The Pilgrim Clipper Ship
Dennis and Betty Holland of Costa Mesa received almost $5,000 from the commission to help purchase sails for the Pilgrim, a replica of a sailing ship that was used during the Revolution. The Holland family spent more than $80,000 and 40,000 hours building this historically-accurate 118-foot-long square-rigger in the front yard of their Costa Mesa home. Mr. Holland used a 200-year-old adz (a hand-held cutting tool like an axe) to trim the Pilgrim’s wooden ribs, bathed oak planks in hot steam until they were flexible enough to curve along the ship’s curving contour, and installed historically authentic oil lamps and a wood-burning stove.
