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When people think of Philadelphia, I don't think they think about it as one of the largest freshwater, inland ports of the world. But it is!

Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in the United State, the largest in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and is situated at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers.

It was founded in 1682, as a Quaker settlement – a religious society who seek to find the 'light within.' William Penn's Holy Experiment was to create a place where persecuted religious minorities could live peaceably together, and with the Native Americans.

Philadelphia is a major element in the official agglomeration of Delaware River ports. Together with ports across the river, in New Jersey, this is a very busy shipping center. The port grew from Philadelphia's earlier industrial focus, including food products, electrical machinery and manufacturing.

To reach Philadelphia, you have to sail into Delaware Bay and then 200 km north. (The Delaware River starts in New York state and flows south 650 km to the Atlantic Ocean. Trenton, the capital of New Jersey, is 210 miles upriver from mouth of the bay.)

The Delaware is not navigable above Trenton, so canals were created, on both sides, to move goods and raw materials north and south. Bethlehem Steel and U.S. Steel, for example, were at the north and south ends, respectively, of the Delaware Canal.

To facilitate traffic on the Delaware up to Philadelphia, a channel was dredged and is maintained from Delaware Bay. It is 10m deep and 180m wide, but you still have to navigate it carefully. I know, as I did it many years ago...but remember it as yesterday. It's a fantastic feeling to take a big ship up or down the Delaware.

But Philadelphia is more than ice hockey, basketball, baseball and football teams, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, cheesesteaks, and soft pretzels.

Independence Hall is where American independence from England was declared, and the Constitution of the United States of America was written and signed. And the Liberty Bell is displayed across the street from Independence Hall.

Philadelphia has a park that winds its way 22 km along the Schuylkill and its tributaries. It has a vibrant arts community, thousands of restaurants, the world-famous Philadelphia Museum of Art, the tallest City Hall in the U.S. (with William Penn standing atop it), wonderful neighborhoods, and great spirit.

Life has taken me to Philadelphia many times. My first studies abroad were there when I was 18 years old. Several years later, I boarded my first big ship there. We first started selling our green Ferryl drums in another river port – New Orleans – but after that, in 1978, came Philadelphia, in partnership with Scandinavian Ship Supply in South Philadelphia. I visited them whilst an enormous hurricane was shaking up the whole of Philadelphia – quite an adventure!

My daughter attended university just outside Philadelphia and there is a U.S. highway that runs from Delaware to Maine called 202! The last town in Pennsylvania, as you travel north on 202, is called New Hope, where our good friend, Chris Kerr, published Mariner's Annual for many decades.

I also had my first kiss in Philadelphia – no, I'm just joking – it doesn't go that far! But Philadelphia has a lot to offer visitors, and is one of the greatest inland ports of the world.