Professor brings Half Moon to life in book
In Dutch, details of replica’s obscure fate is uncovered
The fate of the replica of the Half Moon that took part in the 1909 festivities celebrating Henry Hudson’s voyage was a topic intriguing enough to cross the Atlantic and back again.
That was in the form of Peter Mulder, a University of Leiden professor — of science, actually — who came upon a book’s historic photo caption that he just knew was wrong.
It raised his eyebrows about a tiny wooden ship being loaded on a bigger vessel in the Netherlands more than 100 years ago for shipment to New York. It was a spark that turned into an intellectual challenge, and then a book: “De Halve Maen: Een Jacht van Lust tot Last.” (From joy to burden).
Mulder researched Dutch and American records in his studies. Papers in the U.S., sadly, were less organized: papers in a local archive were in “hundreds of boxes in a basement,” Mulder said at Smith’s restaurant in Cohoes, which he visited as a guest
of former city historian Walt Lipka late last month. Mulder said he had to rely on newspapers of the 1910s and 1920s, with no real way to double check.
“He’s done a fantastic job of research,” said Lipka, a former art teacher who was city historian for 10 years. “It’s full of great details.”
Mulder’s book, all in Dutch (translating and republishing in English would be a very expensive proposition), details the Half Moon replica’s journey, its participation in the 1909 festivities and its fate — being destroyed by fire in Cohoes in 1930s.
So obscure was the fate, that the Dutch government sent letter a several years later hoping to use it at a world exposition not knowing it had burned, Lipka said.
Mulder said he hopes his book might rekindle interest among the Dutch about their small 1600s fur trading posts in the Americas that became a colony that eventually became New York. It’s not something most Hollanders are very familiar with these days, he said.
The contemporary Half Moon replica was used for years as an educational vessel plying the Hudson River, calling Albany home for 25 years. It was shipped via a much larger vessel to the Netherlands and is now displayed at the Westfries Museum in Hoorn.