Dick Reedy knows Cangarda well.

He knows where the historic steam yacht has been. He knows its trials at sea and at harbor. He knows from what brink the 126-foot, 112-year-old boat has come back.

After all, he used to own it.

Reedy was in Boothbay Harbor May 2 to see Cangarda, which he once owned. It was the first time he had seen the ship fully restored.

From when Reedy first bought the historic luxury steam yacht to when he sold it, he said he couldn't imagine that it would return in all of its former glory.

As the ship rests on the cradle at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard to have its hull repainted, Reedy, who lives north of Boston, said the ship's story is as unusual as the ship itself.

It is one of only three remaining steam yachts left in the world, and the only one that was built in America.

“I sold it to Elizabeth Meyer at the International Yacht Restoration in Rhode Island,” he said. “I knew that was the only chance it would get to be fully restored.

“She said she knew someone in mind who would be interested in this old boat and he knew a lot about restoring them. He wasn't a novice, like me.”

Reedy said a considerable amount of his time, money and effort went into restoring the ship, but the pieces never came together.

“That was the only chance it had to survive,” he said. “Otherwise, it would have gone to the scrap heap.”

True to its nature, the Cangarda returned.

The original steam engines were salvaged and rebuilt with new hardware. Reedy said the original engines were saved from the ship, then sent across the country, where they were rebuilt to again become the thumping heart of the 126-foot yacht.

Cangarda was built at Pusey & Jones Shipyard in Wilmington, Del., and launched in 1901. Its original owners, partners Charles Canfield and Belle Gardner, were from northern Michigan where Canfield had amassed a small fortune in the lumber trade. The boat bears a portmanteau of the original owners' names.

But, it wasn't meant to be for the original owners and the boat, which was sold to the Fulford family in 1904.

The Fulford family, who lived in Ontario, owned and used the boat until it was pressed into duty during World War II. Following the war, the ship was given back to the Fulfords.

“The boat languished after George (Fulford) had it after the war,” Reedy said. “Sometime after the war, it was bought by D. Cameron Peck.”

Peck didn't own the boat for long, though. Peck was someone who “just liked to collect things” Reedy said, and eventual financial ruin followed him. He was forced to put some of his 130 boats up for sale to stave off bankruptcy; the Cangarda was one of them.

Frederick Burtis Smith, who was born the same year the Cangarda launched, was the next in line.

“He made his money in oil and spent his gains on a monorail system that never came,” Reedy said.

Instead, Smith steamed the Cangarda, which was still in rough shape, up to Rochester, N.Y., where it sat inside an old railway station on the water. Smith lived on the boat for approximately 20 years before Reedy came calling.

“Originally, he wanted $75,000 for the boat,” Reedy said. “He said he was going to invest it. So I said 'How about instead of that, I pay you $1,000 a month for the rest of your life?'”

Smith took up Reedy's offer, and Cangarda again switched owners.

“I was left with the boat,” Reedy said. “(Getting it fully restored) was the original plan. As an amateur, I thought it would cost around $300,000.”

The costs kept piling up as new work kept surfacing on the boat, Reedy said, and added with a chuckle, “I wound up selling it for a dollar.”

The ship would have an almost-fateful encounter in Boston Harbor, but it managed to make its way through the International Yacht Restoration School and then to Bob McNeil, current owner, who had Jeff Rutherford rebuild and reassemble the boat.

Although he wasn't the one to finish rebuilding the ship, as Reedy stood on the aft deck he said his dream had been realized.

“It has a good life now,” he said.

Related: Unusual yacht stops ion Boothbay Harbor

Ben Bulkeley can be reached at 207-633-4620 or bbulkeley@boothbayregister.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BBRegisterBen.