Wavertree On the Ways -rheSouth Street Seaport Museum in New I York City has embarked on an unprece-
dented $10.6 million restoration of its flagship, the 1885 Cape Horn full-rigged ship Wavertree. With key allocations from the New York City Council, the Mayor's Office, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the restoration of Wavertree is a clear indication ofNew York City's commitment to its maritime history and to the museum at South Street. The scope of work planned is extensive and includes: the removal and complete replacement of the weather deck in steel, the removal of the South American sand-hopper structure from the lower hold, In May, Wavertree left her pier in Manhattan and took a short journey to the replacement and repair of the entire a Staten Island shipyard where she will undergo a lifesaving restoration. 'tweendeck, reballasting with a completely removable concrete ballast, replacement of twenty hull plates below the waterline, installation of a cathodic protection system, complete blasting (using both water and abrasive), and a thorough coating of the entire hull structure. Captain Jonathan Boulware, executive director of the South Street Seaport Museum, had this to say: "We're thrilled beyond words at the initiation of what is the largest sailing ship preservation project of its type in recent history. Wavertree was once a plain old square rigger, like any other you'd have seen at South Street on any day of the week-hull number such-and-such from a yard in Liverpool. But today she is a rare survivor, one of the last iron-hulled sailing ships left in the world. Never fitted with propulsion, still riveted from rail to garboard, she is a work of art in iron. Iron is itself a lifeless thing, but when wrought into plate, shaped, fitted to other plates, and formed into the hull of a sailing ship, it becomes art. Countless people have toiled in service of this great lady, this swan of sea and sail, and thanks to this project countless more will walk her decks, climb her rigging, and tend her braces. We undertake this work with reverence for what the ship is and with hope and aspiration for what she can be. Wavertree's restoration is the first step in the revitalization of the South Street Seaport Around the Cabin Lamp: The Wavertree Restoration Museum, an institution of New York, of America, and of all ports that meet the sea." There was an electric feeling in the air as Wavertree stirred in her South Street The 1885 full-rigged ship Wavertree (exberth to begin her journey to the Caddell yard across the harbor. Jonathan Boulware, Don Ariano N, ex-Southgate) was built at newly named executive director of South Street Seaport Museum, cheerfully broke Southampton, England, for R. W. Leyland into his own remarks to proclaim: "Ir moves!" & Company of Liverpool. The 325-foot Norma and I were seized by the moment, as was every living soul in the crowd wrought-iron square rigger first sailed bethat had gathered to see the great ship off for the major rebuild that awaited her. and tween eastern India (now Bangladesh) Indeed, Terese Loeb KeuPHOTO BY TERESE LOE B KREUZER Scotland carrying jute, before entering the zer, writing in the local etramp trades, raking cargoes anywhere in newsletter Downtown Post the world she could find them. It was in NYC, said we two had ties this capacity that the ship first came into that ran deeper rhan those New York. After sailing for a quarter cenof anyone else on the pier, tury, in December 1910 she limped into as the ones that had the Falkland Islands, having been dismasrbrought Wavertree to New ed off Cape Horn. Her owners sold her for York 45 years earlier. But use as a floating warehouse at Punta Arenas, the story she told went on Chile. In 1947, she was converted into a to cite the visionary and sand barge at Buenos Aires, Argentina. practical people who made South Street Seaport Museum acquired possible the ship's 6,000Peter and Norma Stanford as Waverrree leaves for shipyard. ownership of the hull in 1968. mile journey to New York. Her arrival in New York Harbor in 1970 That story, wonderful for rhe reactions of harbor people to one of their own, an ocean was just the beginning of her life as a New wanderer come home from anorher age, is retold on these pages as well, in words York City icon, but the effort to get her noted down at the rime-another example of on-deck reporting for which Sea there was almost Herculean and the result -Peter Stanford, President Emeritus, NMHS Histo ry has become noted. of the dedication and funding of some key
.•
28
SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015