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: