Henry
Hudson
Quadricentennial Celebration
The Halve Maen in Catskill
Photos by Sylvia Hasenkopf
As part of the Quadricentennial celebration five ships sailed
up the Hudson and visited Catskill, Athens and Hudson.
Henry Hudson's Halve Maen, the Onrust, the Clearwater, the Governor
Cleveland and the John J. Harvey
In June 2009 an enthusiastic, and wet, crowd welcomed the five ships at Catskill Point.
The Halve Maen
From Wikipedia: The Halve Maen (English: Half Moon) was the name of a Dutch East India Company ship which sailed in what is now New York harbor in September, 1609. It was commissioned by the Dutch Republic to covertly find an eastern passage to China. The ship was captained by Henry Hudson who was an Englishman in the service of the Dutch Republic. The Halve Maen sailed from Amsterdam to the Barents Sea, turning westward to traverse the Atlantic Ocean, then sailing from Newfoundland to the south in search of the Northwest Passage.
In his 1625 book New World, which contains invaluable extracts from Hudson’s lost journal, Johannes de Laet, a director of the West Indian Company, writes that they "bent their course to the south until, running south-southwest and southwest by south, they again made land in latitude 41° 43’, which they supposed to be an island, and gave it the name of New Holland, but afterwards discovered that it was Cape Cod".
From there they sailed south to the Chesapeake and then went north along the coast navigating first the Delaware Bay and, subsequently, the bay of the river which Hudson named the Mauritius River, for Holland's Lord-Lieutenant Maurits. The Halve Maen sailed up Hudson's river as far as the presentday location of Albany, New York, where the crew determined the water was too narrow and too shallow for farther progress. Concluding then that the river was also not a passage to the east, Hudson exited the river, naming the natives that dwelled on either side of the Mauritus estuary the Manahata. Leaving the estuary, he sailed north-eastward, never realizing that what are now the islands of Manhattan and Long Island were islands, and crossed the Atlantic to England where he sailed into Dartmouth harbor with the Dutch East India Company yacht and crew. A map of 1610 depicts the Manahatas west and east of Hudson’s river and from which the name Manhattan originates.
A replica of the Halve Maen (officially Anglicized as Half Moon) was constructed in Albany, New York in 1989 by the New Netherland Museum. The museum contracted with the late Nicholas S. Benton to design and build the replica. Mr. Benton, a master ship-rigger and shipwright, was president of the Rigging Gang of Middletown (Rhode Island), which specialized in colonial ship restoration and design. To prepare for building the Half Moon, a $1 million project, he visited maritime museums in the Netherlands and the United States. After his untimely death while assisting with the rigging of another vessel, the construction of the Half Moon was completed by the New Netherland Museum.
``
The Onrust
From Wikipedia: The Onrust (Dutch for "Restless") was a Dutch ship that was built by Adriaen Block and the crew of the Tyger, which had been destroyed by fire. The ship, a yacht, was the first decked vessel to be built entirely in America. The construction, with help from the Lenape, (this is an assumption and not documented) took one winter (January to April, 1614). The ship was 42-feet long and capable of carrying 16-tons.
In 1614, Block sailed through the whirlpools on the East River, and into Long Island Sound. Here he discovered Block Island.
Block was also the first European to venture up the Connecticut River. He managed to get as far as the Enfield rapids, about 60 miles up the river.
Besides finding several inland water routes, creating trading networks and mapping native villages, the two first accurate maps of the east coast were drawn based on the voyages of the Onrust. As a result, It was the first research vessel in America.
Later in the year he sighted another Dutch vessel, and sailed to back to the Netherlands on 1 October 1614.
New Netherland Routes, Inc., a non-profit organization, has built a replica of the Onrust at the Schenectady County Historical Society's Mabee Farm Historic Site in Rotterdam Junction, NY. Construction took place over a three year period and used authentic 17th century Dutch ship building techniques, recently rediscovered by the organization's master shipwright. The Onrust was launched into the Mohawk River on May 20, 2009. See www.theonrust.com/Welcome.html
The John J. Harvey
From www.fireboat.org/
1931 - 1994 - Fireboat John J. Harvey served
FDNY and New York City under many designations, finally "Marine 2."
1999 - Acquired by marine preservationists, outbidding several scrap
dealers.
2000 - Harvey was recognized (historically), being placed on
the National Register of Historic Places and later nominated to be a
National Historic Landmark (like the Statue of Liberty)
September 11, 2001 John J. Harvey,
John D. McKean and Firefighter provided water for 80 hrs (until
hydrants were restored)
to extinguish the World Trade Center fires.
Governor Cleveland
From www.tug44.org/canal.corp.boats/tug-governor-cleveland/
Tug Governor Cleveland was aquired by
the New York State Canal Corp as an ice-breaking tug in 1927. She originally had
a steam engine, but was later converted to diesel power. Tug Governor Cleveland
is one of the large tugboats that do the heavy work on the canals.
Clearwater
From Wikipedia: The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is an organization based in Poughkeepsie that seeks to protect the Hudson River through advocacy and public education. Founded by folk singer Pete Seeger with his wife Toshi Seeger in 1966, the organization is known for its sailing vessel, the sloop Clearwater, and for its annual music and environmental festival, the Great Hudson River Revival.
In 1969, the Clearwater made her maiden voyage down the Atlantic Coast from the Harvey Gamage Shipyard in Maine to the South Street Seaport in New York City. Folk musician TomWinslow wrote a folk music song, Hey Looka Yonder (It's the Clearwater), in which the lyrics specifically mention the fundraising efforts for the sloop, and how "black and white" people got together for this program.
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. owns and operates the sloop Clearwater, the centerpiece of Clearwater’s public education programs. Clearwater serves as a movable classroom, laboratory, stage, and forum.
The sloop Clearwater is a 106-foot (32 m) wooden sailing vessel designed after 18th and 19th century Dutch sailing sloops. With a large gaff rig, a hinged centerboard, and wide shallow hull, these vessels evolved to deal with the challenges of strong tides, shallow waters, and variable winds encountered on the Hudson River. Designed by Cy Hamlin and built by The Harvey Gamage Shipyard in South Bristol, Maine, Clearwater was launched in 1969. Built of traditional plank-on-frame wooden construction, the sloop is 75 feet (23 m) in length on deck, 25 feet (7.6 m) in beam and can hold up to 70 tons of cargo. The sloop rig consists of a single mast and fidded topmast which together rise to a height of 108 feet (33 m). A 65-foot (20 m) long main boom and 45-foot (14 m) gaff carry a 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) mainsail. A 28-foot (8.5 m) long bowsprit carries a 900-square-foot (84 m2) jib on the foredeck. In light wind, a 450-square-foot (42 m2) topsail may also be raised.
In 2004, the sloop Clearwater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for her significance to the environmental movement.
