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Remembering The Pilgrim Belle Twenty Years Ago On June 5, 1985
By Theodore W. Scull
The steamboat-class Pilgrim Belle was completed in a Florida shipyard in 1984 for Coastwise Cruise Lines of Hyannis, Mass. She was meant to be the first of several U.S. Flag coastal cruise ships, but in the end she was the only one built. The Pilgrim Belle had a length of 192 feet and could carry 96 passengers. Her interiors were Victorian in style and she had all outside cabins, many opening onto side promenades. While on a New England cruise, she tore a hole in the hull, and the crew just managed to keep her afloat by stuffing mattresses into the cavity. After she was repaired, Coastwise Cruise Lines were not successful with this venture, and she was sold to Exploration Cruise Lines of Seattle. Renamed the Colonial Explorer, she was the company’s only East Coast ship, and she became a bit of an orphan. Exploration Cruises Lines eventually went bankrupt, and she was sold to St. Lawrence Cruise Line of Kingston, Ontario. As the Victorian Empress, she ran alongside the firm’s Canadian Empress on cruises between Kingston and Quebec. Sadly, the company had so many problems with the Canadian Coast Guard (she was still registered in the U.S.) that she was sold to Alaska Sightseeing Cruise West, now operating simply as Cruise West. As the Spirit of ’98 she has finally found her place on cruises along the Inside Passage and on the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
The following photos show her in four different guises.
The Pilgrim Belle is approaching the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy dock at Kings Point, Long Island on June 5, 1985. She will pick up a few passengers and make her maiden arrival in New York at the South Street Seaport Museum via the East River a few hours later.
Her graceful profile is enhanced by her straight stern, tall black funnel and rounded superstructure.
She certainly qualifies as the best looking coastal cruise ship under the U.S. flag.
As the Colonial Explorer, she is operating for Exploration Cruises Lines, and the two photographs (above and below)
show her on a Chesapeake Bay cruise that I made in May 1986.
The Colonial Explorer was chartered by the Smithsonian Institution to be on hand for the relighting of the Statue of Liberty on the 4th of July 1986. The captain, George Coughlin, invited me as the enrichment lecturer, and to pick me up, the only docking site available was along the Gowanus Canal, a famous Brooklyn industrial waterway once known as Lavender Lake because of its chemically-colored waters.
Under St. Lawrence Cruise Lines, I made an October 1990 St. Lawrence River Cruise from Montreal to Quebec ports,
into the Saguenay River then upstream to Kingston, Ontario.
The photo above was taken at Kingston, Ontario and the one below from the Manoir Richelieu at Pointe-au-Pic, Quebec.
Then in May 2002, as the Spirit of ’98, I made a one-way voyage from Seattle up the Inside Passage to Alaska. I was happy to find that she fits well into her surroundings and has finally achieved well-deserved success for Cruise West. The Spirit of ’98, now 21 years old, remains the most handsome coastal passenger vessel under the U.S. flag.
