SeacoastNH.com Presents

Historic Portsmouth #309

 

Parting with Tall Ships is Sweet Sorrow

 

Nothing goes together better than tall ships and Portsmouth. The hugely successeful visit of HMS Bounty and Privateer Lynx proves how much this historic shipbuilding city needs a tall ship of our own.  (Continued below)

 

Thousands toured the visiting vessels for $9 per ticket and the economic boost to local merchants and restaruateurs should prove enormous. Only the Gundalow Company has succeeded in building a replica boat while attempts to consturct frigates, sloops, clippers have failed in recent decades. Portsmouth did, temporarily, lay claim to “Old Ironsides” the Boston-built (1797) USS Constitution. She was refitted here a number of times and then “cabbed over” as seen in this very rare under-construction photograph (below) and used as a floating dormitory in the late 19th century. During more than a dozen years at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Ironsides was a major tourist attraction and appears in many Victorian-era guides to Portsmouth. Eventually Ironsides was reclaimed by Charlestown Navy Yard (as seen in the two postcards above) where she remains part of the Boston Freedom Trail. One Kittery sailor was reportedly so distressed at the loss of Ironsides in 1897 that he clung to the departing ship until his arm – like his heart -- was broken and he reluctantly let go.   (Courtesy Strawbery Banke Museum and SeacoastNH.com Collections)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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