The full-rigged
ship Wavertree is one of two deepwater sailing vessels preserved at
South Street Seaport in lower
Manhattan,
New York City.
Wavertree was built in 1885 by Oswald, Mourdant, & Co. of Southampton, England. Her original name was Southgate, but was re-named by new owners in 1888. Wavertree is an iron-hulled three-masted ship of 2,170 tons. This makes her slightly on the large side for three-masted ships.
The Wavertree was dogged by bad luck throughout her seagoing career, catching fire in 1892, running aground on three separate occasions, and colliding with a steamer in 1908. The final piece of bad luck was a dismasting off of Cape Horn in 1910 that resulted in the ship being converted into a floating warehouse in Punta Arenas. She would later serve as a barge in Buenos Aires, and in 1968, was purchased by the South Street Seaport museum, and re-rigged.
Wavertree is currently being restored to her original appearance, and though she is reputed to be sea-worthy, is semi-permanently moored next to South Street's German four-masted barque Peking.