In 1997, a group of enthusiasts realized their dream as construction
began on a full-size, fully operational replica of the French frigate Hermione. They hoped to recreate not
only the ship, but its historical voyage to the United States, as Lafayette had
done two centuries before during the American Revolution. Using original
blueprints from Hermione’s sister
ship La Concorde and the
contributions of over three million donors, the project required 1200 tons of
wood and thousands of hours of construction. Asselin, the woodworking company
responsible for the construction of the vessel, posted photos of the building
process here.
You can see more photos here.
This
animation shows how Rochefort’s dry dock technique worked. Developed in
1683 by Pierre Arnoul, this technique was how the original Hermione’s hull would have been worked on. Arnoul’s dry dock, and
two others, still stand today at Rochefort.
The frigate was finally completed in 2011 and launched in
2012, and in 2013, masting took place and Hermione’s
captain was selected. September 7, 2014 began Hermione’s sea trials.
In this photo, Hermione is flanked by her fans in
modern boats as she leaves Rochefort for her first sea trial September 7, 2014.
Click here for a video of her departure.
The next landmark in Hermione’s
story is her return voyage to the United States, expected to take place in
April 2015. She will stop at ports in Yorktown, Mount Vernon, Philadelphia, New
York, and Boston before her final stop in Castine, Maine on Bastille Day. She
will then return to France.
Check out Hermione’s
French website here and her
English site here. Poitou-Charentes’
tourism
site also has details on the ship’s historically accurate finishing touches,
as well as events happening this year.
To learn more about other historical frigates and
how they were built click here.
Visit here to
explore American revolutionary vessels that sailed when the original Hermione did. Notice that, by the late
1770s, many of the ships in the American fleet have French names or were even
French themselves and only loaned to the Americans. Now that's cultural exchange!
