In 1956, Seattle master shipwright Frank Prothero launched a boat he had been working on for six years. She was a 65' gaff-rigged topmast schooner, which he built for his personal use, a project undertaken to please no one but himself. He named her Alcyone.

Alcyone is modeled after the Gloucester fishing schooners of New England. She sets eleven sails: mainsail, foresail, staysail, jib, flyingjib, main and fore gaff topsails, fisherman, course, raffee and stunsail. These can be used in different combinations to suit various wind conditions. The rigging is complex, but pleasingly logical, having evolved pragmatically over the last two hundred years.

Frank Prothero sailed Alcyone for nine years before selling her to the Hanke Family. The Hankes moved Alcyone to Port Townsend and she was under there care, with Frank's supervision, for the next twenty-four years. The Flanagan Family have owned and operated her for twenty-three years, chartering and doing sail training in the Pacific Northwest and taking her offshore for five extended voyages.