Wavertree

Wavertree was built at Southampton, England in 1885 for R.W. Leyland and Company of Liverpool. She first carried jute between eastern India, now Bangladesh, and Scotland, then entered the tramp trades before she was two years old, taking cargoes wherever they could be found around the world. After a quarter century of sailing, she reached the Falkland Islands in December 1910 after being almost totally dismasted in a gale off Cape Horn. Instead of being re-rigged, she was sold for use as a floating warehouse at Punta Arenas, Chile, then converted into a sand barge at Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1947. The South Street Seaport Museum acquired her there in 1968 for eventual restoration to her appearance as a sailing vessel. Built when she was already nearly obsolete, Wavertree was one of the last large sailing ships made of wrought iron, at a time when steam power and steel were replacing ocean-going sail and iron construction. She is today the largest afloat.

New York, New York · United States