Lady Washington[/caption]

Tall Ship Lady Washington Visits Bellingham

The tall ships Lady Washington will be coming to town this week. She will be at Squalicum Harbor on July 12. The ship offers educational programs and sailing tours of Bellingham Bay and the Salish Sea.

She usually travels with the Hawaiian Chieftan, who won’t be along for this visit. The two traveling ships are traveling museums, they are historical replicas, floating classrooms that teach about the mariners who in the late 1700s and early 1800s, explored and traded along the Northwest coast.

The Lady will arrive in Bellingham on Friday, July 12, and will stay for two weeks. Sailing tours and daytime dockside tours are available while they are here. (Check schedule for tours and sails.)

The ships recreate the high seas adventure including the roar of cannons being fired in naval battles as part of their cruises.

The Lady Washington, our state official ship, is a full-scale reproduction of the 112-foot square-rigged ship built in the 1750s. The original ship was said to have been the first U.S. ship to land on the West Coast of North America. The Lady Washington sailed the Pacific and went to Hawaii, Hong Kong, and Japan.

The likeness we see today was christened in 1989. The ship has been in several movies, including the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series and “Star Trek: Generations.”

Sailing tours of two to three hours including “adventure sails” and “battle sails,” are available.

There are also free dockside tours, with the crew dressed in period costume. There is a requested donation of $5 per person.

For a schedule visit historicalseaport.org.

photo courtesy of flickr.com by Marshall Astor