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Official Tall Ship Of Texas, The 1877 Elissa, Continues Voyage With Presence On International Space Station

Galveston Island, Texas, March 25, 2011 – For a ship that has spent over 100 years sailing on the Earth, the official Tall Ship of Texas, the ELISSA, has found itself in uncharted waters.

On December 15th, 2010 a Soyuz spacecraft carrying Flight Engineer Catherine “Cady” Coleman, docked with the International Space Station. Among the items Cady brought, was a piece of the deck from ELISSA.

Galveston Historical Foundation & ELISSA volunteers Devon & Teresa Decker, friends to Cady, made ELISSA's latest voyage possible. “Catherine is a friend of both Teresa and myself. Cady knows we are ELISSA crew members so she asked us to provide her with some mementos to take with her to leave on the ISS. After conferring with the Texas Seaport Museum, we settled on a small section of ELISSA’s deck that had been replaced, and a postcard with some ELISSA history on it.” says Devon.

ELISSA, operated and maintained by the Galveston Historical Foundation, is a three-masted, iron-hulled sailing ship built in 1877 in Aberdeen, Scotland by Alexander Hall & Company. She carries nineteen sails covering over one-quarter of an acre in surface area.

Jamie White, Director of the Texas Seaport Museum, goes on to say, “Today Elissa is much more than an artifact from a bygone era. She is a fully-functional vessel that, thanks to Galveston Historical Foundation and its commitment to bring history to life, and the dedication of hundreds of volunteers who keep her seaworthy and train each year to sail her, is alive and well.”

Although Cady is set to return to Earth in May, the piece of ELISSA's deck will remain on board as the International Space Station continues on with its newest crew.

For more information on ELISSA and the Texas Seaport Museum, please contact Director Jamie White at jamie.white@galvestonhistory.org. For more information on the Galveston Historical Foundation please contact Executive Director Dwayne Jones at dwayne.jones@galvestonhistory.org or visit www.galvestonhistory.org.