Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Ships on the Delaware

Only a few ships are left at Penn's landing by the piers on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, and most can't even sail or move anymore. . Penn's landing used to be settled by Swedes and Dutch and Indians, before it became a city. Here is the largest 4-masted sailing ship still in existence, Moshulu, that has been transformed into a fancy restaurant. It is from the late 1800s and rounded Cape Horn no less than 56 times, and was kept in Finland for many years until it was sold to the owner in Philadelphia. I liked the restaurant, and you could imagine the leaning and creaking as if it was sailing outside of Africa.




Next to Moshulu are two military ships, the WWI ship U. S. S. Olympia (white) and a WWII submarine called U.S.S. Becuna (after a fish). Both are museums now. PP and I had a discussion here of what would be most tolerable - being underwater in the submarine or on the surface of the water on a sailing ship in a storm. I voted for the sailing ship, I think the submarine would be too claustrophobic. I have seen too many submarine movies...

The "New Market" is very old, and no longer used as the market. Imagine this place bustling with fishmongers and sailors a hundred years ago. I like all the old brick buildings with their wooden doors and window shutters.






Three entrances to a house - door, window, and coal shoot (?) to the basement. This is also an old museum building in the Old City.

8 comments:

O.K. said...

I know I would choose the sub in a storm, maybe it is the caveman in me, hehe. My memory of USS Becuna is that it isn't that small inside, although that was without a (smelly) crew...

LS said...

You have been inside Bacuna? Tell us more.

O.K. said...

Well, it wasn't particularly roomy. It reminded me of "Das Boot", but clean.
"Mildew is good for you, it's the next best thing to fresh lettuce. Be thankful for what grows down here." (Das Boot)

Olympia on the other hand could have passed for a yacht, if it wasn't for the guns.

PP said...

Yes Das Boot, and ABOVE the water surface! However my favorite lathe was used on some of these WWII subs...so maybe I could be a machinists mate?

LS said...

Now I have this image of them licking the mildew of the walls to get some vegetables into their diet.

O.K. said...

The lathe was onboard the sub? Must be a very compact one then?

PP said...

Yes the lathe was onboard and very compact. Most all navy ships had onboard machine shops, some quite big(on bigger ships, of course) The lathe I'm referring to is a "Rivett"and it had a huge assortment of attachments allowing milling, shaping, etc...

LS said...

Do the words lathe and lather have anything to do with each other? Just wondering.