Maritime

Battery Park in New York City

Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City. The Battery is named for the artillery battery that was stationed there, first by the Dutch and then by the British, in order to protect colonial settlements to the north. Along the waterfront, ferries depart from the reconstructed Castle Clinton for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Castle Clinton was a circular sandstone fort built on a small artificial off-shore island prior to the War of 1812, although it never saw action in that or in any other [...]

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD

Located in historic St. Michaels, Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum was founded in 1965 on Navy Point, once a site of seafood packing houses, docks, and work boats The 18-acre interactive museum is home to a collection of Chesapeake Bay artifacts, exhibits and vessels. It houses the world’s largest collection of Chesapeake Bay boats, while 35 buildings provide interactive [...]

The Tall Ship Kalmar Nyckel in Wilmington, DE

The Kalmar Nyckel was an armed merchant ship noted for carrying Swedish settlers in 1638 to America. There, by the Delaware River in present day Wilmington, Delaware, they established the colony of New Sweden. In 1997 a re-creation of the Kalmar Nyckel was launched in Wilmington. Public sails are offered during the warm months, taking passengers on a short trip on the Christina River, passing the original 1638 Swedish settler’s landing site at Fort Christina and the Wilmington shipyard in which the new Kalmar Nyckel was [...]

The Windjammer Peking at South Street Seaport, NYC

With a steel hull as long as a football field, and masts as tall as an 18-story building, Peking is one of the largest sailing vessels ever built. The four-masted barque Peking represents the final stage in the development of merchant vessels powered only by wind. Launched in Hamburg, Germany in 1911, she carried manufactured goods to the South American Pacific Coast and returned via Cape Horn with nitrate. In 1932, she was retired and served in England for over 40 years as a boys’ school. In 1975, Peking was acquired by the South Street Seaport Museum in lower Manhattan. Visitors can go below deck to tour restored living quarters and view an exhibition of vintage photos of the ship taken during her active [...]

The Lightship Ambrose at South Street Seaport, NYC

The Ambrose lightship was built in 1908 to guide ships safely into the broad mouth of lower New York Bay through an area filled with sand bars and shoals invisible to approaching vessels. A lighthouse is normally used for this purpose, but the water here was too deep, and the bottom too soft, so this floating alternative was used. The Ambrose was given to the South Street Seaport Museum in lower Manhattan by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1968. There, visitors can board the Ambrose to view an exhibition of photographs, charts, and artifacts on navigation and the general role of [...]

Sandy Hook - Gateway to New York Harbor

Sandy Hook is a barrier spit, approximately 6 miles in length and half-a-mile wide along the Atlantic Coast of New Jersey. It encloses the southern entrance of Lower New York Bay. Most of Sandy Hook is managed by the National Park Service as the Sandy Hook Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which includes the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the oldest working lighthouse in the United States. Overlooking Sandy Hook Bay are the Navesink Twin Lights, a non-operational lighthouse and museum located in Highlands, New [...]

Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, NY

The Hudson River Maritime Museum is located on the old Rondout Creek waterfront in Kingston, New York. Its collections are devoted to the history of shipping, boating and industry on the Hudson River and its tributaries. Kingston grew prosperous early in the 19th century as the northern terminus of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and the city was the busiest port between New York City and [...]