The Marquis de Lafayette was a French general who made close ties with General George Washington and lobbied the French government to send a significant military force to fight on behalf of the Americans during the Revolutionary War. On March 19, 1780, he and the frigate Hermione left France and made the crossing in 38 days, landing in Boston with the secret news that Lafayette had secured 5500 French troops and five frigates for Washington. The Hermione moved south down to the Chesapeake Bay, where the ship helped in the Chesapeake Bay blockade and Lafayette’s troops defeated Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown in Virginia.
The Hermione returned to France to fight in the French Revolutionary War in 1782, and was later wrecked by heavy seas off the coast of Croisic in Western France.
This April, the Hermione will again set sail for the United States, and although she is a replica of the original ship, she is as close to her predecessor as any tall ship may be. A 17-year reproduction process that started back in 1997 brought together historians and artists specializing in 18th century boatbuilding techniques. The design process was aided in the fact that the Hermione’s sister ship, La Concorde, was captured by the British Royal Navy, who made exact measurements of the entire vessel, but was somewhat complicated by the fact that there was no metric system used in 1790: the design team was forced to learn a host of 18th century terms for a vessel’s structures and contemporary weights and measures. The result is one of the most true-to-life replicas of any tall ship on the water today.
The Hermione will arrive first in Yorktown, VA, June 5 to revisit the site of Cornwallis’s defeat before moving to north through 12 ports. Hermione will visit Washington’s home at Mount Vernon and Alexandria, VA, before moving to Annapolis, where Lafayette stayed in March of 1781. She’ll then move to Baltimore, where she’ll meet the full fleet of Tall Ships America, and then move up the Delaware River to Philadelphia to celebrate the port where the original Hermione received members of the U.S. Congress in 1781. From there, the Hermione will move into New England and Nova Scotia before heading back across the pond.
UPDATE: The Hermione has left France and is on her way to the U.S.
[su_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzPVecPHV98"]
To read more about the Hermione, click here.
The full schedule:
5, 6, 7 June : Yorktown
9 June : Mount Vernon
10, 11, 12 June : Alexandria
16, 17 June : Annapolis
19, 20, 21 June : Baltimore
25, 26, 27, 28 June : Philadelphia
1, 2, 3, 4 July : New York, NY
6, 7 July : Greenport, NY
8, 9 July : Newport, RI
11, 12 July : Boston, MA
14, 15 July : Castine, ME
18 July : Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Annapolis-area events
June 6 Lecture: The French Ship Hermione in Annapolis. 2:30 p.m. at the Treaty of Paris Restaurant
The Hermione in Baltimore
Capstone moments of Hermione’s June 19th arrival in Baltimore include a cannon salute from Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine upon arrival and a Welcome Ceremony, which will take place at 10 am in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Deck tours of the Hermione and a Photographic Traveling Exhibit commemorating the 17-year reconstruction process will be offered from Friday June 19 through Sunday, June 21. Pride of Baltimore II will also offer free deck tours from Friday, June 19-Sunday, June 21. In addition, Pride will offer 2-hour public day sails from 2-4pm each day and can be chartered for evening sails Friday, Saturday and Sunday. To make reservations or to book a private charter for a group of up to 33 passengers, visit pride2.org or call 410-539-1151.
June 19:
10 a.m. to noon: Welcome Ceremony with French and American officials
12-4 p.m.: Public tours of the Hermione and the Pride; community events on the pier
2-4 p.m.: Pride public sail
June 20:
9-4 p.m. Public tours of the Hermione
9-1 p.m. Public tours of the Pride
2-4 p.m. Pride public sail
June 21:
9-4 p.m.: Public tours of the Hermione
9-1 p.m. Public tours of the Pride
2-4 p.m. Pride public sail
Community heritage events (ongoing): Historic shipbuilding and colonial crafts demonstrations. Maryland regiments and fife and drum corps. Lafayette reenactments. 3 afternoon interlude concerts by Rochefort's Les Vents Marines: French and American seafaring songs from the American Revolution to today with public sing-a-longs.
