More than ten years ago, students, volunteers and shipwrights at the Bayfront Maritime Center (BMC) set off on a project to replicate a historic tall ship used in the War of 1812.
The project began when a couple from Ohio donated a fiberglass hull to the BMC, which would later become the base for a replica of the Gunboat Schooner Porcupine.
Fast forward ten years later, construction on the ship has reached about 90 percent completion, but the Porcupine still sits in the BMC’s workshop on Holland Street, awaiting its maiden voyage on Lake Erie.
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“It would be ideal to have her for 2026, if we could. Just like everything else in this world, it takes some money, but she’s at a point where if we had the money, we could get her together,” said Dutch Noll, a volunteer with the Bayfront Maritime Center…