Bragging rights are kind of fun. Whether they mean anything or not is often an open question. How one strings together the adjective phrases can make all the difference. For example, HMS Victory is said to be “the oldest commissioned warship in the world,” while the USS Constitution is said to be “the world’s oldest floating commissioned naval vessel.” The important word here is “floating.” What good is a warship if she is not afloat? Which is not to say that it is likely that the USS Constitution will sail out again to fight pirates they way she did in 1803 regardless of whether or not she is floating and still in commission.
Enrico Gurioli, writing for the Times of Malta, manages to avoid these sorts of nit-picky details by describing the Italian training ship, Amerigo Vespucci, simply as “the world’s most beautiful ship.” As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, no one can really argue the case one way or another. While I may not agree wholly with Mr. Gurioli, the Amerigo Vespucci, is a handsome vessel. I might be willing to go along with “the most beautiful sailing vessel built in 1931 named for an early Italian explorer.” Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing the article along.
While the Amerigo Vespucci is a beautiful vessel, I think Stad Amsterdam is the prettiest Class A Sailing ship. Class B goes to Our own Pride of Baltimore II, with Lynx a close second.
I am not sure that I would want to pick my choices for “the most beautiful.” Nevertheless, you have picked three beauties.
Yes, it’s a really subjective question. They’re all beautiful to me !
Most beautiful? Not in my book.. No sheer, no elegant lines, looks a bit like a tub.. I vote for the old Flying P liners like the Kruzenstern (ex Padua), but then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder..
Ship Vespucci is said to be the “the world’s most beautiful ship” since the 1960’s when Vespucci met USS Forrestal (CV-59) in the Atlantic Ocean. Forrestal asked by signal lamp “who are you?” and after Vespucci’s aswer, Forrestal famous reply was infact “you are the world’s most beautiful ship”.
most beautiful tall ship is the portuguese navy training ship “sagres”