Four-masted steel-hulled barque launched in 1904 — the world's oldest and largest square-rigged sailing vessel still afloat — now permanently berthed at Penn's Landing and operated as a restaurant with a long-running 'Lantern Ghost' legend.
401 S. Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Operating fine-dining restaurant with weekend brunch; pricing varies by menu. Reservations recommended via OpenTable.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ship boarding via gangway; main deck dining is generally accessible. Below-deck spaces have narrow stairs.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1904 · World's oldest and largest square-rigged sailing vessel still afloat · Originally launched as the German barque Kurt (1904) · Renamed by First Lady Edith Wilson in 1917 · Winner of the final 1939 grain race · National Register of Historic Places · Filming location for the 1976 film Rocky
The Moshulu was built in 1904 by William Hamilton & Co. of Port Glasgow, Scotland for G.J.H. Siemers Co. of Hamburg, Germany, originally launched as the four-masted steel barque Kurt. She is 393 feet long and was, at the time of her launch, one of the largest sailing cargo vessels ever built — designed to carry bulk commodities like Chilean nitrate and Australian grain on long-haul global routes during the final commercial era of large sailing ships.
During World War I the United States seized German-owned ships in American ports, and the Kurt was among them. First Lady Edith Wilson, wife of President Woodrow Wilson, gave the ship a new name in 1917: Moshulu, a Seneca word for 'one who fears not.' She remained in commercial sailing service longer than most of her contemporaries, including a famous 1939 Australia-to-Europe grain race in which she was the fastest of 13 entries — the last commercial grain race ever held under sail.
During World War II the ship was seized by Nazi Germany and used as a stationary cargo hulk in Norway, then was returned to commercial use after the war as a floating barge. She fell out of commercial service entirely in the 1960s and was nearly lost to scrapping.
In 1974 the Moshulu was towed to Penn's Landing in Philadelphia to be converted into a restaurant. The restaurant opened in 1975. A four-alarm fire in 1989 caused significant damage to the upper works and closed the restaurant for several years. The ship was then taken to a shipyard for substantial restoration and reopened at Penn's Landing in 1996. She has operated continuously as a fine-dining restaurant since.
The Moshulu was used as a filming location for the 1976 film Rocky and has appeared in other movies and television productions. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sources
The Moshulu's signature paranormal narrative is the 'Lantern Ghost,' a story so frequently cited by serving staff that it appears in nearly every Philadelphia haunted-restaurant compilation. According to Visit Philadelphia and Northwest Philadelphia Local Paper reporting, the candle lanterns used throughout the ship's dining areas are extinguished at closing each night, and staff report finding multiple lanterns relit upon arrival the following morning. The phenomenon has been reported by 'most of the restaurant's serving staff' according to Visit Philadelphia's haunted-attractions feature, making it one of the more broadly-witnessed claims among Philadelphia's haunted-restaurant lore.
Local accounts attribute the Lantern Ghost to a woman, often described as the wife of a sea captain or as a woman who waited dockside for a husband who never returned from sea, who is sometimes seen as a glimpsed figure near the lanterns themselves.
Additional reported phenomena, drawn from Visit Philadelphia, Ghost City Tours, and the Drexel University student-history page on the Moshulu, include unintelligible whispers from below decks, hysterical laughter from inside the hull when no one is present, and a generalized sense of activity in the lower dining levels. Local lore attributes much of this activity to two sources: the 28 men reported to have died at sea aboard the ship during her working sailing years (a figure cited in ghost-tour materials but not corroborated by primary ship's-log sources we could locate), and survivors and victims of the devastating 1989 fire at Penn's Landing that gutted the upper works and closed the restaurant for several years.
Psychic medium Joyce Keller visited Moshulu and described, per the NW Local Paper coverage, 'an incredible, palpable swell of energy' aboard, and stated that she intuited multiple deaths aboard the ship while also stating that she did not believe anything 'really bad' had happened there.
The Moshulu does not promote its haunted reputation as part of its dining experience and the restaurant brand emphasizes the ship's maritime heritage and contemporary dining program. The paranormal accounts are primarily preserved in ghost-tour literature and tourism-board roundups.
Notable Entities
Dine aboard the historic four-masted barque Moshulu at Penn's Landing. The contemporary American menu is served on the ship's main deck and below-deck dining rooms, with sweeping Delaware River and Philadelphia skyline views.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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