South Street Seaport Museum Announces Free Event For Families: CREW AND CARGO

South Street Seaport Museum announces Crew and Cargo, a unique family experience that will be held while schools are closed for Veterans Day on Friday, November 11, 2022, at 10am (ages 5-9) and 11am (ages 8-12).

Activities will take place on the main deck of the historic,1885 tall ship Wavertree, docked at Pier 16 (Fulton and South Streets). Registration is required for each participating child. All children must be accompanied by an adult; maximum 4 children per adult. For more information and to register, visit seaportmuseum.org/crew-and-cargo.

Bring your family and friends on board Wavertree to participate in hands-on activities that explore the fascinating world of trans-Atlantic sailors from the time of European explorers through today. These dynamic activities invite kids ages 5-12 to haul on ropes to raise the sail, and walk the capstan 'round, while learning how sailors slept, ate, worked, and played.

Wavertree is designated on the National Register of Historic Places and represents the thousands of ships that docked along New York's waterfront over the centuries. Gaze up at the towering masts and miles of rigging. Learn how people worked and lived aboard a 19th century cargo sailing vessel, from the captain to the ship's officers, cooks, and crew. Look out across New York Harbor and see the Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn Heights. Or, look landward and see the skyline of the Financial District, which flourished because of ships like Wavertree that brought in the goods that helped businesses thrive.

Wavertree is permanently moored at Pier 16 and does not sail the harbor. Access to Wavertree requires climbing a small set of ladder-type stairs and an angled gangway.

The 130-year-old Wavertree, built of riveted wrought iron, is an archetype of the sailing ships of the latter half of the 19th century that, during the "age of sail," lined South Street by the dozens, creating a forest of masts from the Battery to the Brooklyn Bridge. Built in Southampton, Great Britain, she circled the globe four times in her career, carrying a wide variety of cargoes. The ship called on New York in 1896, no doubt one of hundreds like her berthed in the city. In 1910, after thirty-five years of sailing, she was caught in a Cape Horn storm that tore down her masts and ended her career as a cargo ship. She was salvaged and used as a floating warehouse and then a sand barge in South America, where the waterfront workers referred to her as "el gran Valero," the great sailing ship. She was saved by the Seaport Museum in 1968 and towed to New York to become the iconic centerpiece of the "Street of Ships" at South Street two years later. From 2015-2016, Wavertree underwent a $13 million restoration, which was generously funded by New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs with support from the Mayor's Office, the City Council, and Manhattan Borough President and managed by the Department of Design and Construction.

The South Street Seaport Museum, located in the heart of the historic seaport district in New York City, preserves and interprets the history of New York as a great port city. Founded in 1967, the Museum houses an extensive collection of works of art and artifacts, a maritime reference library, exhibition galleries and education spaces, working 19th century print shops, and an active fleet of historic vessels that all work to tell the story of "Where New York Begins." seaportmuseum.org