HERMIONE UNDERWAY FOR AMERICA

19 April 2015: Back in October - the 8th, it was, I wrote a piece on the effort of people in France to build a replica of Hermione, the ship that brought the Marquis de Lafayette to this country back in 1780 to provide military and financial support to Washington's beleaguered Revolutionary War effort. The original Hermione set sail from France on 21 March and arrived in Boston 38 days later, a pretty decent passage.


The reproduction, built in the traditional method of ship building, mostly by volunteers, departed La Rochelle France yesterday, 18th April, headed for Virgina first, then other ports (see below). She has a volunteer crew, with of course, a bunch of professional tall ship mariners aboard, and will spend most of the summer along the East Coast of North America. It must have been an astonishing event for the people of France to see the culmination of 20 years of brainstorming, fundraising, and hard work, sailing out to sea! 

Fireworks and a large spectator fleet gave the beautiful vessel a proper send off as she headed out with a fair breeze filling her 2,600 square yards of linen sails. Her cannons roared out their approval of the good wishes.

Her schedule, while in the U.S. will be as shown below and as many international tall ships will gather to welcome her in many of the ports, it should prove to be a grand and glorious spectacle reminiscent of the many convocations of tall ships that celebrated the bicentennial of the War of 1812 here in America. 

Her itinerary as of this date:  

5-7 June, Yorktown, VA
9 June, Mt. Vernon, VA
10-12 June, Alexandria, VA
16-17 June, Annapolis MD
19-21 June, Baltimore, MD
25-28 June, Philadelphia, PA
1-4 July, New York NY
6-7 July, Greenport, NY
8-9 July, Newport RI                

10-12 July, Boston, MA
14-15 July, Castine, ME
18 July, Lunenburg, NS

Of course, these dates are weather dependent and it is possible that there might be a few changes. But I am sure your local papers and news outlets will be right on top of this story (yeah, right!) and should I hear of anything noteworthy, I will try to remember to post it here.  



So, for now, that will do it on Hermione, and to her and her stalwart crew, (and you dear reader) I wish 
                                            
                                                    Fair Winds,
                                          Old Salt