The Mystic Seaport Museum's historic wooden steamboat, Sabino, is back on the water and no longer requires its coal-fired steam engine to run.
Sabino, a national historic landmark, can now also run on diesel electric power. The team at the Mystic Seaport Museum added two small diesel generators that reduce the historic boat's carbon emissions by 95%.
“Her daily emissions used to be the equivalent of driving a car to Anchorage, Alaska and back," said Samantha Juber, captain of Sabino. "Now her daily emissions are the equivalent of driving to New York City and back.”
Sabino last ran in 2019. COVID delayed the project. The team also ran into some engineering hurdles while working to maintain the history. The boat has been back on the water for about two weeks. Other than the lack of black smoke coming from the top of the boat, the passenger experience does not feel much different.
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Plus, the historic steam engine is untouched. It is still there and fully operational. The museum plans to use it throughout the year for special occasions.
“It’s not that we just ripped everything out and put in electric engines. We just made it so that it is still historically correct and added electric diesel engines to it," said Peter Armstrong, president of the Mystic Seaport Museum. “They can see how it would have operated and how it would have worked, without throwing all of that carbon in the air.”
The museum originally decided to add an electric engine to the boat after running into issues finding United States Coast Guard engineers who could operate a steam engine. Reducing the boat's carbon footprint was an added benefit.
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Sabino's transformation also fits into the museum's larger goal. Museum leaders recently announced plans to undergo a low carbon transformation.
"It might seem like a small drop in the ocean that we are doing this kind of work, but we all have to play a part," said Armstrong. “We are going to try to reduce our carbon footprint to the minimum that we possibly can."
According to the museum, their transformation will include several initiatives including the implementation of renewable energy sources and energy-efficient infrastructure upgrades. They say that Sabino is just one example.
