Replica of Lafayette’s Frigate to Set Sail From France for a U.S. Visit
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — A finely wrought full-size replica of the Hermione, the ship that carried the Marquis de Lafayette to America in 1780 to help the American revolutionaries fight the British, will set sail on Saturday for the United States in a formal launching ceremony in France. President François Hollande will attend, along with Thomas Wolf, the American consul in Bordeaux. The warship’s voyage commemorates the French-American relationship, recalling its origins, which in many respects turned on the impetus of one man, Lafayette, a soldier who was moved by the fight of the breakaway American colonies from Britain and first went to America as a volunteer in 1777. He was just 19 years old and offered his services to the beleaguered insurgent army. After fighting in several battles, including the Battle of Brandywine, and being wounded, he returned to France in 1779 to seek aid from King Louis XVI on behalf of the American revolutionaries. He won the king’s promise to send 5,000 men and six ships, and then Lafayette boarded the Hermione, a slim warship known for its speed, to carry the news back to Gen. George Washington, with whom he had established a deep friendship. The ship that sails on Saturday has been painstakingly designed and built to resemble the original as much as possible. Builders used the wood from 2,000 French oak trees and fit together some 400,000 wood and metal parts to fashion the hull, beams and planking, masts, doors and port holes. Seventeen years in the making, the project involved both a major fund-raising effort as well as careful craftsmanship and research. The ship was built at a cost of about $21.6 million. The money came from local and regional French governments, which welcomed the chance provided by the boat’s construction to spur local tourism, from corporate sponsors like the department store Galeries Lafayette and from donors to the Hermione-La Fayette Association, among others. French and American dignitaries describe the project as a way to underscore the depth of the alliance between the countries. The American ambassador to France, Jane D. Hartley, wrote an op-ed article about the project with Gérard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, which ran Saturday in the French newspaper Ouest-France, a daily based in Rennes. The reproduction of the Hermione, with 30 cannons and three masts, “will serve as a powerful reminder of the long and absolutely essential friendship France and America have enjoyed,” the article said. After the ship crosses the Atlantic it will make stops in Yorktown, Va., where Lafayette spearheaded a critical battle against the British, and then it will sail up the Atlantic Coast, making stops that include Washington, New York and Boston as well as smaller ports of call, including Annapolis, Md., and Newport, R.I. The ship returns to France in September. |