The Ship’s Log

A few dozen rafters, a couple hundred feet of PVC pipe, an ocean of very old canvas, and roughly one million lashing lines later, the winter cover is (mostly) up. There's still some fussing to do, but as of this afternoon, Niagara looks like her winter self. Once the...

After a flurry of voyages, school sails and public day sails, a week of downrig, and yesterday's crane day, we've finally arrived.  Winter maintenance is here. All the yards and five masts have come down, including the mainmast and snowmast. Safety equipment,...

Remember that weird wood-and-plastic fort that lived on the plaza for a few months last winter, sheltering the foremast? Well, it's back! With a few more frames, a new roll of heavy-duty plastic, and a lot of fasteners, the battered old foremast cover has evolved into...

It's been almost two months since our last blog post, and what months they've been. In late June, Niagara got underway for a rare trip down the Welland Canal into Lake Ontario, and for an even rarer adventure down the St. Lawrence to Quebec City. Along the way, the...

Our biggest shindig of the season went off without a hitch last Saturday. The weather cooperated, the ship and her guests looked fantastic, and fireworks rounded out the night. Plus, as per tradition, during the last hour of the event the crew got to dress up and join...

On Tuesday, Niagara got underway for her first voyage of the season. In her absence, everything here at the museum—the plaza, the workshop, spar alley, the break room—is quiet and sparsely populated. Since this voyage is the History Consortium, Niagara will be making...

Uprig is in full swing. The foremast and bowsprit are back on the ship, as are both topmasts, the sprityard and martingale, and the jibboom. The seasonal crew is all here, the paint floats are in the water, and every workday is a ten-hour day, at least. As always, we...

The forward section of the winter cover is off, the first of our seasonal crew arrived just in time for Sandwich Saturday (hi, Sara!) and the fighting top is back on the foremast. In other words: we're danger-close to uprig. The rest of the crew will be arriving over...