French tall ship replica arrives in Yorktown
Vessel resembles one that aided U.S. in Revolutionary War
YORKTOWN, Va. — Like an apparition, the 17-story ship glided through the cool morning mist, its towering skeleton of masts and two sternward flags — one French and one a 13-starred American — visible from shore.
Forty-eight days after its launch and 237 years since its story began, the French tall ship Hermione maneuvered into the York River Friday morning, and as its gilded-lion figurehead came into full view, hundreds of people on the beach waved and cheered.
The much-anticipated vessel — which took 17 years and nearly $30 million to build — fired its unarmed cannons as it neared shore. A flurry of red, white and blue fireworks exploded in the air as the ship touched the dock. Even re-enactors dressed in period clothing broke character and snapped photos, unwilling to miss the moment.
“Welcome to America!” one woman bellowed, as six crew members balanced on the ends of crossbeams that extended from the ship’s three Oregon pine masts.
The original Hermione carried the Marquis de Lafayette across the Atlantic Ocean more than two centuries ago with a message that would change this nation’s destiny: France was sending critically needed soldiers and ships to support the American Revolution.
The replica is among the most authentic in the world, and its voyage is a source of immense national pride in France, where President Francois Hollande personally bid it bon voyage in April. A small horde of French media covered Friday’s festivities.
“Look at her,” Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said, as he and his entourage walked past the official George Washington re-enactor on their way to the gangplank.
The French ambassador to the United States was also among the dignitaries who attended the welcome, which was held in Yorktown because both the original ship and its most famous passenger were involved in the operation there that led to Gen. Charles Cornwallis’ momentous surrender in 1781.
The tall ship is expected to draw huge crowds in coming weeks as it travels to Alexandria, Va., Annapolis, Md., Baltimore and then up the East Coast.
It is a marvel of intentionally unmodern engineering, which is why the vessel took so long to build; its makers used 18th century techniques to construct it.
Hoping to boost tourism in the once-thriving shipbuilding coastal town of Rochefort, France — where the original was manufactured in just four months — the project’s leaders began construction in 1997.
They scoured France for 3,000 mature oaks that had just the right bend to fit the ship’s hull.
Its 26 cast-iron cannons were fashioned by the same company that made the originals in the 1700s. Its 19 linen sails, adorned with 4,250 handmade eyelets, are large enough to cover five NBA courts. Its quarter gallery, a section on the stern, required 3,000 hours of labor to complete — about three times longer than it took the ship to cross an ocean.
“At every point, people have said this was mad,” said Miles Young, president of Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America. “That it was crazy.”
The modern features were few and mostly mandatory for safety: fuel tanks, generators and a pair of engines; metal bolts instead of wooden fasteners; electric winches to hoist the 3,300-pound anchors rather than the arms of 60 crew members.
“What you have,” said Young, CEO of public relations giant Ogilvy & Mather, “is a tall ship that’s pretty honest to the core.”