Biloxi Schooner Sails

The Biloxi schooners are a living piece of Gulf Coast heritage. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wooden sailing schooners dredged oysters, hauled seafood and carried cargo along the Mississippi Sound, and their white sails earned them the nickname White Winged Queens. Two replica vessels, the Glenn L. Swetman and the Mike Sekul, keep that tradition afloat today. They are operated through the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum from the Schooner Pier Complex on Beach Boulevard, and they offer sails that let landlubbers feel how working sailors once moved around the coast. A schooner sail is quietly different from a casino boat or a bay cruise. The pace is slow and wind-driven, and the crew treat it as a hands-on lesson in seamanship and history. Depending on the trip, passengers may help hoist sails, watch the crew handle lines, hear stories about the oyster and shrimp fleets and look back at the skyline of Biloxi from the water. The views are the draw: a sweep of beach, the lighthouse and the casino towers across low, bright water, with pelicans and dolphins often in view.

The sails operate in a few formats. Public walk-on sails are available on a limited schedule, usually in the afternoon or at sunset on certain days, and they require a minimum number of passengers and are held only when the schooners are not booked for private charters. Because of that, always call the museum the morning of the sail you hope to join to confirm it is running before you head to the pier.

Group charters are also possible for families, reunions, weddings and corporate outings, and the schooners can carry a sizeable group when booked in advance. Special seasonal sails, such as holiday-themed evening trips, appear in the calendar from time to time and sell out quickly.

Passengers may usually bring their own food and drink, and ice and coolers are provided, so a sunset sail with a picnic is an easy and relatively inexpensive plan. Dress for sun and wind, with a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen, and wear shoes with a good grip for deck surfaces. Children are welcome on many sails, and a ride on a real wooden schooner makes a more memorable family outing than a typical sightseeing cruise.

The pier is within walking distance of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art and a short stroll from the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, so you can easily build a day around boats, seafood history and art. If you want to see the other side of the working Gulf, a shrimping trip from the nearby small craft harbor shows how commercial nets are actually used today, and many visitors enjoy doing both to compare the old and the new.

For couples, a sunset sail is among the most romantic and affordable things to do in town. For first-time visitors, it provides a vivid sense of why Biloxi grew up as a seafood town long before the casinos arrived.

A few seasonal details are worth knowing. Sails are weather dependent, since schooners rely on wind and the crew will not leave the pier in unsafe conditions, so build a flexible backup into your day. The cooler months often bring the clearest, crispest light on the water, while summer sails are best taken in the evening when the sun has lost its sting.

If you cannot get a place on a public sail, the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum next door still gives you a good feel for the boats, and you can watch the schooners at their pier from the boardwalk.