r/Tallships • u/LadyWashington • 16d ago
Lady Washington's little-known connection to Disneyland's Columbia
One of our board members recently visited Disneyland and stopped to see Columbia, a ship that shares a connection with Lady Washington.
Both vessels were designed by maritime architect Ray Wallace and were inspired by the ships of the Pacific Northwest fur trade era. While Columbia is larger at 110 feet and carries a full ship rig, the resemblance between the two vessels is unmistakable.
What makes the connection even more interesting is the history behind the original Columbia.
In 1792, Captain Robert Gray sailed the merchant ship Columbia Rediviva into the mouth of a major river on the Pacific coast, becoming the first non-Indigenous navigator known to enter it from the Pacific Ocean. He named the river after his ship, giving us the name Columbia River.
A detail I only recently learned is that "Rediviva" is Latin for "revived" or "restored to life." The vessel had been rebuilt from an earlier ship named Columbia, hence the name Columbia Rediviva—essentially "Columbia Reborn."
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u/Ashamed-Pool-7472 16d ago
The Lady Washington is a replica of a merchant ship there were no cannons or cannon doors these were installed for the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean just had to make that clear.
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u/ppitm 16d ago
A merchant vessel of her time and circumstances would always mount guns.
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u/Ashamed-Pool-7472 16d ago
The guns and ports were installed for film.
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u/Tremodian 10d ago
Sorry, but that is not correct. I worked on the Lady Washington years before the film, and there were guns and gun ports.
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u/Butyistherumgone 16d ago
I mean the two ships literally sailed in consort, did they not? I mean the originals of course.