With a sea of spectators eager to get to Greenport this weekend and climb aboard the Tall Ships tied up in the harbor, here’s a guide to the history of each of the majestic vessels featured as part of the village’s Tall Ships 2015 festival.
A.J. Meerwald
According to its website, the A.J. Meerwald is a Delaware Bay oyster schooner, “a distinct vessel that evolved to meet the needs of the local oyster fishery. Launched in 1928, the A.J. Meerwald was one of hundreds of schooners built along South Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore before the decline of the shipbuilding industry that coincided with the Great Depression.”
Where there were once as many as 500 schooners sailing ‘up the Bay’ each spring to catch oysters, not there are none, the site reads.
In 1928, the Meerwald family commissioned Charles H. Stowman & Sons shipyard to build the vessel. In 1942, the Maritime Commission commandeered the A.J. Meerwald under the War Powers Act. She was turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard who outfitted her as a fireboat. She was returned to the Meerwald family in 1947, sold to Clyde A. Phillips, who used her as an oyster dredge under power, and later, sold to Cornelius, or Nicky, Campbell, who outfitted her for surf clamming. In the 60s, she was used as a clam dredge. In 1989, she was donated to the Bayshore Center at Bivalve in 1989. And in 1995, the Clyde A. Phillips was rechristened and launched as the A.J. Meerwald and added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the vessel is used for public sails, charters, family and youth camps, and adult and youth education sails on the Delaware River and in the Bay area, and along the Atlantic Coast. In 1998, she was designated New Jersey’s Official Tall Ship.
For additional information on the A.J. Meerwald, click here.
Hermione (In Greenport Monday and Tuesday)
The centerpiece of the Tall Ships 2015 festival, the Hermione is slated to arrive in Greenport Monday morning.
The event marks the maiden voyage of the rebuilt Hermione, the vessel that brought French general Marquis de Lafayette to the United States during the Revolutionary War, turning the tide of the American Revolution, he said.
President Barack Obama sent a letter from the White House honoring the Hermione’s landmark voyage. “As we pay tribute to the extraordinary efforts made by General Lafayette and the French people to advance the Revolutionary cause, we reflect on the partnership that has made France our nation’s oldest ally. By continuing to renew and deepen our alliance in our time, we ensure generations to come can carry it forward proudly. As you gather on this special occasion, I wish you all the best. And to the crew of the Hermione, I wish you fair winds and following seas. Bon voyage!” President Obama wrote.
For a history of the Hermione and the restoration of the vessel, click here.
Kalmar Nyckel
According to its website, the present-day Kalmar Nyckel is as floating classroom, where the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation’s award-winning educational programs aim to teach students about Delaware’s rich maritime and colonial history.
The ship is owned and operated by the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers “a broad array of sea- and land-based learning and recreational experiences,” the site says.
The ship was built at the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation’s shipyard on Wilmington’s 7th Street Peninsula and was launched into the Christina River in 1997, about 200 yards downstream from the site of the original ship’s first landing at “the Rocks” in March of 1638.
The vessel, “a full-scale and faithful re-creation” of Peter Minuit’s original flagship that founded the colony of New Sweden on the Delaware, the new Kalmar Nyckel provides a platform for the Foundation’s educational programming as well as a venue for diplomatic, recreational, governmental, and commemorative functions, “a sea-going ‘good will ambassador’ for the state of Delaware, the site explains.
Captain Lauren Morgens said working about the Kalmar Nyckel is “the coolest job you could ever get to have.”
Being a female captain, she said, mostly “generates a lot of interest. A lot of people are fascinated by the idea.”
For additional information about the Kalmar Nyckel, click here.
Lynx
The Lynx, according to its website, is “an interpretation of an actual privateer named Lynx built by Thomas Kemp in 1812 in Fell’s Point, Maryland. She was among the first ships to defend American freedom by evading the British naval fleet then blockading American ports and serving in the important privateering efforts.
At the outbreak of the War of 1812, the American Navy consisted of only 17 ships – eight frigates, two brigs, and seven assorted smaller vessels including a few schooners which saw service in the Barbary Wars. When a nation went to war, owners of private vessels were granted special permissions, called ‘letters of marque,’ to prey upon the enemy’s shipping; thus, ‘privateers.'”
Today, the Tall Ship Lynx, according to its website, “is a non-partisan, educational organization, dedicated to hands-on educational programs that teach the history of America’s struggle to preserve its independence. The maritime challenges during the War of 1812 are taught aboard the American Privateer Schooner Lynx utilizing a comprehensive, interactive program designed to enrich personal achievement through teamwork and the discipline of sail training.”
For additional information on the Lynx, click here.
Picton Castle
The Picton Castle, according to its website, is “registered in the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific, and is owned and operated by the Windward Isles Sailing Ship Company, Ltd. The ship’s mission is deep-ocean sail training and long-distance education. Also, she carries supplies and educational materials to far-flung islands in the South Pacific. Her North American homeport is Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
The ship is a completely refitted barque that observes the rigorous standards of Germanischer Lloyds for steel-hulled Cape Horners. She is 179 feet overall, with riveted steel hull, clear oiled-pine decks, steel masts, and wooden and steel yards. She carries 12,450 square feet of canvas sail. The ship also has a powerful 690 hp Burmeister & Wain alpha diesel engine for occasions when sailing is not feasible. The galley is on deck, and its 1893 cook stove is similar to those used on commercial sailing ships 100 years ago.”
For additional information on the Lynx, click here.
Sagres
The S.T.S. Sagres, of Portugal, was built in 1937 in the shipyards of Blohm & Coss. She was named Albert Leo Schlageter and she was the third of a series of four ships built by the German Nacy. Damaged during World War II, Albert Leo Schlageter was captured in 1945 by the Amercian forces and handed over to Brazil in 1948.
The ship was incorporated into the Portuguese Navy on February 8, 1962 and was named Sagres.
Since 1962, Sagres has sailed every year on sail training cruises with the cadets of the Portuguese Naval Academy. Besides the training cruises, Sagres is used abroad as an itinerant Ambassador of Portugal and representative of the Portuguese Navy.
Yesterday, the Claudio family presented Commander Paulo Alcobia with a warm welcome and gift; the ship represents the family’s deep ties to Portugal.
