Moshulu (formerly The Kurt)

Now the Moshulu Restaurant.

Since the launching of the Moshulu (pronounced Mo-shoe'-loo) in 1904, she has had a long and exciting career on the seas working the ports of Europe, South America, Australia, America and Africa. She was confiscated by the Americans in one war and by the Germans in the next. She has traveled around Cape Horn 54 times. She has hauled coal and coke, copper ore and nitrate,
lumber and grain. In lesser days, she has served as a floating warehouse. In grander days, she won the last great grain race in 1939. Today, the Moshulu is the largest four-masted sailing ship in the world still afloat.

The Moshulu was purchased in 1968 in Naantale, Finland for restoration and conversion into a restaurant. In the fall of 1974, she was towed to Philadelphia and opened as a restaurant on Philadelphia's Penn's Landing in 1975 until she was damaged by fire in 1989. In 1994 the Moshulu was purchased by HMS Ventures, Inc and restored in the style of a turn-of-the-century luxury liner. The Moshulu was re-christened by Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell on July 24, 1996. In 2002, Martin Grims, owner of Passarelle and many other restaurants, took over the operation of the Moshulu and plans to open the restaurant on May 1, 2003.