Flotilla’s awesome spectacle
Parade of ships dazzles thousands in Catskill, Athens
The Daily Mail
June 12, 2009
CATSKILL — Under a gray sky and full sails the crews of the Half Moon, the Sloop Clearwater and the Onrust toured the Hudson River between Columbia and Greene counties Thursday before docking in Catskill, Hudson and Athens, respectively.
The Half Moon, the Sloop Clearwater, the Governor Cleveland Tug and the John J. Harvey Fire Boat arrived in Athens at around 4 p.m. Thursday, ahead of schedule.
“The wind was in their favor and the tide was in their favor,” Tara Sullivan, executive director of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission, said from Athens’ Riverfront Park.
Spectators in the park lined the water’s edge to take photographs of the ships. The Half Moon fired its period murderer guns in salute and the fire boat performed a water show, blasting jets of water high into the air.
People along the shore responded by cheering.
Other boats nearby and churches in the village rang their bells to return the greeting.
The ships made their way around Middle Ground Flats before they docked for the evening.
The flotilla’s early arrival took many residents by surprise.
Janice Hesselink was not planning to come to the park until 6 p.m., when the Onrust was scheduled to arrive.
“Then I heard a big boom,” she said, referring to the gunfire that greeted the town.
She said she hurried from the Athens home to the park.
Hasselink said she had only seen the ships in photographs until Thursday afternoon.
“To me, they’re awesome,” she said.
She said the flotilla’s visit reminded residents of Athens’ history as a shipbuilding community.
Athens Mayor Andrea Smallwood said the parade showed a great regional effort from state and local entities.
The Greene County Economic Development, Tourism and Planning Department worked with the Quadricentennial Commission to organize events in Athens and Catskill.
Spectators cheered when the Onrust, a replica of the first ship ever built in America, in 1614, came into view from the park shortly before 5 p.m.
Elementary school children will visit the ship on Friday morning before it rejoins the flotilla and sail to Castleton.
The flotilla will reach Albany Saturday.
Later Thursday afternoon the Half Moon, the tug and the fire boat arrived at Historic Catskill Point, where roughly 2,000 people were waiting.
The crew fired murderer guns from the Half Moon to greet spectators in Athens
The boats they saluted the village with gunfire and a watershow, and the crowd cheered and waved to the crews.
Vintage planes from Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome flew over the park.
“I am happy to see so many people here,” Catskill Town Supervisor Peter Markou said. “It is an event that will never happen again.”
He explained that the Hudson River had played an important factor in making New York the Empire State, along with Erie Canal, Robert Fulton and Samuel de Champlain.
The John J. Harvey Fire Boat performed a water show in Athens, blasting jets of water high into the air.
He, too, said the county had done a great job coordinating the event.
Later, inside the yellow barn at the park, he told the crowd that Hudson’s voyage was still relevant to the river communities because it forces them to contemplate and focus on where their next voyage will take them.
Greene County Legislature Chairman Wayne Speenburgh, R-Coxsackie, announced that tourism remains an economic boon to the region.
“When Henry Hudson arrived in Greene County, he found a landscape so beautiful that it later inspired a school of art. Breathtaking scenic beauty still draws visitors from around the world to Greene County,” he said.
Legislator Karen Deyo, R-Catskill, recognized the cat and bear statues in Catskill and Cairo, respectively, for their contribution to the countywide Quadricentennial celebration.
She announced that the Cairo Chamber of Commerce Bears and Butterflies project was one of six to receive a total of $4,500 in grant awards from the Quadricentennial Commission.
“We are grateful for the state’s support,” she said.
Grant money has also gone to Thomas Cole Historic Site, the Greene County Historical Society and the Greene County Council for the Arts, she said. The Council for the Arts was able to use some of its $5,000 award to help fund a production of “River of Dreams,” a musical based on a book of the same name by Hudson Talbott that was recently seen by 2,500 people in the Catskill High School Auditorium.
Students from the high school performed selections from the musical.
Talbott was present, too, meeting fans and selling copies of his book. Nearby, Catskill Village Historian Richard Philp also offered his new pictorial history, which is part of the Images of America series.
Members and alumni of the Catskill High School band performed jazz and movie soundtrack favorites throughout the evening.
Meanwhile, aboard the Half Moon, the crew welcomed new members to their ranks.
The crew applauded the hard work of Tara Sullivan, who has been sailing on the vessel since it left New York City June 5.
They honored Bert Berat, who is making a documentary film about the Quadricentennial flotilla and who served as a lookout in the crow’s nest Thursday.
Berat, who lives in the lower Hudson Valley and has sailed on every ship with the flotilla, said the past week had been incredible.
“This is an entirely different experience,” he said.
Berat is working with Launch No. 5, which is the flotilla’s safety boat to make his film, which he said has grown exponentially.
Two more qualified crew members were named, including Gale Brownlee, who was named Miss Half Moon 1939.
Brownlee and every qualified crew member must pass a rigorous training regimen, ship captain William “Chip” Reynolds said.
Each member starts their training by working dockside. Then, he said, they come to sail. They must stand watch at all posts, serve as a lookout, steer the ship, handle lines, stand on safety watch and participate in emergency procedure drills, he said.
“It is the crew that makes the captain look good,” he said.
Reynolds, who has captained the ship for 10 years, said he was struck Thursday by the reception the flotilla received from each river community.
“The turnout of people along the waterfront show how valuable the waterfronts are to all communities,” he said.
Reynolds said the most meaningful part of the journey was the diplomatic salute the Half Moon gave at West Point Sunday.
The Half Moon is an American ship but sails under a Dutch flag, Reynolds explained.
The crew fired 15 salutes as it neared the Military Academy to honor the relationship the Dutch had with the fledgling nation during the Revolutionary War, he said.
The Dutch were the first people to recognize America as a country, he said, and to salute the American flag.
On Nov. 16, 1776, the American ship the Andrea Doria sailed to the Antilles for arms and munitions where it was greeted by a Dutch governor, Reynolds said.
He said the incident gave a moral boost to the Revolution’s supporters and the salute at West Point echoed that event.
Reynolds said the Half Moon’s crew, which is usually made up of people from all different backgrounds and and life experiences reflects the opportunities provided by the New Netherlands colony.
“If you were productive and worked hard you could rise in status,” he said of the colony. “We emulate that on this ship.”
Other crew members told spectators on the shore that the Half Moon was a mid-sized ship and similar ships would have been used to explore channels and rivers and to sail ahead of larger vessels to look for pirates.
Reynolds said the Half Moon is more of a teaching vessel. Every year, seventh-grade students come aboard for one week to learn about the ship and to conduct scientific experiments. The students, he said, measure phenomona such as tides and water salinity to chart predictable natural occurrences and they must present a formal report.
The ship hosts programs for teachers, as well, he said. Crew members visit schools to demonstrate period equipment and teach children about European tools and Indian tools and how the societies interacted, he said. And, the Half Moon crew dresses in period clothes.
Roughly 2,000 people met the flotilla at Historic Catskill Point Thursday evening.
This summer, the Half Moon will return to the area, stopping in Athens later this month. It will go to New York City for July Fourth and will travel up the Connecticut River later that month. It will visit Staten Island in August and Albany in September. The general public will will be invited aboard the ship in Yonkers in late October.
Smallwood, who along with other village official law enforcement officers and emergency crews, has been planning for the event since April, said the parade was wonderful.
“The Half Moon looked really impressive under full sail,” she said.