Star of India: A life well lived

Across the bay from Scuttlebutt World Headquarters is docked the 212-foot Star of India, the world’s oldest active sailing ship, located in San Diego, CA. Her rigging, outlined in lights amid the downtown skyline, provides a reminder each evening of a life well lived.

Built in 1863, she has circumnavigated the globe twenty-one times, coming to San Diego in 1927. However, it was not until 1951 when Maritime Museum of San Diego made long-awaited historical renovations to the vessel originally named Euterpe, after the Greek goddess of music and poetry.

As the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still afloat, she was launched as the fully rigged ship Euterpe at Ramsey Shipyard on the Isle of Man. Euterpe began her working life with two near-disastrous voyages to India.

On her first trip, she suffered a collision and a mutiny. On her second, a cyclone caught Euterpe in the Bay of Bengal, and with her topmasts cut away, she barely made port. Shortly afterward, her first captain died on board and was buried at sea. After such misfortunes, Euterpe would eventually make four more voyages to India as a cargo ship.

In 1871, she was purchased by the Shaw Savill line of London and for the next quarter century she transported hundreds of emigrants to New Zealand and Australia. During this period, she did twenty-one circumnavigations. It was rugged voyaging, with the little iron ship battling through terrific gales, “laboring and rolling in a most distressing manner,” according to her log.

With the opening of the Suez Canal, and sail giving way to steam power, Euterpe would eventually be sold to the Alaska Packers Association. In 1901, her new owners changed her rig to that of a bark (her present configuration). By the time of her retirement in 1923, she had made twenty-two voyages from San Francisco to Alaska, returning each year with her hold laden with canned salmon.

In 1926, Star of India was sold to the Zoological Society of San Diego as the projected centerpiece for an aquarium and museum. The Great Depression and World War II saw these proposals languish from lack of funding.

Eventually in the late 1950s and early 1960s, thanks to a groundswell of support from local San Diegans, Star of India was restored to sailing condition. In 1976, she set sail once again. Her preservation continues as a living reminder of the great Age of Sail, thanks to the tireless efforts of curators and volunteers at the Maritime Museum of San Diego.

Details: https://sdmaritime.org/