Pennsylvania museum officials ‘gave up’ the state ship to a Canadian crew, former sailors say

When the U.S. Brig Niagara squared off against British and Canadian troops during the War of 1812, the wooden vessel — today Pennsylvania’s official state ship — played a crucial role in securing both Lake Erie and the nation’s burgeoning military identity.

Victory was so critical to Niagara captain Oliver Hazard Perry that as his fleet weathered a barrage of cannon fire, Perry brandished a flag urging that his men “Don’t Give Up the Ship” — to this day a battle cry of resilience.

In the fall, officials with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission did just that, advocates for the ship say, when it contracted with a Canada-based rigging company to steward the vessel to an Ohio shipyard for maintenance.

Never mind the irony that the commission had outsourced the Niagara’s care to Britain’s former colony; the move violated a federal maritime code that aims to keep U.S. vessels under the stewardship of U.S. sailors, according to a Coast Guard memo viewed by The Inquirer.

Under that regulation, at least 75% of a Coast Guard-registered ship’s crew must be staffed with U.S. citizens. The Niagara’s crew log from the two-week October voyage, however, shows that at one point, four of seven members were Canadian nationals.

The Coast Guard issued the commission a warning for the violation, according to the memo.

Jay Losiewicz, a historical commission spokesperson, said in an email that the agency is committed to operating the Niagara in full compliance with all laws and regulations. About a month after the vessel’s return, a commission member self-reported the violation to the Coast Guard, records show.

“Once the voyage back to Erie was completed, the contract with Ironbound Rigging was terminated and there have not been any contracts with them since,” Losiewicz said.

For Ironbound’s part, the company is shrugging off criticism, casting its crew of both Canadians and Americans as saviors of a ship that was short on staff and in dire need of repairs.

Still, Erie-based former crew members who sailed aboard the Niagara until the commission took full control of the vessel in 2023 remain bitter over the debacle — the latest fissure in what is by several accounts an acidic breakup between longtime collaborators.

Those sailors say their ranks had been available to take on the work, had the commission sought them out before awarding the $24,500 contract to the Nova Scotia-based company.

“Niagara is supposed to sail around and advertise what Pennsylvania has to offer,” said Steven Perry, a former crew member who now runs the advocacy blog Protect Brig Niagara. “When you turn around and don’t even try to hire Pennsylvanians — even if it’s just for a quick trip — it’s kind of a slap in the face.”

It wasn’t long after boarding the Niagara as a trainee in 2022 that Perry became enamored with the vessel and its storied past.

In the years after the War of 1812, the Niagara spent decades on the bottom of Lake Erie, sunk for preservation. The vessel was raised in 1913, later acquired by the state of Pennsylvania, and docked in harbor for restorations and to eventually become part of the Erie Maritime Museum.

By the late 1980s, a more rigorous program had begun to fully rebuild the Niagara as a modern sailing vessel that could represent the commonwealth at tall ships festivals and historical reenactments from Put-in-Bay, Ohio, to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The ship again found new life in the 2000s as a sail training vessel for the Coast Guard.

“We took that very seriously — to be the ambassador” of Pennsylvania, said former Niagara captain William Sabatini, who helmed the vessel from 2014 to 2023.

That year, the historical commission ended its long-standing relationship with Sabatini’s nonprofit, Flagship Niagara League, leaving much of the Niagara’s crew out of work.

Flagship Niagara League was formed in 1981 to oversee the vessel’s reconstruction and to fundraise for the ship; beginning in 2010, the nonprofit assumed direct control of Niagara’s sailing operations while the historical commission continued ownership.

It was around the time of the Great Recession, when the state was tightening its budget, that a rift between the nonprofit and the commission began to widen, former members say.

“[The commission] started wanting to interpret the ship as historical — as more of an exhibit,” said former Flagship Niagara League executive Phillip “Pip” Connor, who worked aboard the ship since 2009. “Our goal was to keep it sailing.”

According to Losiewicz, the commission reassumed control of the Niagara to streamline operations, reduce overhead costs, and prioritize much-needed repairs to the starboard propeller.

Sabatini and Connor, however, believe the move was less about repairs and more about wrestling control from the nonprofit, particularly in regard to hiring and firing crew.

Regardless of those tensions, what became apparent last year was that the Niagara — which had spent an unusually long period docked and inactive after the pandemic — needed to get back into sailing shape.

Specifics on how the Canadian company came aboard are disputed by Niagara’s advocates and the historical commission.

But the Jones Act — a protectionist 1920 law designed to strengthen the domestic maritime industry — is well-known in the tall ships industry, Connor said.

“It’s something we had to deal with every time we were hiring,” Connor said. “There’s plenty of people we’ve known internationally that we would have loved to work aboard Niagara, but it was a consideration we always had to work around.”

With Flagship Niagara League out, the commission hired Erie native Gregory Bailey to captain the vessel in 2024.

In Protect Brig Niagara’s telling, it is Bailey’s ties to Ironbound Rigging founder Mike Moreland that inspired the commission to hire the company last fall. Bailey did not return multiple requests for comment.

What’s more, Perry, Sabatini, and Connor say the commission never advertised publicly when hiring for the voyage, leaving no opportunity for former crew members to apply as they had expected to be able to.

For Perry, the deal is an example of “cronyism” and “closed-door” decision making within the commission.

“Is this the message Pennsylvania is trying to send?” Perry suggested, “That we are using public money to bring foreign workers in to compete with Pennsylvanians?”

The historical commission, on the other hand, said it had been considering Ironbound, among other crews, before hiring Bailey. Future job positions aboard the vessel will be posted publicly on state and industry websites, according to Losiewicz.

“PHMC strongly refutes any allegations of cronyism regarding Ironbound Rigging’s work on the U.S. Brig Niagara,” Losiewicz said. “Those allegations have no basis in fact.”

Moreland, a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, did not deny that Bailey sought his company’s help.

He described the tall ship sailing scene as a tight-knit community, one where there are only so many professional, qualified crews available for work.

“I don’t think anybody did anything wrong,” Moreland said. “We got the job done — everything went perfect.”

Moreland doesn’t think anyone should be shocked that his company is comprised of both American and Canadian sailors, some who are also dual citizens.

Above all, he wasn’t surprised that former Flagship Niagara League sailors — who he believes the commission had essentially fired — did not get the job.

“Yeah, [the commission] should have put it out to tender, but good luck,“ Moreland said of the shipyard job. ”What groups of people are you gonna get?”

For Sabatini, seeing Niagara sail off under new stewardship last fall was something of a gut punch.

“We were watching from the side of the channel as the ship got underway,” the former captain said. “There were people here in Erie” who could have taken the work.

Sabatini isn’t just upset at a lost business opportunity.

He believes Flagship Niagara League’s programming made Niagara “the finest sail training vessel in the world,” earning it a stellar reputation for teaching high school and college students the complex skills required of tall ship sailing.

The nonprofit is now looking to rebrand as it continues to oversee the historic fishing vessel Lettie G. Howard.

With Bailey in command, the Niagara is currently en route to a Maine shipyard for more extensive repairs. (The historical commission says it recently increased its annual investment into the ship by $400,000 for a total of $750,000 per year.). Bailey is sailing with a temporary crew compliant with Coast Guard regulations, according to Losiewicz.

Upon its return, the Niagara will continue to attend tall ships festivals and offer educational programs, ship tours, and “sailing opportunities for Pennsylvanians and those visiting Erie,” he said.

In what would be one of the largest shows of glory in the Niagara’s recent history, the commission intends to showcase the ship on Lake Erie in 2026 during celebrations for the country’s 250th anniversary.

Once more, Sabatini expects that his former crew will watch from dry land.

“The impact is an emotional one,” the former captain said. “It’s watching a ship that you’ve dedicated a large portion of your life to — and a ship you cared deeply for — sail away without you on it.”