Balclutha

Balclutha is a large square-rigged ship that is located in Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Visitors are able to stand on the stern of the ship and face west to feel the wind blowing in from the Pacific Ocean. She is a National Historic Landmark and is preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

The ship is also known as Star of Alaska, Pacific Queen or Sailing Ship Balclutha. It is a steel-hulled full rigged ship which was built and launched in 1886 by Charles Connell and Company Shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland. The ship is the only square rigged ship that left the San Francisco Bay under several different commercial ventures including lumber, salmon and grain. The ship carried goods around the tip of South America Cape Horn, 17 times.

The overall length of the ship is 301 feet, the length of the deck is 256.5 feet, could carry a gross tonnage of 1689 ton and the mainmast is 145 feet high. As the ship has a complex rigging system it took approximately 26 men to handle the ship and featured 25 sails.

Visitors are able to come to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park to learn the history of Balclutha and are able to walk the ship to view how ships worked in the late 1800s.