A Most Memorable Independence Day

Boy, oh boy... When those tall ships sailed up the lower Hudson River for our nation's 200th anniversary!

Back in '76, the United States of America fervently celebrated two hundred years of nationhood. Those of us privileged enough to have witnessed what must have been the greatest display of wooden sailing vessels in modern times will never, never forget the experience. Great two and three and four masted ships with all sails unfurled... I swear it seemed right out of a movie. Nowadays, only Hollywood can put on such a show at the movies, and half of the time those ships are computer generated.

I don't remember hearing one motor running from those ships and I know that they all had them. I think that they were intentionally sailing without aid of their motors in order to give the spectators a real taste of the old days. And I don't recall the names of the types of ships, like windjammer or clipper or schooner, but I'm sure there were at least a few modern replicas of every type of great vessel.

If you've never been fortunate enough to have feasted yours eyes on such a sight as was the lower Hudson River that year, it feels impossible to type the right words to paint the picture. Each ship had its crew busily manning the sheets; people shouting out orders and acknowledgments; the subtle sounds which only such ships can make- feet running on wooden decks; crewmen yelling to the fifteen or twenty sailors to pull harder on the line to raise the great sails and then telling them "just one more pull", and then again "just one more heave", and again and again (those poor sailors!); the heavy 'flub' sound when the sail is up and suddenly opens fully with the wind.

Sounds echo when they're made onboard such large, wooden ships. The hull must act as some kind of an echo chamber that resounds the shipboard clamor out, over the surface of the water. Even those vessels quite far out into the river could be heard. The sound was faint, I'll admit. But if you watched the activity on deck and waited a second or two you would hear that crewman's voice who just shouted from one end of the ship to his compadres at the other.

The exteriors of the hulls were immaculate, as were the period uniforms of the crew. They must have put those clothes on just before passing the crowds of people because I don't think any clothes stay that perfect for very long on such working ships.

I found out later that the young people on many of the vessels were, in fact, college and university students. What a summer vacation!

Learn more about this author, Guil Lermo.
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