Hats off and dinner on the table to Rod Smith of Narragansett Bay Shipping who put in a long day yesterday getting photos of the loading process of Half Moon onto the deck on BigLift Traveller.  Also many thanks to the hospitable crew of Traveller for accommodating Rod.

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I’m struck by how diminutive Half Moon looks here.

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Water-level . . . pre lifting straps and

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after.

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And then with hours of careful effort . . .

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like a netted fish after a long fight . . .

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she settles onto the deck.

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Next stop  . . .  Hoorn!

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The two last photos of Rod’s  .  .  . the night scenes . . .  suggest time travel:  imagine what Juet would have written in his journal 406 years ago if a big yellow ship had rendezvoused with them on their return to Europe and lifted them onto the deck for a speedy eastbound trip.  Click here for the never-completed blog version of  Henry Hudson’s 1609 trip . . . which lacks an account of THAT Half Moon‘s return to Europe.

Related photos include . . . ones of sister vessel Happy Dynamic, and here here and here  . . . some sampling of Half Moon photos over the years.

Less related:  click here for another Netherlands-bound vessel with a deck load, and here and  here for photos of the arrival of that deck load from a month earlier.

Again, Rod . . .Hartelijk dank . . . or Dziękuję bardzo.