South Street Seaport 南街海港


The South Street Seaport @ Pier 17 has been my favored part of the city, a great place to hang out and I had my wedding banquet there too. Not to mention the merchant ship produced by the German shipbuilder Blohm+Voss Peking. Despite the fact two more Golfer’s cousins had their wedding banquets there but the restaurant eventually gone, perhaps due to the fact they couldn’t get a liquid license? They had a nice bar but couldn’t serve drink .. corruption? There were many nice little shops, restaurants, bars … Then came the 9/11. Once the heart of the party became deserted.

Now, The Sharper Image is gone. The Banana Republic is gone. The Victoria Secret is still there thou. Long ago, it had a butterfly gallery too. A simply framed samples was selling for US$400, in 1986. Now the place feels like a flea market. A lovely shop selling sea shell earrings was gone too.

More pix on FB

This merchant ship Peking has been there since. It’s built by the German firm Bloom + Voss

Rig: Four-masted barque
Material: Wood decks, rest steel
Length: 377 ft.
Breadth: 47 ft.
Gross Tonnage: 3100
Net Tonnage: 2883
Depth: 26 ft. 3 in.
Main Mast Height: 170 ft.
Sail Area: 44,132 sq. ft.
Max Speed: 16.5 knots (19 mph)

The four-masted barque Peking represents the final chapter in the evolution of merchant vessels powered only by wind. Launched in Hamburg, Germany in 1911, she was used to carry manufactured goods to South America and to return via Cape Horn with nitrate. In 1932, she was retired and moored in England’s Medway River where she served for over 40 years as a boys’ school under the name Arethusa. In 1975, Peking was acquired by the museum and towed to her current home at Pier 16. With a steel hull as long as a football field, and masts as tall as an 18-story building, Peking is one of the largest sailing vessels ever built and the largest preserved by a museum. Starting in the summer of 1996, visitors could see Peking’s wire rope rigging fully restored to its original condition

 

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