The Star of India

Take a moment to admire the famous three-masted ship docked in front of you. This is the Star of India, one of San Diego’s true historic treasures and well worth the detour. With its dark hull, towering masts, and impressive rigging, the ship looks as though it has sailed straight out of a 19th-century maritime novel. Yet this is neither a replica nor a movie set. It is a real ship built in 1863. Today, the Star of India is considered the oldest active sailing ship in the world. Even more remarkably, it is also the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still afloat. At a time when most vessels were still being built of wood, using iron for a ship of this size was almost experimental. The fact that it has survived to the present day is extraordinary. The ship was not originally called the Star of India. Its first name was Euterpe, after the Greek muse of music and poetry. And like its neighbor, the USS Midway, it had a particularly turbulent beginning. During its very first voyage to Calcutta in 1864, the ship collided with an unlit Spanish brig off the coast of Wales. Then, just a few days later, a mutiny broke out on board. Part of the crew refused to continue the voyage, and seventeen sailors were eventually sentenced to prison with hard labor. Not exactly a peaceful maiden voyage. The second journey was hardly more reassuring. Caught in a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, the ship had to have its upper masts cut away to keep it from sinking. Soon afterward, its captain died at sea. For several years, the Euterpe endured one storm, accident, and near-disaster after another. Yet somehow, the ship survived every time. Beginning in 1871, it entered a much more stable chapter, carrying emigrants from Europe to New Zealand. For decades, it sailed across oceans with entire families hoping to begin new lives on the other side of the world. In all, the ship completed twenty-one voyages around the globe, an extraordinary achievement for a sailing vessel of its era. Life on board was extremely harsh. Passengers traveled below deck, crowded together for months and surviving on dry biscuits and salted meat. Even so, the death rate remained relatively low by the standards of the time. Some children were even born at sea on these long voyages. One of them was given “Euterpe” as a middle name in honor of the ship. Over the years, the vessel changed both its name and its configuration. In 1901, its rigging was altered, turning it into a barque and giving it the silhouette you see today. Eventually renamed the Star of India, it continued its commercial career before being preserved as a historic ship. Today, it is retired from regular service, but it is not just a museum ship. Unlike many historic vessels, the Star of India still occasionally sails under its own canvas. Seeing a ship built in 1863 return to sea is a rare achievement and a powerful reminder of the age when great sailing voyages across the ocean could take months.