Ever Been Inside the Hull of a Cargo Ship? Now's Your Chance!

New York is New York because it sits at the edge of one of the world’s best harbors. For the first three and half centuries of its life, this city was defined and sustained by its maritime operations. New York’s maritime roots are often overlooked and ignored, but they are embedded into the buildings, buried underground, and at the core of stories about infamous seafaring characters.

This weekend, take a journey back through lower Manhattan with Untapped Cities Chief Experience Officer Justin Rivers who created this tour for Untapped Cities to let our readers take in New York as one of the world’s greatest ports of call. Our tour of the remnants of NYC’s maritime past does just that and includes a special visit onto the Wavertree and a visit into its great hull. Your ticket also gets you entry into the South Street Seaport Museum. Scroll down further to see more photos of the ship!

Tour of NYC’s Maritime History

The Wavertree

The Wavertree was built in 1885 and has a historical connection to New York City. It arrived in New York City in 1895 en route to Calcultta with jute cargo aboard. The ship was acquired by the South Street Seaport Museum in 1968 and in 2016 went through a 16 month restoration, $13 million restoration at Caddell’s Dry Dock and Repair Co. on Staten Island.

“There isn’t a ship in the world that has a space like this,” South Street Seaport Executive Director Jonathan Boulware told us in 2016, before running to the other end of the cathedral-like space to show us just how large this space is. Here, you can see the wrought iron bones of the ship, the original water tank in roughly its proper position, the hatch where the cargo would go down, and part of where the anchor chain would be stored.