How To See The Tall Ship, Kalmar Nyckel, In Bristol

BRISTOL, PA — Local residents will get a chance next week to set sail, or simply walk the deck, on a historical-style tall ship in Bristol.

The Kalmar Nyckel, a ship designed after a Swedish vessel of the same name from the area's 1600's history, will be weighing anchor in Bristol from Sept. 12-15. It will be at Bristol Wharf, at 100-148 Basin Park.

Visitors can make reservations now to take a two-hour sail aboard the ship or a tour while it's docked.

Sails will be daily at noon and 4 p.m., with 3 p.m. deck tours.

Owned by the nonprofit Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, the vessel serves as a floating classroom, offering visitors a variety of sea and land-based learning and recreational experiences.

The original Kalmar Nyckel served as Gov. Peter Minuit’s flagship for the 1638 expedition that founded the colony of New Sweden, establishing the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley in what is now Wilmington, Del.

The gun-armed merchant vessel would make a total of four roundtrip crossings of the Atlantic Ocean — more than any other ship documented in the Colonial era.

The replica was built at the foundation's shipyard in Wilmington and launched into the Christina River in 1997.

The new Kalmar Nyckel sails daily from April to November, voyaging over 3,000 nautical miles each year.