Galveston 250

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

08/15/2026

Happy ELISSA day to all who celebrate!

08/15/2026

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ELISSA Port Captain's Log: 12 noon, Friday, August 14, 2026
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THERE AND BACK AGAIN

We are now in the last fifty miles of the 5,300 nautical miles traversed on this ten-week voyage. We’re ghosting along under fore n’ afts, fores’l, tops’ls and t’gallants, and as I type this, the mid-watch is planning to lay aloft to loose royals. Tonight, we’ll heave-to and enjoy one last “Pizza Party Friday” before making our approach early tomorrow.

In these last 48 hours, we’ve been dodging oil rigs and commercial traffic en route to the entrance buoy to the Houston Ship Channel. Almost feels like home.

With every grand adventure comes, with its close, a sense of melancholy, or even malaise, as it were, mixed with a healthy dose of reprieve, pride, and triumph. It is very hard to describe in words. We have done an amazing thing here, in every sense of the word.

One could write a book on the things we’ve seen and done, but here, in no particular order, are a handful of those things:

• Abundance of wildlife: whales, dolphins, turtles, sharks, mola mola, countless seabirds and other fishes.
• A rocket launch, a nuclear submarine, and fighter jet flyovers.
• Comets, meteor showers, dazzling constellations, and a Milky Way that cast its reflection on a black glassy ocean.
• A hurricane-force squall in New York Harbor and the “Green Flash” over the Gulf.
• Historic forts and historic cities, where our historic ship felt right at home.
• July 4th fireworks that one will *never* forget.
• Majestic sailing ships from around the world gathered together in one place.

We sailed off the dock and out of the notoriously narrow Fort Pierce Inlet. We sailed around Cape Hatteras under tops’ls and t’gallants. We sailed off of our anchor abreast of the U.S. Naval Academy. We sailed past the Statue of Liberty. We sailed into Boston Harbor with eighteen sails set. And now we are sailing back to our home.

Along this long rhumb line, our crew has sewn bonds of camaraderie, memory, and a vast sense of accomplishment. Though some temperaments are now growing a little strained, lifelong friendships were born. But now we prepare to pack our seabags and disembark the gangways for home.

As Galveston peers over the horizon, we stand our last watches together, reflecting on the miles past. ELISSA sails ever onward, carrying in her wake the dedication of her stewards, her crew, and the memories of yet another grand voyage under her keel.

Regards,
Ryan Bradfield

Photos courtesy of (Instagram).

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POSITIONING
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ELISSA at 12 noon (EDT)
Total Distance Traveled: 5257nm
Position: 28°39.07’ N, 094°24.95’W
Course: 250 °M
Speed-Over-Ground: 2.3 Knots
Weather: SE Wind @ 5-8kts, S Swell @ 1-2ft

08/14/2026

You asked for it, so we'll do it!

Limited to an edition of 250, the collected Ship's Logs will be ready for holiday 2026 delivery. Commemorate a remarkable chapter in the story of the historic Galveston Historic Seaport : Home of the 1877 Tall Ship Elissa with this official tribute to her Galveston 250 voyage. Featuring rare and memorable images from the voyage alongside the daily ship logs that captivated all of us.

Get your pre-order now at https://www.galvestonhistory.org/product/galveston-250-ships-logs.

08/14/2026

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ELISSA First Mate's Log: 12 noon, Thursday, August 13, 2026
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SAFETY FIRST

The wind became favorable this morning, so we secured the main engine and set sail. Both sets of main and fore topsails were drawing before dawn as the Perseids meteor shower continued above. The last three nights have been spectacular for the watch standers, and we set up a little competition between the night watches: Which watch would see the most shooting stars? With no light pollution far out to sea, we are counting into the hundreds on each four-hour watch.

Of course, it is not all sunsets and rainbows, or green flashes and shooting stars, as the case may be. Many of the challenges we face never make for the great pictures or news articles. But I am here to tell you now that there is no way to sail a square-rigged ship, built almost 150 years ago, 5,000 nautical miles from home, without facing an ocean of challenges.

These challenges show up in many ways. Before we even left Galveston, what seems like ages ago now, we faced some of our biggest challenges. How do we replace aging components in time? How do we find qualified officers? How do we make sure we can do all of this safely?

Those questions didn't disappear when we left the dock. They just changed.

Mechanical failures, parted lines, cracked blocks, bent steel, and the occasional "band-aid repair" have all become part of the voyage. Some problems are small. Some require a great deal more attention. Every one of them has to be dealt with.

It is after noon now, and as I stepped below to write this report, I looked up. The wind has lessened, and we sent our climbers aloft to loose the t'gallants and royals, the highest sets of square sails on two masts. I watch as each climber clips and unclips on the way up. They are constantly belayed to the ship.

I glance at our life rafts, with their current inspection cards, resting in their cradles. Everywhere I look, I see safety gear. Most of it is required by the U.S. Coast Guard, but in many cases we have gone the extra mile by purchasing better equipment, adding additional safety gear, or training far beyond the required amount.

But even with all of that gear, all of the life rings and EPIRBs, when I look around and think about what makes a voyage like this something that can be accomplished safely, I don't see the equipment.

I see the crew. I see a crew that puts safety first. They work together and communicate issues quickly up their chain of command. Their input is valued, and if they see something they think is unsafe, they point it out. The culture of safety is alive on board this ship, and it is protected.

So how did we overcome those early challenges? And what about the others—the mechanical failures, the parted lines, the cracked blocks, and the "band-aid repairs"?

First off, we overcame them as a team. We identified the issues, prioritized them, and worked together to make the safest choices we could. Sometimes that meant fixing something immediately. Sometimes it meant changing the plan. Sometimes it meant slowing down, stopping what we were doing, and taking another look.

That is the part of this voyage that doesn't always make it into the photographs. The photographs show the sails against the sunrise. They show ELISSA under a sky full of shooting stars. They show an old ship making her way across the ocean.

But behind every one of those photographs is a crew making decisions, solving problems, watching out for one another, and taking care of this beautiful old ship.

And maybe that is what makes the shooting stars look so much better... because we know what it takes to get out here where we can see them.

Regards,
Seth Leo

Star photo courtesy of Steve Fitzgerald. Other photos courtesy of .

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POSITIONING
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ELISSA at 12 noon (EDT)
Total Distance Traveled: 5164.5nm
Position: 28° 08.0’ N 092° 49.3’ W
Course: 290°M
Speed-Over-Ground: 3.4 Knots
Weather: Mostly clear skies, wind SSW at 10knts

08/13/2026

The flash sale of our ELISSA commemorative print ends today at noon CST. The response to this has been incredible and directly supports the 1877 ELISSA and its continued programming. Sized at 11x14, shipping is included in the price and will be mailed in approximately two weeks.

Get yours now at https://galveston250.com/news/support-our-voyage. Once the sales have closed, we won't offer this again!

08/13/2026

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ELISSA Foremast Deckhand's Log: 12 noon, Wednesday, August 12, 2026
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GRATITUDE

We’ve set sail for Galveston from Pensacola, sandals still full of crape myrtle blossoms and mind occupied with precious friendships and some of the best matcha I’ve ever had.

These last few days underway, we had the delight of witnessing multiple pods of several dolphin species - one of which stretched out for nearly a football field and was riddled with belly-flopping calves. The water has been so clear, and so many shades of blue. Moonless nights have provided the type of stargazing that keeps you transfixed for as much time as you can afford, with shooting stars that no one person could number. Also, we just exceeded 5000 total nautical miles as of this morning!

As we draw ever nearer to our home port in Galveston, these kinds of things especially feel like a gift.

I can’t believe this voyage is poised to be over in just 3 days. After over 6 months of fighting against all odds and over 2 at sea, it’s hard to reckon with the reality that it must come to an end. There is a special kind of closeness amongst people here that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before in my life. It’s of a nature that’s difficult to replicate.

There’s something beautifully raw about living on a ship together for over two months. We’ve worked through our hardships and shared moments of the laugh-out-loud kind of joy. We’ve done life together, seen each other at our best and our worst. We’ve been removed from a world of distractions for a time, until the world in which we function is stripped down to people, sea, and sky. There’s nothing quite like it, not to mention the ever-present passion we all share for our vessel, and the pride we feel to share her with other parts of the world. It’s a common thread that unites us as a crew.

Already, I’ve had moments spent with some of my shipmates, choking up a little at the thought of an imminent goodbye - whether for just a short time, or indefinitely. Even now, it’s hard not to feel the weight of it.

I love sailing. Especially on ELISSA. But things like this, just for a moment, perhaps make me question if I’m cut out for this field. Does one ever truly become accustomed to goodbye? Nevertheless, I cling to the notion that it makes the time we do spend together that much sweeter. I treasure it with all my heart.

Will I continue and perhaps even pursue a career in this industry? Undoubtedly. I’ve been far too inspired by far more experienced company on this voyage to say no to that question. A tall ship is one of those places at the intersection of all the studies of anyone curious, and one of the last fields in which apprenticeship and working with creative hands out in the elements is still alive and well. It’s really something special.

They say every voyage and every leg therein are akin to mini-lifetimes within lifetimes. This world is small, and I hope and pray that it grows smaller as I explore more of it, to the point where reunions become more inevitable than goodbyes, and crossing country and ocean to see your loved ones feels increasingly like crossing your own backyard.

I thank God for the time we’ve had here. It’s been the voyage of a lifetime, alive with moments that inspire courage, full hearts, tears of joy, curiosity, new skills, heartache, awe, confidence, new friendships, and a deepened love for old ones.

There’s much to be said about what the last several months have had in store. But I would say that if all these things could be encapsulated in a single word, it is gratitude.

Regards,
Ruth Scego

Photos courtesy of on Instagram.

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POSITIONING
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ELISSA at 12 noon (EDT)
Total Distance Traveled: 5030nm
Position: 27° 59.5’ N 090° 41.6’ W
Course: 270°M
Speed-Over-Ground: 5.5 Knots
Weather: Hot! Light South wind 3-8knts

08/12/2026

We've received numerous requests on the possible availability of a commemorative print. So, for the next 24 hours only, we're offering one in support of ELISSA's return!

Captured on Saturday, July 11 during Sail Boston's Parade of Sail, this photo from Charlie Nutting showcases the Official Tall Ship of Texas with sails up and Tall Ship pride in full display.

* Sales end at noon CST on Thursday, August 13
* Photo only - framing isn't included
* Photo will ship directly from the printer in two weeks

Head to https://galveston250.com/news/support-our-voyage to order yours today!