Friendship

Friendship at Salem Maritime National Historic Site (03/03)

Friendship, a reconstruction of a 171-foot three-masted Salem East Indiaman built in 1797, arrived on September 1, 1998 at the National Park Service's Salem Maritime National Historic Site in Salem, after two years of construction at Scarano Boat Building in Albany. She is the largest wooden, Coast Guard certified, sailing vessel to be built in New England in more than a century.

In mid-October 2000, Friendship was moved south to the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston and moored in front of the USS Constitution.

There her upper masts and yards were installed as The National Park Service Riggers and Carpenters worked in conjunction with the USS Constitution's M & R staff.

Construction on the original Friendship was begun in 1796 by shipbuilder, Enos Briggs, known for the Frigate Essex, at his shipyard across from today's Salem Maritime National Historic Site. The original three-masted, square-rigged, 342- ton vessel, Friendship, was registered in 1797 to merchants Jerathmiel Peirce and Aaron Waite.

FRIENDSHIP of Salem
Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum

She travelled the world trading for exotic spices, sugar and coffee, making 16 voyages to China, Java, Sumatra, Madras, London. Hamburg, Archangel, St.Petersburg, and other European ports. She was captured by the British in the War of 1812. The Peabody Essex Museum houses the ship logs for several of her voyages, as well as Aaron Waite's shipping papers detailing information about the ship's accounts.

The new Friendship is staying closer to home so that everyone can come aboard. On special occasions she'll sail as Essex County's flagship, visiting ports along our coast to join in maritime festivals and events.

The Friendship is managed as a partnership between the National Park Service and the Friends of Friendship, Inc., a not for profit corporation organized by the Salem Partnership. The ship will be open for tours at historic Derby Wharf as part of the programs of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site and will sail as an ambassador ship for the Essex National Heritage Area. The Friends of Friendship will coordinate its sailing program.

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