The windjammer Peking has left the South Street Seaport for the last time.  Nevertheless, the grand old windjammer has left her mark, both on those who cared for the beautiful, if decrepit, Flying P liner, and also on the street signs of the Seaport District.

I was walking toward the Pier 17 to see the Peking for the last time, when I glanced up at a street sign. And there was the Peking, or at least an image of the iconic ship, on a street sign on John Street. I do not know how many times I have walked these streets without noticing and yet there it was. As soon as I saw the first sign, I started seeing the image of the Peking at every street corner, on Nassau, and Cliff, and Pearl, and Water Street.  All across the Seaport District, the image of the Peking still graces the street signs. Even though she is no long alongside the dock, she lingers awhile longer for those who take a moment to glance up at the street signs.

While she has left the seaport, the Peking has not yet left New York. She is now in a Staten Island shipyard being made ready to be carried across the Atlantic in the springtime on the deck of a heavy lift ship to a better life in Hamburg. We wish her a safe voyage. I also hope that the City of New York doesn’t change the street signs around South Street anytime soon.