The Elvira J. French was the first four masted schooner to be built on the Damariscotta River. This photograph shows the Elvira J. French at her launching on August 27, 1890 at the W. Irving Adams shipyard in East Boothbay.

She was a centerboard schooner of 902 tons with a keel 176 feet in length and masts 154 feet tall and was built for T.B. Baker of Harwich, Massachusetts. Two or three thousand people were said to have attended the launching, and a ball was held in celebration that evening at the town's newly built Citizen's Union Hall.