Description
The Packard was named after Benjamin F. Packard, a successful shipwright and junior partner in the renowned shipbuilding firm Goss, Sawyer & Packard of Bath, Maine. Launched in 1883, she was a superbly crafted Down Easter — a class of large, square-rigged cargo ships designed for trade between Maine and Boston where the ships generally sailed downwind and easterly on the trip to Maine. They were often used to sail the dangerous route around Cape Horn, the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile. a long and difficult haul. Ships traveled from New York to Cape Horn to the West Coast and back again — a route made obsolete after the Panama Canal opened in 1914. Owned primarily by Arthur Sewall & Co. of Bath, the largest Cape Horn merchant firm of the time, the Packard served the Cape Horn trade for over twenty years. In 1908, she was sold to the Northwest Fisheries Company of Seattle to be used as a “salmon packer,” carrying workers and equipment to Alaskan canneries and returning with processed fish.
The use of the Packard declined in the 1920s. In 1926, the ship was docked on the Hudson River near the Upper West Side of Manhattan and fitted as a junior naval vessel as part of a larger fleet. Nonetheless, its final voyage was as a barge in 1927. It was sold as an antique in 1929, and in 1930 was purchased by Playland in Rye an amusement park that had opened in 1928 on the shore of Long Island Sound. Moored alongside the pier, she was decorated as a pirate ship and became a beloved attraction, often decorated with pirate flags.
In 1938, the New England Hurricane inflicted serious damage on the Packard. The following year, she was scuttled just offshore to prevent further deterioration. The interior cabin, rich with paneling and gold leaf, was salvaged and installed at Mystic Seaport Museum, where it remains on display. At Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary, adjacent to Rye Playland, the ship’s remains lie just offshore, slowly merging with the landscape — her timbers and hull emerging only briefly when the tide pulls out.
Transcription of Main Photograph, verso:
From May 11/26
Silhouetted against clouds over the the Hudson off 98th St. the Benjamin F. Packard an old sailing vessel which was built over 50 years ago in Bath Maine and is now being fitted as a training ship for the Junior Naval Reserve makes a pretty picture.
Transcription of Aloft Aft Photograph, verso:
From May 11/26:
From aloft looking aft on the Benjamin F. Packard an old sailing vessel now laying at 97th St and the Hudson
Transcription of Deck Aft Photograph, verso:
From May 11/26:
Looking aft on the “Benjamin F. Packard” which was build more than 50 years ago in Bath Me. It I now being fitted as a training ship for the Junior Navel Reserve and is laying up at 97th Street on the Hudson.
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light toning, wear, handling. Some minor scratches, apparently in the original negative, present as printed.
References:
“Benjamin F. Packard.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._Packard (6 June 2025).
“Benjamin F. Packard Cabin.” Mystic Seaport. https://mysticseaport.org/exhibit/benjamin-f-packard-cabin/. (10 June 2025).
“History.” Benjamin F Packard House. https://benjaminfpackardhouse.com/history/. (10 June 2025).
