Bitcoin is funding an 1800s ship replica in San Diego
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The Pilgrim III's hull under construction. Photo: Claire Trageser/Axios
An anonymous donor has found an unusual use for bitcoin: funding the construction of an 1800s ship replica in Mission Bay.
Why it matters: The two-masted brig Pilgrim III will be a floating classroom that recreates life on a historic ship.
- It'll join other tall ships like the Star of India and San Salvador.
Zoom in: The Pilgrim has been replicated before. The Pilgrim II sat in Dana Point, also as a floating classroom, for 40 years until it sank in March 2020.
- No one seems to know why it sank. It was COVID times and people had other things to worry about.
Flashback: The original Pilgrim was built in 1825 in Medford, Massachusetts, and was featured in Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s famous memoir "Two Years Before the Mast."
- It was lost in a fire in 1856.
Fast forward: The anonymous bitcoin benefactor apparently loves the look of that ship and wants to bring it to San Diego, so they're funding its construction, project spokesperson Brian Thomas told Axios.
- Thomas said no one working on the project knows who the donor is other than the ship's designer, Doug Sharp, who also designed the San Salvador replica at Spanish Landing.
- Sharp declined to comment about the donor's identity.
Follow the money: It will cost 120 to 150 bitcoin to build the Pilgrim III, Thomas said (that's about $10 million, depending on the day, of course).
- There are 16 paid employees working on the project, plus a crew of volunteers.
- The ship will be built with purpleheart wood sourced from Africa, along with southern live oak, sapele, black locust and Douglas fir.
By the numbers: The ship will be 149 feet long (including the bowsprit, a long pole that sticks out from its bow, and the main boom which overhangs the back) and 25 feet wide.
- Its tallest mast will reach 104 feet above the water.
- And it'll have 8,692 square feet of sails.
What's next: It's not yet clear where the Pilgrim III will be docked when it's done, Thomas said.
- It will have a "sailing school vessel" designation from the Coast Guard, which means it's not meant to sail across the ocean.
- "Although it could," Thomas said.
Check out a video of the Pilgrim III construction on our Instagram.
