Schooners of this type were built mainly in Camden, and Boothbay, Maine, for coastwise freight and lumber cargo. During the time represented in this painting they were often to be seen on Vineyard Sound and in Vineyard Haven (then Holmes' Hole) which was both a port of call and a place of refuge in bad weather. The schooners went out of general use in about 1900. Some of these old vessels were re-rigged for coastwise cargo movements during the first World War but by now even these have become vanishingly scarce.
The text above is from Historical Paintings of Woods Hole, by Franklin Lewis Gifford (Woods Hole Public Library, 1962).