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After spending about four months in dry dock in the nations oldest seaport undergoing extensive restoration in time for celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the brig Beaver is scheduled to ship up to Boston on Tuesday, 7 a.m., from Gloucester Marine Railways Corp. on Rocky Neck.

The Beaver, a replica of the original 18th-century brig from whose decks patriots chucked chests of tea into Boston Harbor on Dec. 16, 1773, is part of the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum on Congress Street in Boston.

In November, it was guided by a tugboat to Gloucester and gingerly hauled out of the water at the Burnham Brothers Railway at Maritime Gloucester on Harbor Loop.

There, workers from the Gloucester Marine Railways in conjunction with workers from Back Narrows Boatyard in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, worked on the vessel to get her shipshape, said Don King, general manager of Gloucester Marine Railways.

The vessel previously underwent a major rebuild at Gloucester Marine Railways.

It has been more than 10 years since the Beaver left Gloucester for her new home at the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, said Shawn P. Ford, executive director for the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, in an email on Monday. We look forward to having her back today after her recent visit to the Gloucester Marine Railways. The crew, with their expertise and passion unmatched in New England, has given the Beaver a complete once-over and she is ready to take center stage at the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party this Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023.

The replica Beaver was built as a schooner on the island of Aero, Denmark, in 1908 and was used for freighting and shipping, according to the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museums website.

We are pretty much wrapped up with what is on our worklist, said King on Monday morning. He said the ship would be towed to the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museums facility, with the transit to Boston Harbor early Tuesday morning all timed by the tides.

King said the move is timed with dead low tide after a four-hour journey to Boston so that the ship, which does not have its masts stepped, can fit under the Evelyn Moakley Bridge in Boston. The museum is handling the transit.

He said crews performed work on the aft quarter deck and replaced about 20% of the main deck, as well as did extensive work on the bow. . Work was also done on the pinrails used to secure rigging.

He said he had two people working full time on the vessel, and as many as six working at once on the ship at certain times.

It created a lot of work for us, King said.

Once the ship is back in Boston, it will have its new masts stepped and new bowsprit installed.

King said the reason the work was done at the historic marine railway at Maritime Gloucester, instead of on Rocky Neck, was because the Gloucester Marine Railways had been booked solid. Maritime Gloucester let Gloucester Marine Railways use its railway for the job. The Beaver was brought over to Rocky Neck last Wednesday.

At least five people could be seen working on the ship Monday afternoon. One was painting the bow, another was welding.

King said the reason the ship was not transited back to Boston right away was because a week was needed for the boat to soak up to insure the hull was watertight after she was refloated.

Things went extremely smooth, King said, and it was pretty tight, especially for a 100-year-old-plus hull.

Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.

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Tea Party brig shipping up to Boston | Local News | gloucestertimes ... - Gloucester Daily Times