L'Hermione - The Ship of Liberty

This post is in honor of homeschoolers, history buffs, but most importantly, my dad. Can't wait to see this ship arrive in Boston with you, Daddy! xoxo

With the centuries-old rivalry between England and France it should come as no surprise we had had our fair share of French sympathizers during our war for independence a little bit ago. One of whom even many American's may recognize - the Marquis de Lafayette, earned the rank of Major General by Gen. George Washington. During the course of the revolution, and after much effort on Lafayette's part, the King of France finally agreed to send a frigate to the Americas under Lafayette's command in 1780. On March 19th the Hermione set sail from Rochefort, France for Boston, Massachusetts with supplies and soldiers ready to join our fight against the British.

Today, in the historical ship-building port of Rochefort, an amazing project is nearing completion. One of the retired dry-docks has been revitalized for the purpose of reconstructing an historically-accurate reproduction of the Hermione,, which was originally built and sent from this very same place. Once sea-ready - this beautiful ship will set it's course for Boston to reenact the voyage undertaken by Lafayette.

We had the chance to tour the boat dock and were thoroughly impressed. Here are some snapshots and tidbits we learned along the way:

A view of the front of the ship. Most of the exterior is complete.

I believe you can click on the images to see them bigger. This shows the stages of construction, which began in 1997. The ship is scheduled to set sail sometime in 2013.


A cross section showing what the interior looks like.

The deck.

The Masthead

We learned that the gold leaf on the crown emblem was applied in the same way it would have been in the 1700's. This is just one example of the meticulous ways in which they have stayed true to the original. Here are some others:

All the rope (close to 7500 meters worth) has been manufactured using organic materials (mainly hemp) just as it would have been back then.

All of the sails (enough to completely cover 9 tennis courts) were sewn entirely by hand.

All of the ironwork for the entire ship (artillery included) was forged on site, using traditional methods and tools:

Oh how I wish I could conclude this post with a image of this gorgeous vessel at full sail. But I guess that will have to wait until Summer 2013! For now, this will have to do:

The Family Shrinks and Grows

We anticipated things changing a bit while we were away. After all, a lot can happen in the span of 12 months. Sure enough, not long after we arrived we received word that our cat, Cona, had to be put down. Her organs were starting to fail. At 14 years+ old, this was reasonable enough, but still hard to know she won't be greeting us with her incessant mewing when we return. Slightly less expected was the death of Bo's pet rat, Whitey. This came as pretty sad news to Bo, which is understandable to be sure (if you can get past the fact that Whitey was, indeed, a rat).

So our little family gets littler on one hand, while in another far more spectacular way it has grown. Nooo, I'm not pregnant. It's better than that. So far we've experienced two baptisms, which make for a new Sister and new Brother in Christ. Hallelujah! We missed being there for one of them, which took place State-side just after we left. But it was that of a dear, dear friend who I sure hope lives on my street in Heaven. The second one we got to witness here in France. I thought I'd share some snippets of it so we can all revel in the Glory. I think it is so totally cool to see how similarly we do things and I just love that God's family is so multicultural.

First we did some singing (listen closely and I think you might recognize the tune):



Then Nathanel shared his testimony, which sadly, I didn't understand enough of to give the Clif's Notes here, but I was impressed with his confidence up there in front of a completely packed house comprised of many relatives and friends along with the normal church family:















Then he took the plunge!



And, of course, just like I do in the States, I cried for joy while the angels in heaven rejoiced.

Welcome to the family, Nathanel!

And a belated welcome to Beverly. For the record, I love you and I love that I get to call you Sister for real and for eternity from now on.