This is called doing penance . . . Torm Kristina . . . I checked high and low for square-rigged masts . . and found none. Hmmm . . . must be a motor vessel, not a ship at all.
Hilda Knutsen . . . I thought she was promising, but no dice.
Stena Performance . . . sorry. She too is a motor vessel.
Ever Develop . . . same negatory once again.
I guess I’ll have to make my way up to the East (non) River
to find a real ship. And what a ship she is: when Karl Kortum located her on the River Platte, 80 years old and converted into a scow for transporting dredge spoils, the locals refered to her as “el gran velero,” i.e., the great sailboat. As a sailing ship, she once called in the New York harbor . . . Erie Basin, to be exact . . . in January 14 1895, arriving in exactly three months from Taltal, Chile. Yup, that was pre-Panamax of any sort. She stayed in the sixth boro, albeit the Bayonne side of it, until March 21, 1895, when she sailed for Calcutta . . . making a passage of just over four months. As to cargo, I’d wager nitrates to New York, and petroleum product (kerosene) to Calcutta.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp. The info on the ship Wavertree aka el gran velero comes from the fine book called The Wavertree, published by South Street Seaport in 1969, the year she arrived in NYC.
Does anyone have fotos on Wavertree‘s arival in NYC, similar to these for Peking? Check out NYTimes article from January 12, 1969 and another from December 27, 1975.
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March 7, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Joe Herbert
Ya, the old girl is really a ship, them others are just floating warehouses, but who in defiance of god painted her boot?
March 8, 2011 at 2:11 am
eastriver
Caddell’s, I think.
Hey, don’t forget that steamship on the westside !