One person killed as mast snaps on historic schooner

The historic schooner Grace Bailey with its main mast broken off the coast of Rockland, Maine (Kurt Schleicher via AP/PA)

One person was killed and three injured when the main mast of a historic excursion vessel splintered and fell onto the vessel’s deck off the Maine coast on Monday.

A nearby coastguard vessel began evacuating the injured passengers from the 140-year-old schooner Grace Bailey within minutes of the mast’s catastrophic failure and collapse on the deck, which occurred while the schooner was returning from a four-day cruise, the vessel’s owner said in a statement.