Tall ships in Portsmouth put maritime history on display 'at heart of the city'

PORTSMOUTH — The Sail Portsmouth festival opened Friday morning with visitors exploring the decks, holds and rigging of the tall ships Trinidad and Ernestina-Morrissey and learning from those who sail them now about those who sailed them long ago.

“It’s incredible to see how they lived and made their living despite the obstacles, the trials and tribulations. It makes you appreciate what we have now,” said Cheryl Goodwin of Woodsville, New Hampshire. She came to see the tall ships with her longtime friend Gail Farrell of Townsend, Massachusetts.

“We love seeing the ships and learning the history,” Farrell said. “It’s amazing.”

Inna Babina was glad to learn the tall ships were in town when she arrived from Montreal on Thursday. She brought her husband and 6-year-old daughter Margaret “to see the ships and their beauty.”

The Trinidad is a replica of the flagship of the Magellan-Elcano expedition, which led the first sailing expedition around the world between 1519 and 1522, considered by many the greatest maritime feat in history. It’s an example of a nao ship, vessels first used as cargo ships in Spain and then later for exploration.

Kineisha Garcia, the Trinidad's chief of the watch, is originally from Puerto Rico, worked on multiple tall ships in the past and has been sailing on the Trinidad since 2019.

“I have a passion for traveling,” she explained. “Once I stepped on this ship, I knew it was for me.”

The schooner Ernestina-Morrissey was built in 1894 at the James and Tarr Shipyard for the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing fleet. It first served as a Gloucester Grand Banks fishing vessel, then as an Arctic explorer, sailing to within 600 miles of the North Pole, and as a World War II survey and supply vessel. Between 1946 and 1965, she served as the last of Cabo Verde’s transatlantic packet ships, bringing immigrants to the United States.

Michelle Solis of Candia brought her daughters Leah and Andrea, her sister and a nephew, she said, because “I remember coming to see the tall ships as a kid, and I wanted my kids to have the same experience.”

Under the festival’s dockside tent, multiple community organizations and businesses manned booths and offered giveaways and treats for the kids. Anderson-Gram, self-described as “a husband and wife version of Simon and Garfunkel,” performed Friday afternoon, and along with others such as Taylor Whiteside, Chapel St. Band, Winifred Road and the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival will provide live music all weekend. The Old Salt has its food truck at the ready.

David Olsen, whose pirate name is Dastardly Dave, greeted festival goers as they entered the tent, joking as only a pirate can and creating swashbuckling swords out of balloons for the kids.

“I love people and I love the boats,” said Olsen, who has performed as a pirate for the festival for three years. In character, he continued in jest, “One of these days I’m going to steal one of these ships, but I haven’t gotten a chance yet. There’s too much security.”

Port Director Geno Marconi of the New Hampshire Port Authority said the Sail Portsmouth festival is important to the city.

“This puts a focus on the maritime history of Portsmouth, of the Seacoast, and reminds us why they came here to begin with,” Marconi said. “It’s important to have it at the fish pier, at the heart of the city, where the view of the ships can be seen from the waterfront, from the park. It’s important to call attention to our history and also for people to see our local fishing industry in action.”

He praised the job Sail Portsmouth organizers do each summer. “They are a great group of people,” he said.

Nancy Cassidy, a member of the Sail Portsmouth Board of Directors, said, “The first reason we do this is to support the Sea Challenge program and to interest teens in going out to sail for a week and exposing them to the maritime trades. … The Sea Challenge experience broadens their horizons and it’s something that they can take with them for the rest of their lives.”

Sail Portsmouth relies on volunteers to make the festival happen, according to volunteer coordinator Robin Comstock, who said about 175 people have volunteered to help this year.

Richard Leigh of Cape Neddick in York, Maine, is back this year. “I like volunteering. I’m a water person, a conservationist, and I love boats and the people that love boats,” he said.

Comstock said the festival’s volunteers are “incredible people” who sign up to work “not just because it’s a community event, but because it is reflective of their history, and the essence and core of the community they love. They see it as foundational for the future. They understand the importance of this industry, and they are here to sustain it and share it. The maritime industry is inseparable from who and what we are.”

What to know before you go

The Sail Portsmouth festival continues through Monday, July 31 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day with tall ship tours, booths, entertainment and food at the Portsmouth Commercial Fish Pier and sails from the UNH pier in New Castle aboard the Denis Sullivan, the Lynx and the Bowdoin. Tickets can be purchased online at sailportsmouth.org/events and at the gate if they are still available.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Sail Portsmouth NH: Tall ships put maritime history on display