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Description
In 1885, R.W. Leyland and Company (Liverpool, England) bought one of the last iron-hulled sailing ships ever built, the three-masted cargo ship Wavertree, from Oswald, Mordaunt and Company's shipyard in Southampton. Wavertree spent a few years carrying jute, a vegetable fiber common in India, to the port of Dundee, Scotland. It soon became a tramp freighter, going anywhere its customers paid it to sail, and stopped twice in New York City. Wavertree lost its masts in 1910 when it ran into a storm off Cape Horn, and it was taken to Punta Arenas, Chile to serve as a floating warehouse before becoming a sand barge in Buenos Aires, Argentina. An American noticed Wavertree in 1967, and the old ship was formally acquired by the South Street Seaport Museum in 1968 and towed to America in 1969. After two restorations, it looks almost as good as new and is accessible through admission to the museum, though it still needs a bit more work (and funding) before it is ready to sail again. In the meantime, it stands as a reminder of the time this part of New York was the "Street of Ships." If Wavertree had been preserved by the British, it would have probably gone to another area rich in maritime history, the Albert Dock area of Liverpool.

Description
In 1885, R.W. Leyland and Company (Liverpool, England) bought one of the last iron-hulled sailing ships ever built, the three-masted cargo ship Wavertree, from Oswald, Mordaunt and Company's shipyard in Southampton. Wavertree spent a few years carrying jute, a vegetable fiber common in India, to the port of Dundee, Scotland. It soon became a tramp freighter, going anywhere its customers paid it to sail, and stopped twice in New York City. Wavertree lost its masts in 1910 when it ran into a storm off Cape Horn, and it was taken to Punta Arenas, Chile to serve as a floating warehouse before becoming a sand barge in Buenos Aires, Argentina. An American noticed Wavertree in 1967, and the old ship was formally acquired by the South Street Seaport Museum in 1968 and towed to America in 1969. After two restorations, it looks almost as good as new and is accessible through admission to the museum, though it still needs a bit more work (and funding) before it is ready to sail again. In the meantime, it stands as a reminder of the time this part of New York was the "Street of Ships." If Wavertree had been preserved by the British, it would have probably gone to another area rich in maritime history, the Albert Dock area of Liverpool.