The Morrissey was raised and sold for $500 to the Pequot Marine Corporation of New London, CT and towed to Rowayton, CT. She was then sold to Louisa Mendes of Egypt, MA whose father-in-law, Henrique Mendes, paid $7,000 for the old schooner and brought her to New Bedford where his son, Adilino, and friends spent many hours during the next six months getting the ship ready to sail.

In the spring of the year the ship was hauled at the Casey Boatbuilding Yard in Fairhaven where the engine, propeller and shaft were removed. The ship would sail with no auxiliary power after extensive repairs, scraping and painting. In addition, a new galley stove and new boom for the foremast were installed.

The Morrissey replaced another Cape Verdean packet in New Bedford, the three-masted schooner Lucy Evelyn captained by John Costa, after the Lucy Evelyn was sold at auction in early June.

Interview with Adilino and Louisa Mendes April 1, 1988:

The actual legal purchase [of the schooner Effie M. Morrissey] was made by Adilino’s wife Louisa, because she was an American citizen. In order to raise the nearly $7,000 purchase price, Henrique had worked in an East Weymouth wool factory during World War II. He still had to borrow some money from Adilino, as he [Henrique] had gone bankrupt some time before. "There was no money involved, it was all volunteer - the fellowship was wonderful," said Louisa Mendes. "Henrique could really talk people into things," said Adilino, referring to Henrique’s ability to get friends to help fix up the ship. "Thirty or forty people would be working at a time, everyone with a can of paint in their hand." Louisa remembered that Henrique used to hang a pair of bib dungarees on the ship where people on the dock would see them, so that people would know how hard he worked.

One of the happiest memories of Adilino and Louisa Mendes was the year spent fixing the ship up in 1948. Adilino and Louisa had a baby daughter at the time, and they just brought her along, where she was rocked to sleep by the movement of the ship. Adilino said, "Kids used to play on the ship all the time."

The Mendes described the work done on the ship: "We got the mud out (from the sinking), scraped the burnt wood, took out all of the burnt cabins and recreated the cargo hold. We replaced all of the burnt wood and changed some knees."

Henrique owned seventeen different vessels over the years. One was named Emma after one of his daughters. He bought the Wm. A. Grosier in 1914, the Ernest T. Lee in 1919, the Charles L. Jeffrey in 1927, the Frank Bernard in 1935. He also had ships named the Arnold and the Savoia. He kept the Effie M. Morrissey under American registration and under that name for one year, until 1949 when he sailed her to Lisbon and renamed her after his thirty-four year old daughter, Ernestina.

Henrique is remembered by his son as "a happy-go-lucky guy, a big guy, sociable and so popular." Adilino recounted how his father is still owed money by some passengers. "They would promise to pay when they got to the United States and had been able to work for a while. Some paid, some didn’t. Henrique was very generous." In the 1950’s a round trip fare to Cape Verde and back was $400. If passengers brought lots of possessions with them (they often did), they paid extra. Some people would even send their possessions down on the ship and fly themselves.

On August 18, 1948 the Effie M. Morrissey sailed from the New Bedford State Pier with assistance from the tug Viking with Capt. Jose Joaquin Pereira of 212 N. Second Street, New Bedford aboard and seventy tons of cargo including food and clothing for Cape Verde. The crew were Manual A. Andrade of New York, Benjamin Duarte of Jersey City, Joseph Lopes of North Carver, Peter Silva of 511 Purchase Street, New Bedford and Manuel Sylvia of 620 Purchase Street, New Bedford.

The only passenger making the voyage, Antonio Gomes, 65, looked forward to the journey. In the United States many years, he had not been able to visit the islands and his wife since 1938. Mr. Gomes, a section hand on the Woods Hole branch of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, intended to return after a few months.

After a 34-day passage the Morrissey made the Cape Verde Islands with no engine, the first in a dozen circumnavigations in subsequent years through 1965.