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..plus one year, that is, not quite. A year ago, work to ready the vessel for a mid-May splash reached frenzied levels, but the Adriaen aka Aerjan Block replica made an early June appointment to be part of River Day. Here Onrust follows Half Moon in the direction of Tappan Zee Bridge, distant background.
Here she dangled, late May 2009, minutes before splash, and
here she shivers, nine months later, February 2010, in an Albany shipyard awaiting warmer weather.
Here was two days post-splash, just above Lock 9, and
… February 2010, Albany shipyard.
Here, in suspension . . . merest seconds before the first ever splash, and
… February 2010, Albany.
And some 70 miles south of Albany . . . Half Moon waits in a protected area for all the ice to clear out. I wonder if the ghost of Henry migrates south to this bend in the river to find solace in the dark months . . .
and if so . . . what are his dreams, his obsessions . . . And if that’s true, whose ghost inhabits the replica of Onrust?
Plans for Onrust for this coming season include completing the interior and doing other finishings that’ll allow further voyages, maybe in time . . . retracing the travels of Captain Block. After four voyages to North America, Block never returned; he continued to sail but into the cold regions north of Scandanavia once explored by Hudson.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
This morning at dawn, replica Half Moon, was anchored in Gravesend Bay. Four hundred years ago, VOC Half Moon was, and worlds began to collide. Today they continue to collide. They don’t need to. Empathize.
Let’s dance to our neighbor’s drum as well as to our own. Foto above was taken at the Salt Festival on August 29. Thanks to Red Storm Drum & Dance Troupe for posing.
Bowsprite and I have been trying to imagine this collision, with all its casualties and boons, angst and ecstasy, steps forward and back . . . in Henry’s Obsession.
Quick post on the 1st annual Atlantic Salt Maritime Fest. Atlantic Salt brings salt from Ireland, Chile, and Mexico through the sixth boro to keep icy roads less treacherous. Where salt made a huge mound in this winter post, today there was frivolity, free food, and lots of smiles. Thank you, Atlantic Salt. Below Half Moon and container vessel Sumida meet.
Kristy Ann Reinauer and Thomas Witte paraded past, and
as did Rana Miller. More Rana later; she’s quite similar to Guardian, posted here last winter.
There was singing, drumming, and dancing.
Did it rain??
No, problem. Did tugster find friends? Oh, this is getting frivolous.
Bowsprite took the foto above; all others by Will Van Dorp. By the way, if you know the Where’s Waldo series, bowsprite is depicted in TWO of the fotos above. Where’s bowsprite?
By the way, as of this writing, Flinterduin, the 15-masted motor vessel, approaches 50 degrees west, due south of Newfoundland. She should enter the harbor before Monday morning; I will do the math later to narrow the ETA. Remember the foto contest.
Spring 2009 promises the start of an invasion of Dutch culture to the sixth boro. Who knows . . . we might be renamed New Amsterdam before year’s end, since Wall Street these days needs a face lift. But that’s another story.
When Henry Hudson arrived in the sixth boro in September 1609, he commanded a jacht. Onrust, expected in the boro in September 2009, is also a jacht design. Besides jachts, other Dutch sailing vessels include fluiten, pinasen, galjooten, botters, gundels, hoogaars, skutsjes, punters, schookers, and the list goes on. See some fotos here. The fotos below, compliments of SeaBart, first officer of Smit Kamara, show an annual skutsje sailing event in the Netherlands called Skûtsjesilen. As a child, I imagined these boats part-fish, given the large varnished leeboards that look like fins and hawses like eyes. See really high-resolution fotos here.
More fotos here and here; read the fotos, not the language.
Check out the really exciting racing here in this video complete with the shotgun start. In this video, check out the crashes and fans.
So as the Dutch invasion happens this year with respect to the 400th anniversary of Hudson’s arrival in the boro, imagine skutsje racing in our fair boro had transformation to New York never happened.
Finally, March 25 is the 400th anniversary of Henry’s departure from Amsterdam, headed here by way of northern Norway, Sable Island, and Virginia.
Again, all fotos here compliments of the irreverent Seabart.
Jed captured these shots of Half Moon several leagues south of Albany. Might it be what Henry’s welcome party saw 399 years ago?
A closer-up shows a little of the polychrome that had been designed as ostentatious, to show the discretionary wealth of the VOC.
The fierce leeuw figurehead sets the fall foliage ablaze.
Half Moon–the name and logo–speaks of the anti-Spanish “commercial” alliances the Dutch formed. One Dutchman Jan Jansen, slightly later than Hudson, in fact turned pirate, sailing with the Moors to prey on the Spanish.
If you’re wondering what the window under the moon and stars leads to . . .
it’s a magical cabin.
Check out the latest on henrysobsession . . . now that we have a glitch out. Channeling the man through 400 years is as tough as . . . some other research projects threatening to drown me.
All fotos unless attributed otherwise by Will Van Dorp.
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