Across the bay at the McKay and Dix Shipyard on Verona Island, the keel of the 185-foot, 650-ton wooden sail-steamer Roosevelt was laid in 1904, beginning a historic journey toward the North Pole. The ship was launched on March 23, 1905, and in 1909 Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary and his crew, including Bucksport native George Wardwell, navigated it to within 174 miles of the Pole before ice stopped it, farther north than any vessel had then sailed. From there the Peary expedition traveled over ice and reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909, becoming the first ever to do so. Bucksport also had a long shipbuilding history, with vessels including the sloop Hannah, built in 1770 by Jonathan Buck and burned in 1779 during the destruction of the town by the British sloop of war Nautilus; the schooner Rattlesnake, built in 1842 and reputed to be among the fastest vessels on Penobscot Bay; the clipper ship N.T. Hill, built in 1876, said to be the finest vessel ever built in Bucksport and lost with all hands on its maiden voyage in 1878; and the schooner Estelle, built in 1891 as the last vessel built in Bucksport proper. Bucksport Harbor saw heavy maritime traffic over the years, and in the town's early days many wooden ships were built and launched from its shores at yards along the waterfront, including the Ginn Yard at the foot of Hinks Street, the Swazey Yard between the Ginn Yard and the Verona Island Bridge, the William Beazley Yard at the foot of McDonald Street, the Beazley Yard at the foot of Third Street, and the Parker Yard east of the foot of Nicholson Avenue.