Wavertree, the New Star on the Seaport's Street of Ships

The Wavertree, back in port after a 16-month restoration project. South Street Seaport Museum executive director Jonathan Boulware says he expects the ship to sail once again. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

The Wavertree, one of the last of the world’s iron-hulled sailing ships, is back—131 years old and nearly as shipshape as when it was new.

Now at Pier 16, the 270-foot-long, three-masted vessel becomes the South Street Seaport Museum’s star attraction along its “Street of Ships,” replacing the iconic Peking, which departed in early September [1] after a 42-year residency at the Seaport. Unlike the Peking, it will be the type of tall-masted ship that in its heyday lined the busy East River waterfront from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Battery.

“She represents the beginning of the city we know and love,” Jonathan Boulware, the museum’s executive director, told the crowd gathered to welcome the ship’s return on Sept. 24. “The first 24-hour district was right here.”

The Wavertree’s much-heralded homecoming follows a 16 month, $13-million restoration funded by the city. That work included the overhaul of just about every part of the boat along with a new deck built in the cargo hold for exhibition space.

To give just a partial picture of the massive project, the ship required 2,200 gallons of paint, nearly 250,000 pounds of new, reinforcing steel and seven miles of cordage. But the real story of the Wavertree’s restoration is not in numbers, Boulware said, but in “the skills that exist only in rarified pockets of our country [that] were brought together not just to restore a mighty sailing ship but also to create an environment in which skills were passed along, rigging skills, ironwork repair skills that can be used in the future.”

“Countless people have toiled in service of this great lady, the swan of the sea and sail,” he added, “and thanks to this project countless more will walk her decks, climb her rigging and tend her braces.”