Did the Myrtilla, a ship known to have transported slaves, bring the Liberty Bell to America?
As the Slave Quarters are a mere five feet from the door to the new Liberty Bell Center, some news articles reference the ship that brought the Liberty Bell to America. The Bell arrived on the Hibernia, captained by William Child. Isaac Norris, the man who oversaw the installation of the bell in the State House, wrote on Sept. 1, 1752, that the bell had recently arrived. The only ship from England that docked in Philadelphia during the month of August that year was the Hibernia, a ship of modest size, transporting dry goods and passengers regularly between England, the colonies and Ireland. No known records identify the Hibernia’s owner either before or at the time it transported the bell. According to newspaper accounts of port activity, the Myrtilla docked in Philadelphia at the end of September 1752.
