Penn's Landing on the Delaware River

Well, what do we see when we walk across the I-95 bridge to the banks of the Delaware River?  First thing is a 3-masted barque, the Gazela, (a barque is anything with three or more masts) swarming with sailors (some women) changing out one of the masts!

3-masted Barque, the Gazela

Block-and-tackle everywhere, lines (Not ropes, ships don't use ropes; cowboys use ropes.) lines strung out to slowly lower the mast to the deck and swing it around to be lashed down.  While we were on Kauai we visited a place where there was a stand of pine trees called Cook's Pines.  Captain Cook "discovered" and named the islands the Sandwich Islands (for the Earl of Sandwich) and Cook very much favored these pine trees for use as masts for his ships.  Standing this close to the schooner and being up close and personal to the mast, it's now easy to see why he would.  Those pines were at least 100 feet tall and straight as an arrow.

We moseyed down the shore line past an amphitheatre the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra performs at (especially for 4th of July celebrations), past a replica of a paddle-wheeler, and on to a group of ships behind a man-made breakwater.

What's this?

A yacht, a 4-Masted Barque, Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, and a Submarine

The Moshulu ("Moshulu" means one who fears nothing) is a four-masted steel barque built by William Hamilton on the River Clyde in Scotland in 1904 for a German.  Originally launched as the KURT, she was appropriated by the U.S. Government, first renamed the Dreadnought and then the Moshulu by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. The Moshulu sailed under the American flag until 1935, was used as a floating warehouse for years before being discovered, refurbished, brought first to New York and then Penn's Landing as a floating AAA-rated Four-Diamond restaurant able to host up to 2,500 guests! 

Moshulu

The "Great White Fleet," sent around the world by President Theodore Roosevelt from December, 1907 thru February, 1909, consisted of sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. The battleships were painted white except for gilded scrollwork on their bows.  The fourteen-month long voyage was a grand pageant of American sea power. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors. They covered some 43,000 miles and made twenty port calls on six continents.

Olympia, last of The Great White Fleet

Launched in San Francisco in 1892, the Olympia is the sole surviving naval ship of the Spanish-American War.  She had no sister ship, making her a rare treasure in the ship world, and is the world's oldest floating steel warship. On May 1, 1898, Olympia devastated a Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines,
beginning the Spanish-American War, and she saw service in World War I. She was used to carry the body of the Unknown Soldier from France in 1921, is on the  National Register of Historic Places, is a National Historic Landmark, a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, and a part of the Save America's Treasures Program.

The USS Becuna, SS/AGSS-319, a Philadelphia built submarine launched in 1944 completed five tours in the Pacific during World War II.  After the war she spent her time in the Mediterranean before being decommissioned in 1969.  Her home now is right here at Penn's Landing!

W-a-a-a-y across the Delaware River we see more modern battleships...  I have to admit that I had completely forgotten Philadelphia was / is a major ship-building port!