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Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain The City of Aberdeen is currently going through many economic and social changes as it looks to find solutions to the downturn in the timber industry. Tourism looks to be one possible solution, and for several years a prime attraction has been the Lady Washington, the ship of state, and its brother the Hawaiian Chieftain, which are both docked on the Chehalis at the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport. The Lady Washington is a tall ship that was built locally and is available for tours and sailings. While this tall ship of state spends most of the year sailing, during summers she can be found docked in either Aberdeen or Westport. Launched on March 7, 1989, the Lady Washington was built in Aberdeen by the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority, a non-profit public development authority. The ship is a full-scale replica of the original Lady Washington. In 1787, the original Lady Washington was given a major refit to prepare her for an unprecedented trading voyage around Cape Horn. In 1788, she became the first American vessel to make landfall on the west coast of North America. A pioneer in Pan-Pacific trade, she was the first American ship to visit Honolulu, Hong Kong and Japan. Lady Washington opened the
black pearl and sandalwood trade between Hawaii and Asia when King Kamehameha became a partner in the ship. The modern Lady Washington was thoroughly researched by historians and constructed by skilled shipwrights. She was launched as part of the 1989 Washington State Centennial celebration. The new Lady Washington is a U.S. Coast Guard inspected and certified passenger sailing vessel. Over the years, Lady Washington has appeared in several motion pictures and television shows, including Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Star Trek: Generations, Once Upon a Time, and Revolution. Hawaiian Chieftain Built of steel in Hawaii in 1988 and originally designed for cargo trade among the Hawaiian Islands, naval architect Raymond H. Richards’ design for Hawaiian Chieftain was influenced by the early colonial passenger and coastal packets that traded among Atlantic coastal cities and towns. The coastal packet service was part of the coasting trade based in the mercantile activity of developing seaboard towns. The early packet ships were regular traders and were selected because they sailed remarkably well and could enter small ports with their shallow draft. Out of the gradual development of the Atlantic packet ship hull form came the ship design practices that helped produce some of the best of the clipper ships of the later 1850s. Hawaiian Chieftain was commissioned by Laurence H. “Baron” Dorcy, Jr., and
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