The museum ship Balclutha

23 November 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Museums, Exhibitions, San Francisco Bay Area, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  7 minutes

Historic ships of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park moored at Hyde Street Pier in Aquatic Park, with Alcatraz and Angel Island in the background © chris j wood/cc-by-sa-3.0

Historic ships of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park moored at Hyde Street Pier in Aquatic Park, with Alcatraz and Angel Island in the background © chris j wood/cc-by-sa-3.0

Balclutha, also known as Star of Alaska, Pacific Queen, or Sailing Ship Balclutha, is a steel-hulled full rigged ship that was built in 1886. She is the only square rigged ship left in the San Francisco Bay area and is representative of several different commercial ventures, including lumber, salmon, and grain. Balclutha was built in 1886 by Charles Connell & Co. Ltd., of Glasgow, for Robert McMillan, of Dumbarton. Her namesake is said to be the eponymous town of Balclutha, New Zealand, but her name can also refer to her first homeport, Glasgow, which is a “City on the Clyde” – the meaning of her name derived from the Gaelic Baile Chluaidh.   read more…

The four-masted barque Sedov

1 September 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  8 minutes

© Żeglarz

© Żeglarz

The STS Sedov, formerly the Magdalene Vinnen II (1921–1936) and the Kommodore Johnsen (–1948), is a 4-masted steel barque that for almost 80 years was the largest traditional sailing ship in operation. Today, it’s the second larges after Royal Clipper. Originally built as a German cargo ship, the Sedov is today a sail training vessel. She participates regularly in the big maritime international events as a privileged host and has also been a regular participant in The Tall Ships’ Races.   read more…

The sail training ship Danmark

1 August 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  6 minutes

Danmark - Tall Ships Races 2012 © flickr.com - Miguel Mendez/cc-by-2.0

Danmark – Tall Ships Races 2012 © flickr.com – Miguel Mendez/cc-by-2.0

The Danmark is a full-rigged ship owned by the Danish Maritime Authority and based at the Maritime Training and Education Centre in Frederikshavn. Danmark is 252 feet (77 m) in overall length with a beam of 32 feet (9.8 m) and a depth of 17 feet (5.2 m), with a gross tonnage of 790 tons. She was designed for a crew complement of 120 but in a 1959 refit this was reduced to 80.   read more…

The sail training ship Christian Radich

1 December 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  6 minutes

Christian Radich in Trondheim © flickr.com - beagle84/cc-by-sa-2.0

Christian Radich in Trondheim © flickr.com – beagle84/cc-by-sa-2.0

Christian Radich is a Norwegian full-rigged ship, named after a Norwegian shipowner. The vessel was built at Framnæs shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway, and was delivered on 17 June 1937. The owner was The Christian Radich Sail Training Foundation established by a grant from an officer of that name. The homeport is Oslo.   read more…

The three-masted Thor Heyerdahl

1 November 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  5 minutes

Thor Heyerdahl in Kiel © VollwertBIT/cc-by-sa-2.5

Thor Heyerdahl in Kiel © VollwertBIT/cc-by-sa-2.5

Thor Heyerdahl , originally named Tinka, later Marga Henning, Silke, and Minnow, was built as a freight carrying motor ship with auxiliary sails at the shipyard Smit & Zoon in Westerbroek, Netherlands, in 1930. Her original homeport being Hamburg, she was used for the next 50 years as a freighter.   read more…

The HM barque Endeavour

1 September 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Museums, Exhibitions, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  6 minutes

Captain Cook's ship 'HM Bark Endeavour' leaving Whitby Harbour © geograph.org.uk - colin f m smith/cc-by-sa-2.0

Captain Cook’s ship ‘HM Bark Endeavour’ leaving Whitby Harbour © geograph.org.uk – colin f m smith/cc-by-sa-2.0

HMS Endeavour, also known as HM Bark Endeavour, was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded on his first voyage of discovery, to Australia and New Zealand from 1769 to 1771. She was launched in 1764 as the collier Earl of Pembroke, and the Navy purchased her in 1768 for a scientific mission to the Pacific Ocean and to explore the seas for the surmised Terra Australis Incognita or “unknown southern land”. The Navy renamed and commissioned her as His Majesty’s Bark the Endeavour.   read more…

The sail training ship USCGC Eagle

1 May 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  3 minutes

© USCG - Brown, Telfair H. PA1

© USCG – Brown, Telfair H. PA1

The USCGC Eagle is a 295-foot (90 m) barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. She is the only active commissioned sailing vessel in American military service. She is the seventh U.S. Navy or Coast Guard ship to bear the name in a line dating back to 1792. Each summer, Eagle conducts cruises with cadets from her homeport at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London (Connecticut) and candidates from the Officer Candidate School for periods ranging from a week to two months. These cruises fulfill multiple roles; the primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates, but the ship also performs a public relations role. Often, Eagle makes calls at foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador.   read more…

The tall ship HMS Bounty

21 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Tall ships Reading Time:  7 minutes

Belfast Lough - Tall Ships 2009 © geograph.org.uk - Aubrey Dale

Belfast Lough – Tall Ships 2009 © geograph.org.uk – Aubrey Dale

Bounty (popularly HMS Bounty) was an enlarged reconstruction of the original 1787 Royal Navy sailing ship HMS Bounty, built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1960. Her homeport was Greenport, Suffolk County on Long Island.   read more…

The Argentinian sail training ship A.R.A. Libertad

1 December 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  6 minutes

ARA Libertad at Tybee Island, USA © U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Jonas N. Jordan

ARA Libertad at Tybee Island, USA © U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Jonas N. Jordan

ARA Libertad (Q-2) is a tall ship which serves as a school ship in the Argentine Navy. She was built in the 1950s at the Río Santiago Shipyard near La Plata, Argentina. Her maiden voyage was in 1962, and she continues to be a school ship with yearly instruction voyages for the graduating naval cadets. Her home port is Buenos Aires.   read more…

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