Here is an image of the majestic Governor Ames, a five masted schooner that was the world’s largest cargo vessel at the time. Named for Adelbert Ames (1835-1933), Civil War hero and governor of Mississippi, who by 1888 was living in Lowell Massachusetts. Constructed in 1888 in Waldoboro, Maine, the ship was 265 feet long. The Governor Ames was lost off Chicamacomico, North Carolina in December 1909, just a few years before the great schooners ceased to be commercially viable, and were replaced by more modern steel-hulled, steam powered ships.

This photo was taken by Charles E Bolles (1847-1914), a photographer in Boston Massachusetts in the 1870s, and later Brooklyn New York. Although best known for his images of ships, mostly taken in New York harbor, Bolles also had a studio where he took portraits, at 242-244 Fulton in Brooklyn.