In 1872, the square-rigged two-masted schooner Eugie was built in Maryland. Her history is unique, starting with her career trading various cargoes in the Northeast USA, carrying passengers from Miami to Nassau, and finishing her long life as a floating museum on Lake Ontario.

From the year of her launch until 1927, the bay schooner Eugie worked primarily in the lumber trade throughout Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC. There were reports on occasion of her also carrying loads of oysters, coal, granite, and fertilizer ^{1 2 3}. The schooner Eugie aided in the construction of the Hog Island Lighthouse in 1895. She carried materials to what would be one of the brightest lighthouses of its time, due to the lens it utilized ⁴.

The first three decades of her life were quiet, with only a few minor incidents occurring and only one change of ownership. One of these events happened during a storm in 1908. Another schooner had been pushed into the Eugie, which broke off her flying jibboom ⁵.

Her first major repair occurred in 1910. The Eugie was taken to a dry dock in Alexandria, where her hull was repaired, and the ship was caulked. After the repairs, she returned to her regular trade routes ⁶. At the end of this year, the Eugie’s young captain, Edward Meekins, 22, died from typhoid fever, two weeks after he contracted it while on the ship ⁷.

In 1923, after working as a freighter in Chesapeake Bay for 51 years, she was sent to a shipyard to be rebuilt ⁸. Only one year after leaving the shipyard and undergoing extensive updates, the schooner Eugie sank near Thomas Point. A diver had assessed her condition under the water and deemed her in good condition. Her owners had her raised, and she was brought back to port ⁹.

In 1926, she was fully repaired and fitted with a 120-horsepower oil engine by her new owner, H. B. Chase of Palm Beach ¹⁰. In 1927, she started her new career as a passenger vessel, making regular trips from Miami to Nassau. On occasion, she would also carry cargo on this route ¹¹.

R. H. Green was the captain of the Eugie in Florida when she began the final part of her career. He was a collector of unique fish specimens and created an exhibit which would be displayed on the vessel. He planned to visit various ports with his fish exhibit¹². The museum had over 500 fish specimens, including a 45-foot-long preserved whale shark, weighing 15 tonnes ¹³.

After Captain Greene died in 1932, her history is not well documented. She was reported to have been sold to two men in Rochester, then back to Mr Greene’s wife. She was sold for the last time in 1935 to Stuart Sill Sr, who stripped her of her parts and secured her to the Iron Ore Dock in Sodus Bay, where she remains to this day ¹⁴.