Galveston 250

10/08/2026

ELISSA Daysails are just a couple of weeks away!

We expected seats to fill fast, and y’all haven’t let us down.

DATES: October 21, 22, 23, & 24

THE EXPERIENCE

A 6-hour sail aboard the 1877 Iron Barque ELISSA, which will include:
⚓️ A course of instruction on how to sail a square-rigged ship
🍎 Lunch
🥤 Water and soda

The good news for those of you who are hoping to join the fun but haven’t saved your spot: A group of tickets just shook loose for Friday, October 23. Our advice? Snag ‘em!

10/05/2026

It’s another busy start to another busy week, but we’re taking a beat to savor these gorgeous moments Cadet 3/C Sherkhan Kossay, a student at Texas A&M Maritime Academy, sent to Galveston Historical Foundation.

Cadet 3/C Kossay captured these shots of the ELISSA in New York Harbor from aboard the TS State of Maine during Galveston’s 250 voyage. The profile of our 1877 square-rigged iron barque cast against an iconic 2026 cityscape has us marveling over the passage of time, and appreciating the wonder a 149 year-old ship continues to inspire.

We’re so grateful to Cadet 3/C Kossay for taking the time to snap these shots and then for surprising us by sending them our way. It’s a beautiful reminder that we all have friends, everywhere.

09/25/2026

Galveston! Here’s what’s happening this weekend:

🌞 Fri., Sept. 25
Austin Gaston Live: Summer at the Seaport
📍 Galveston Historic Seaport
6-8 p.m.
Free

Toast the sunset with live, local music from soulful singer-songwriter Austin Gaston (), b**r and w**e, good company, and the best view on the harbor!

🌞 Sat., Sept. 26
Basement to Attic Tours of the 1892 Bishop’s Palace
📍 1892 Bishop’s Palace
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
$40

The Bishop’s Palace Basement to Attic Tours are the best opportunity the public has to view all floors of the historic property. Offering participants a rare look into parts of the National Historic Landmark that are typically off-limits, the 1892 Bishop’s Palace Basement to Attic Tours feature Mrs. Gresham’s studio, and an exclusive third-floor view to a truly one-of-a-kind panoramic of the Gulf of Mexico.

Tickets are limited to 20 total guests.

🌞 Sat., Sept. 26
Open House: The 1945 Marshall Family Fish Camp
📍 516 91st St., Galveston, TX 77554
12-3 p.m.

The 1945 Marshall Family Fish Camp is ready for its close-up, and for its new owner! Join us for an in-person look at the newly relocated and restored Fish Camp, which boasts stunning views, one-of-a-kind character, and some of the most gorgeous knotty pine walls we’ve ever seen.

🌞 Sat., Sept. 26
ELISSA Sail Training Orientation
📍 Galveston Historic Seaport
1 - 5 p.m.
Check-in begins at noon; orientation begins at 1 p.m.

ELISSA’s sail training is an adventure activity for people of all ages and abilities. Young and older folks alike can find camaraderie and a rewarding experience either in ELISSA’s rigging or on her decks.

09/25/2026

Time to stop putting off your sail training: The ELISSA Daysail opportunities you’ve been waiting for are here!

DATES: October 21, 22, 23, & 24

THE EXPERIENCE
A 6-hour sail aboard the 1877 Iron Barque ELISSA, which will include:
⚓️ A course of instruction on how to sail a square-rigged ship
🍎 Lunch
🥤 Water and soda

A note about October 22: ELISSA will serve as the lead ship and kick off the 2026 Harvest Moon Regatta on Thursday, October 22. ELISSA will not compete in the event, but will be there to start the race from Galveston. Pretty exciting stuff, if we do say so ourselves. 😅

09/24/2026

Happy World Maritime Day!

Every day is a day to appreciate maritime life and work at Galveston’s Historic Seaport. Today is no different!

We’ll be on the harbor this evening, plain-air painting as the sun sets. For just $15, you’ll receive a small canvas, easel, paints, and instruction from local artist Nick Barbee (). All skill levels are welcome!

Plein Air on the Pier
Time: 7-9 p.m.
📍 Galveston Historic Seaport

Then, we’ll keep the maritime activities rolling this weekend with ELISSA sail training on Saturday, from 1-5 p.m. (check-in begins at noon) at Galveston Historic Seaport.

ELISSA Sail Training
Time: 7-9 p.m.
📍 Galveston Historic Seaport

Here’s to making all maritime work safer by protecting our environment and our people.

09/16/2026

Did following Galveston 250’s voyage leave you dreaming of sailing on ELISSA yourself?

Join us for our next Sail Training Orientation!

Saturday, Sept. 26
📍 Galveston Historic Seaport
1 - 5 p.m.
Check-in begins at noon; orientation begins at 1 p.m.

ELISSA’s sail training is an adventure activity for people of all ages and abilities. Young and older folks alike can find camaraderie and a rewarding experience either in ELISSA’s rigging or on her decks.

08/21/2026

Houston Matters is an essential daily guide to the people, places, ...

08/17/2026

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ELISSA Captain's Log: 12 pm, Friday, August 14 - Saturday, August 15, 2026
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OUR LAST DAY AT SEA

"Good-bye, brothers [and sisters]! You were a good crowd. As good a crowd as ever fi**ed with wild cries the beating canvas of a heavy foresail; or tossing aloft, invisible in the night, gave back yell for yell to a westerly gale." - Joseph Conrad

The last day of a voyage always has a bittersweet side. It is a time of anticipation, yes. Of reunions, of celebration, of the joy of completion. But it also brings a certain sadness. An awareness that a familiar routine is ending, that the unique coming together of individuals to form a crew is about to dissolve, that the shared joys and hardships that go into making a voyage are soon to end.

And then there is the ship herself. The relationship formed with an object that is more than a manifestation of wood, steel, or even fiberglass. The ship—home, transport, caregiver—one with whom a bond of understanding is established. What to ask of her. How will she respond? What she will or won’t do. All of this is about to end. So yes, bittersweet. Knowing that all voyages have a beginning and an end makes the ending no less sad.

The last 24 hours of this voyage have been under sail alone, as have been the previous 24+. Fifty straight hours of sail, in fact, to finish the voyage. How fine!

Most of the voyage back from New England has been powered by diesel rather than wind. Adverse sailing conditions and schedules required it. These last few days, however, have brought picture-book sailing.

To properly time our Galveston return, the last night out was spent hove to under tops’ls—fore backed, main braced full, spanker sheeted tight—25 miles from shore. Elissa was essentially parked, drifting at about a knot, 40 degrees or so on the downwind side of ship’s head. After supper, all hands gathered for a Joseph Conrad reading and to share personal highlights of the voyage. A time of group and personal reflection. A quiet ship, masts silhouetted against a star-filled sky.

During the mid watch, we brace around, getting underway to cross a shipping fairway, then heave to again on the other side. The watch passes quickly.

0500 and we brace the fore around again, this time to sail the final passage into Galveston. As we proceed, more and more sail is stretched. By the time we alter course to parallel the shore a mile out, everything but the gaff tops’l and main course are set.

Welcoming boats begin to arrive. By the time we round the jetty leading into the Galveston-Houston Ship Channel, dozens have joined the flotilla with more arriving as we proceed up channel.

Boat traffic increases. Ships loom large, anchored and underway. The land closes in. Buildings look down. Elissa enters the haze, her yards now bare but for crew aloft furling.

A pier head crowd shouts welcomes. Tossed heaving lines fly, hitting the pier like striking, venomous snakes. Docking lines come taut. Elissa glides softly alongside and is moored fore and aft. This voyage is done. But Elissa is already thinking of her next.

A few fun facts:
* Total Distance Traveled: 5216nm (6002 Statute Miles)
* Length of Voyage: 69 Days (8 June-15 August)
* Total Visitors Welcomed on Deck: 26,376
* Seen in Person and Through Media: Millions
* Ports Visited: 4 (Plus Anchorages in Chesapeake Bay, Key West and the Dry Tortugas)
* Number of Crew Who Sailed the Entire Voyage: 17

Over the years I’d heard much of volunteer crew training aboard Elissa, and how it set something of a gold standard. I can testify that indeed the training works. Whether having sailed aboard for days or for years, each knew their lines and what to do when ordered. Command structure from the quarterdeck through mast captains to the deck was clear. To an outsider, Elissa’s rig seems overwhelmingly complex. How to make sense of all those ropes?

There is, of course, sense and logic behind Elissa’s rigging and the procedures of use. This and much more constitutes crew training. Aboard ELISSA, her volunteer crew does indeed “learn the ropes.” The arts, skills, and ways of the sailor are also learned to be passed along. ELISSA, more than a historic preservation. A living, seagoing library sailing from 1877 and on into the future.

And now it’s time to say goodbye
Leave her, Johnny, leave her
For the old pier head’s a-drawing nigh
And it’s time for us to leave her
Leave her, Johnny, leave her
Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her
For the voyage is done and the winds don’t blow
And it’s time for us to leave her
- Traditional Sea Chantey

Cheers,
Captain JB Smith

Photo 1 by Todd Aloft. Photos 2-5, 7-8, and 10 by JB Smith. Photo 6 by Shannon Guillot-Wright. Photo 9 by Denise Alexander.

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POSITIONING
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ELISSA at 12 noon (EDT)
Total Distance Traveled: 5164.5nm
Position: 029° 20.4’ N 094° 46.5’ W
Course: Various
Speed-Over-Ground: Ahead Slow
Weather: Clear, wind S at 5-10kts

08/16/2026

08/15/2026

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ELISSA Interim Executive Director's Log: 8 am, Saturday, August 15, 2026
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A NEW ERA

It would be easy to view ELISSA's return as the conclusion of an extraordinary journey. In reality, it is something much more important: the beginning of a new chapter.

For more than four decades, Galveston Historical Foundation has cared for, operated, and programmed the Official Tall Ship of Texas, preserving not simply a historic vessel, but a living connection to Galveston’s maritime history. ELISSA first visited Galveston in 1883 and today remains one of the few ships of her age anywhere in the world still actively sailing.

Over 66 days, Galveston Historic Seaport : Home of the 1877 Tall Ship Elissa traveled more than 5,000 miles and welcomed more than 25,000 guests aboard. Along the way, she made provisioning stops, festival appearances, and port visits while proudly representing GHF, Galveston Island, and the State of Texas before millions of people across the country. A remarkable undertaking for any vessel, but especially for a National Historic Landmark.

A full economic and media impact analysis is still to come, but initial estimates place the media exposure generated at more than $50 million in public relations value, establishing ELISSA as a prominent national presence during the America 250 and Sail 250 commemorations.

Numbers, however, tell only part of the story. Over the past several months, citizens from across the country have reached out with personal stories. Some were discovering the ship for the first time. Others shared memories of past visits, sailing aboard her, volunteering on her decks, or lending their time and talents to continued preservation and operation. Each story is part of this history-making moment.

The success of this voyage was built through careful stewardship, sustained investment, pivotal organizational support, dedicated volunteer crew, and a commitment to keeping ELISSA where she belongs: not simply preserved at the dock, but sailing.

This voyage would not have been possible without the skill and dedication of ELISSA’s crew contributing countless hours to prepare, sustain, and represent the ship on her Galveston 250 voyage. Behind the scenes, GHF staff coordinated logistics, planning, and operational support necessary to make an undertaking of this scale possible, with the support of members, donors, volunteers, and strategic partners.

In 2027, ELISSA will celebrate her 150th birthday. Beginning later this month, visitors can once again experience the ship through daily tours at the Galveston Historic Seaport. Special daysail series are planned for October and again next spring, leading into ELISSA’s sesquicentennial celebrations, creating more opportunities to experience this living piece of maritime history where she is most at home: on the water.

Discussions are underway for a 2028 Tall Ships Galveston event again bringing sailing vessels to the island. Future appearances at ports and maritime festivals can further expand ELISSA’s role as an ambassador for Galveston’s maritime heritage, our community and our state.

For nearly 150 years, ELISSA has survived because generations believed she was worth saving, maintaining, and sailing. Her latest voyage proved that the investment made in this remarkable ship continues to return something of lasting value: connections between generations, communities, and a maritime history that remains very much alive.

ELISSA is not just looking back at one of her greatest accomplishments. She is setting her course for the next one.

Regards,
Will Wright

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POSITIONING
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ELISSA at 12 noon (EDT)
Total Distance Traveled: All
Position: Galveston
Course: Home
Speed-Over-Ground: n/a
Weather: n/a