S.S.S. Lotus

The S.S.S. (Sea Scout Ship) Lotus is a historic gaff rigged schooner. Her home port is Sodus Bay in Wayne County, New York, United States. She is owned and operated by the "Friends of the Schooner Lotus." The keel on Lotus was laid down in 1917 and the boat was completed in 1918, in Rocky River, Ohio. Designed by the naval architect William Hand Jr. in 1916, and christened with the name of Miss Gloucester, she was designed as a pleasure yacht for sailing on the Great Lakes. As Miss Gloucester, she was commissioned by Thomas B. Van Dorn, to be the Van Dorn family yacht. The Van Dorn family sailed her on Lake Erie and perhaps Lake Huron. In 1922, the ship was sold to Stephen Estes Comstock of Newark, New York. He moved the ship to Sodus Bay, on Lake Ontario, and renamed her Lotus, after the wild water lilies that grew in the bay. Lotus was sold again in 1938, to Dick Todd and Ken Cooley. They renamed her again, this time to Dickens, a combination of their first names. In 1943, Ezra Hale and his partners bought the ship and changed her name back to Lotus. Ezra Hale and John Trahey donated Lotus to the Otetiana Council of the Boy Scouts of America in 1971, specifying that Sea Explorer Ship (now Sea Scout Ship) 303, chartered by the Kiwanis Club of Webster, New York, be the ones to use it. The Sea Explorer Ship 303 had begun in 1965, and used a variety of power cruisers before the Lotus was donated. Unfortunately, it was difficult to keep up with the required maintenance and by 1991 Lotus needed serious restoration. With the support of the Kiwanis Club, the money was raised for a restoration, soliciting donations from individuals and corporations. A matching funds grant was also received from New York State, which brought the total amount of money raised to $150,000. Lotus was trucked to Rivendell Marine, in Rhode Island, in 1991. The refit was completed in 1993. For the following 14 years, Lotus was sailed by members of Sea Scout Ship 303 around all of Lake Ontario.