Floating Replica from City's Revolutionary Past Coming to Seaport
The Hermione, a replica of the 1779 French vessel that ferried General Marquis de Lafayette to the U.S. during the Revolutionary War, will be stopping over at Pier 15 for four days this summer as part of its summer voyage.
Revolutionary War history will be making a stopover at the Seaport.
The Hermione, a $28 million replica of the 1779 French vessel that ferried General Marquis de Lafayette to the U.S. during the Revolutionary War, will arrive at Pier 15, near the end of John Street, on July 1 and leave on the fourth.
Visitors will be able to take free tours of the ship on July 2 and 3.
The Hermoine, which began its 27-day Atlantic crossing from La Rochelle, France, in April, will be making a 13-stop tour of the Eastern Seaboard carrying the flag for Evacuation Day. That day was Nov. 25, 1783, when the last vestige of British authority left New York City after the Revolution.
“This is a very exciting part of our effort to build up July 4 in Lower Manhattan,” Jim Kaplan, president of the Lower Manhattan Historical Society, told Community Board 1's Seaport Committee last month. “Probably the major event in New York City is the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest, but we think we should do better here."
At a CB1 meeting in February, Jonathan Boulware, executive director of the South Street Seaport Museum, said the museum can only afford to sustain one of its tall ships. The Hermione, and other visiting vessels large and small, he noted, would help the museum maintain its “street of ships” even as it loses boats of its own.
In response, CB1 passed a resolution, calling for “adequate pier space at the South Street Seaport” and “the pier access required to institute a visiting vessel program.”
Boulware had hoped that the Coast Guard Barque Eagle, now based in New London, Conn., which serves as a seagoing classroom for U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadets, would also dock at the Seaport this summer, but “a problem with water depth” is preventing that from happening, he said.