Sixteen square-rigged school ships joined the 1976 Operation Sail Grand Parade of Sailing Ships.
Operation Sail was a major maritime component of the United States Bicentennial. Tall ships from several countries sailed to New York Harbor, where they appeared in a grand parade and international naval review on Independence Day.
The 16 school ships were the relatively small number of large square-rigged vessels still in active service around the world at the time. They included famous national training ships such as Italy's Amerigo Vespucci, Portugal's Sagres, and Chile's Esmeralda.
The school-ship total should not be confused with the full Op Sail fleet. The program also listed 113 supporting vessels, making the overall maritime gathering much larger than the 16 principal square-rigged ships.