A. J. Meerwald

A. J. Meerwald

History
United States
Owner:	Bayshore Discovery Project
Ordered:	1928
Builder:	Charles H. Stowman & Sons shipyard
Acquired:	1989
Fate:	educational vessel
General characteristics
Type:	two-masted gaff schooner
Tonnage:	57 tons
Length:	85 ft (26 m) on deck
Beam:	22 ft (6.7 m)
Height:	70 ft (21 m)
Draft:	6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion:	sail; auxiliary engine
Sail plan:	mainsail, foresail, large jib sail area: 3,562 square feet (330.9 m2)
Capacity:	44 passengers
Notes:	oak hull
A. J. Meerwald
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
New Jersey Register of Historic Places
Location	22 Miller Avenue on Maurice River, Commercial Township, New Jersey
Coordinates
Area	less than 1-acre (4,000 m2)
Architect	Stowman, Charles H., & Sons
Architectural style	Delaware Bay oyster schooner
NRHP Reference #	95001256
NJRHP #
Added to NRHP	November 7, 1995

A.J. Meerwald is the state ship of New Jersey. She is a restored oyster dredging schooner, whose home port is in the Bivalve section of Commercial Township in Cumberland County, New Jersey. Launched in 1928, A.J. Meerwald was one of hundreds of schooners built along South Jersey's Delaware Bay shore before the decline of the shipbuilding industry which coincided with the Great Depression. Today, A.J. Meerwald is used by the Bayshore Discovery Project for onboard educational programs in the Delaware Bay near Bivalve, and at other ports in the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware region. A.J. Meerwald was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1995. It became the state ship in 1998.

See also

• List of schooners
• List of museums in New Jersey

External links

• Bayshore Center at Bivalve