Cape Region’s connection to Philadelphia Maritime Exchange

In 1875, a group of prominent maritime and business leaders, recognizing the strategic importance of the Port of Philadelphia among North American ports, established the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange. Their goal was to elevate Philadelphia to the status of a leading port by enhancing its direct trade with foreign countries, and ensuring faster turnaround times and more efficient ship handling at Delaware River ports. To achieve this, the exchange set up a network of reporting stations to track incoming ships and monitor those headed for the Port of Philadelphia. These stations relayed critical information, such as the ship's name, location and estimated time of arrival. Key stations were located at the Delaware Breakwater near Lewes, as well as at Cape Henlopen, New Castle and Reedy Island in Delaware, and Atlantic City in New Jersey.

The exchange continues to operate today. While the breakwater station is no longer in existence and the original Cape Henlopen station is gone, the exchange works in cooperation with the Pilots Association for the Bay and River Delaware at the station built atop a former World War II fire control tower at the Point in Cape Henlopen State Park. Vessels operating in Delaware Bay are requested to pass information related to position, ETA, docking instructions, arriving/departing piers or anchorages in the upper bay and river to the Ports of Philadelphia Maritime Exchange.

Darryl Daisey of Lewes shared this photograph of unidentified men posing in a horse-drawn carriage in front of the station at Cape Henlopen. In other photographs in the collection of the J. Welles Henderson Archives & Library at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse can be seen with the station. There are also photographs of the station on the Delaware Breakwater.