sits here, the Pilgrim will be here, too.”