Sail4th 250: Sights from NYC’s Tallship Celebration

Last weekend, twenty countries sent tallships for a parade of sail celebrating America’s 250th birthday, harkening back to festivities overseen by president Gerald Ford for the bicentennial and demonstrating respect and camaraderie from the international maritime fleet. 

The tallships were also accompanied by grey hull ships and aircrafts for an international review of naval force. As they passed from the Verazzano Bridge up the Hudson River, each craft saluted the Statue of Liberty and was reviewed by the Secretary of the Navy aboard the USS Farragut. 

Here’s a look at some of the sights from New York City as it welcomed these spectacular vessels, from military training ships to historic replicas.

The US Coast Guard’s training ship, the barque Eagle was on display along with her sisterships from Germany, Portugal, and Romania. Following the visit to New York, all four will continue up to Boston, racing part of the way in a nod to their inaugural race to Bermuda fifty years ago while celebrating the 200th anniversary of America’s founding.

A rough count at the start of the festivities showed nearly 100 civilian boats watching from the spectator coral beside the Statue of Liberty. Despite scorching temperatures, thousands of others lined Governor’s Island and the piers along the Hudson River throughout the day.

Gorch Fock II is a three masted barque owned and operated by the German Navy as a training ship for cadets. One of the four sisterships of America’s Eagle, is a remake of the original Gorch Fock, which has been retired as a permanently docked naval museum in Stralsund, Germany.

Ara Libertad, a 340-foot steel-hulled ship from the Argentine Navy, sails past Jersey City as pilots fly in formation overhead. Built in 1963 by the Rio Santiago Shipyard, she is one of the largest and fastest tallships in the world.

The American ketch Angelique hails from Maine’s Windjammer fleet where she takes passengers out for summer cruising. The distinctive tanbark sails represent a historic method of canvas weatherproofing that involves soaking the material in a tannin-rich solution made from treebark, staining it a reddish brown. 

Another sistership of Eagle, Mircea is a 269-foot, three-masted barque from Romania. The ships are not identical, and she is the smallest of the four by over 20 feet. 

NRP Sagres was the fourth sistership present, owned by the Portuguese navy and serving as a training ship and ambassador. She is easy to identify from a distance with the distinctive Christ’s Cross emblazoned on the sail. 

France’s Belle Poule sails towards the USS Farragut with a formation of aircrafts overhead. 

Sailing with a crew of 250, BAP Union is a goodwill ambassador for Peru’s navy. Commissioned in 2016, she has an elaborate bronze figurehead referencing the country’s indigenous Incan culture.

Red, white, and blue smoke from the air show lingers over the Hudson River as six tallships parade past the city. 

Despite the impressive spectacle, the event was not without controversy. The sloop Clearwater, which has been involved in environmental advocacy since her founding in 1966 sailed in the Class B parade on the 3rd, but was removed from the parade on the 4th by the US Coast Guard for displaying banners with social and environmental justice messages on their sails. The phrases included “Save the Clean Water Act” and “Indigenous Rights / Racial Justice / Climate Solutions,” which were said to violate the event’s policies. The banners also featured a drawing of a banjo belonging to Pete Seeger, as the ship was conceived by Seeger to raise awareness about pollution in the Hudson River.

On social media, the Clearwater team said that they had received no prior communication that it would be against policy to display the banners and that they were not offered the opportunity to take them down and remain in the parade, though the Coast Guard disputes the latter.

Additionally, a squall that ripped through New York City on the 3rd battered the fleet and led to the sinking of two vessels: the Pilot and Victory Chimes. Both were owned by the hospitality company Crew. Victory Chimes had sailed in recent years in Maine’s Windjammer fleet and was featured on their state quarter, but was scheduled to be converted into a restaurant. The century-old Pilot had previously been recommissioned as a floating bar. Owners say they hope to refloat the vessels, but both were reported to be in some disrepair before the incident and updates on the salvage efforts are still forthcoming. No one was reported injured in the incident.

Much of the rest of the fleet will continue north for the next stop of their tour, with a visit to Boston beginning on July 12. For more on New York’s Sail4th 250 or any of the tallships involved, visit sail4th.org.