Picture a three-masted barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877, now moored right here in Galveston as the museum ship Elissa. Launched in Aberdeen, Scotland on 27 October 1877, Elissa is one of the oldest ships sailing today and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990. The Texas Legislature later named Elissa the official tall ship of Texas in 2005.
Imagine the hands who named her: she was christened for the niece of Henry Fowler Watt, though his descendants say the name honors the Queen of Carthage, Elissa—more commonly called Dido in The Aeneid. Across her long life she sailed under Norwegian and Swedish flags, known in Norway as the Fjeld of Tønsberg under Captain Herman Andersen and in Sweden as Gustav of Gothenburg. Changes of technology and ownership reshaped her: in 1918 she became a two-masted brigantine and had an engine installed; in 1930 she was sold to Finland, owned by Gustaf Erikson to 1942 and reconverted into a schooner; in 1959 she was sold to Greece.
Stand here and feel the scale of a ship that has crossed eras. Three masts and their rigging still rise over the Galveston Historic Seaport, above a hull that once flew Norwegian and Swedish flags.