The History of Yachting/Chapter 2

by Arthur Hamilton Clark

CHAPTER II

HOLLAND AND NEW NETHERLAND

Henry Hudson and the yacht Half Moon—Hudson arrives at Sandy Hook and explores the North River—Voyage of Captain Adriaen Block, 1613—He loses the Tiger and builds the yacht Onrust, at Manhattan—Explores the Sound and discovers Block Island—Yachts of the Dutch West India Company—Yachts built and repaired in New Netherland—Lines of the Sparrow Hawk, wrecked on Cape Cod about 1620 and exhumed in 1863.

IN the year 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman, set sail from Amsterdam in command of the yacht, Halve Mæne. She is known in history as the Half Moon, of eighty tons burden, and was owned by the Dutch East India Company. The object of this voyage was the discovery of a northern route to India, a vision that allured merchants and navigators of England and Holland at that period, and which was realized only during the latter part of the last century.

Hudson was an able navigator, and had attracted the attention of the directors of the Dutch East India Company by his two voyages from England in search of a northeast passage to India. Moreover, during one of these voyages he had reached a higher latitude than any previous explorer. Hence, the Dutch East India Company fitted out the Half Moon, and paid Hudson the sum of £64. sterling with which to provide an outfit. In case

A Yacht of the Dutch East India Company. 1650.

he lost his life the directors agreed to give his widow £16. sterling. But, on the other hand, if he found "the passage good and suitable for the company to use," they promised to reward Hudson "for his dangers, trouble, and knowledge, according to their discretion; with which the before-mentioned Hudson is content." Evidently he was a man easily satisfied.

On Saturday, April 4, 1609, the Half Moon sailed from Amsterdam, and on Monday, "by twelve of the clock," passed the Texel. She had a crew of sixteen hands, composed of English and Dutch sailors. The mate, Robert Juet, who acted as captain's clerk, was a Netherlander, and had sailed with Hudson as mate on his preceding voyage.

On May 5th they were off the North Cape, steering along the northern coast of Nova Zembla, when they were stopped by the ice. On May 14th Hudson decided to steer to the westward. Two weeks later he put into Stromo, one of the Faroe Islands, where, after filling his water-casks, he kept on his course to the westward and encountered heavy westerly gales with a high sea. On June 15th, in latitude 48, the Half Moon "spent overboard her foremast," and some of her sails were split and blown away. On July 2d she was on soundings off the Banks of Newfoundland, and on the following day Hudson sighted "a great fleet of Frenchmen which lay fishing on the Banks, but he spake with none of them. Soon after, it fell calm, and he allowed his own company to try for cod." May 12th land was sighted; and on the 18th the Half Moon anchored in a harbor, supposed to have been what is now known as Penobscot Bay, on the coast of Maine. After remaining there for a few days, and fitting a new foremast, Hudson steered away to the southward. On August 3d he approached the land and sent on shore five men, who returned with "rose trees and goodly grapes." Still steering to the southward, he made the mouth of King James River, in Virginia. He decided, then, to stand to the northward; and, accordingly, on August 28th, he discovered a bay, now known as the Delaware. Passing the lower cape at noon, he saw shores stretching away to the northwest, and more land to the northeast. This he at first believed to be an island, but it proved to be the mainland of the second point of the bay. The remainder of the day was spent in taking soundings. The waters were found filled with shoals, and the Half Moon, though of light draft, struck several times upon the sands; at sunset she anchored in eight fathoms.

The next morning, at daylight, Hudson got under way and continued his explorations. He stood toward the "norther land" and the Half Moon again "strooke ground" with her rudder. By this time Hudson came to the conclusion that this was not the road to India, so, taking formal possession of all the land he had seen, he stood off shore, rightly surmising, "from the strength of the current that set out and caused the accumulation of sands, that a large river discharged into the bay."

A Yacht of the East India Company. 1630

Steering along the coast to the northward, he sighted high land with a low arm of sand jutting out, inside of which he anchored on the evening of September 3, 1609. The Half Moon, accordingly, was in all probability the first European vessel—certainly the first yacht—that ever passed the land now known as Sandy Hook.

After exploring the noble river that bears his name, Hudson sailed for the Texel on October 4th, and on November 7th he put into Dartmouth, where his vessel was seized by the English Government, and the crew detained. For eight months she remained in England; then, under another commander, she reached Amsterdam during the summer of 1610. Four years after, in the spring of 1614, she sailed from Holland for the East Indies, and was wrecked and lost on the Island of Mauritius, March 6, 1615.

Hudson sailed on one more voyage of exploration, leaving England April 10, 1610, in command of the Discoverie, a vessel of 70 tons, when he penetrated the long straits, and discovered the great bay that bears his name. A mutiny broke out among the crew during the following summer, and Hudson, his son, and seven men were cast adrift in a shallop. The ringleaders and half the crew perished, and the ship was finally brought home to London. Hudson, however, was never heard of again.

During the four years that followed Hudson's discovery, several vessels sailed from Holland to New Netherland, to trade with the Indians and to make further discoveries. At The Hague a company was formed, consisting of the following vessels and schippers: Fortuyn, Cornells May; Tiger, Adriaen Block; Fortune, Henrick Corstiaenssen; Little Fox, Jan de With; Nightingale, Thys Volchertssen. Having loaded their vessels at New Netherland, all these skippers sailed, in the autumn of 1613, for home, excepting Adriaen Block. He was nearly ready for sea, when his vessel the Tiger—lying at anchor, laden with furs, in the harbor of Manhattan, just off the present Battery Place, at the foot of Greenwich Street—accidentally caught fire, and was damaged beyond repair.

Skipper Block and his crew found themselves in a serious dilemma. Too late in the season to expect any vessel from Holland, and there being at that time no huts or houses on Manhattan in which white men could pass a winter, their only alternative was to rely upon help from the Indians. And in this they were not disappointed; every kindness and assistance was shown to them. Block and his men at once built huts for shelter and protection from the cold, afterward he and his companions turned their attention to building a small vessel to replace the Tiger.

It seems probable that the Tiger was not entirely destroyed, but that a considerable part of her stores, fittings, rigging, and sails were saved. These were no doubt used in constructing the new vessel; especially the metal bolts, fastenings, and necessary tools; otherwise, it is difficult to see how she could have been built at all.

A Yacht of the Dutch East India Company. 1630.

Along the shore of the North River, between the old Castle Garden and Rector Street, at that time was a high bluff covered with fine oaks, suitable for ship timber. Seeing that these could be easily lowered to the sandy beach below, the place was selected by Block for building his little vessel. Long afterward, there were flourishing ship-building yards along this strand, till the timber was all cut down, and the ridge, later, levelled.

Block and his companions suffered much from cold, and would have suffered from hunger also had not the kind-hearted Indians supplied them daily with food. Enabled thus to work through the dreary winter, they were, in the spring, ready, to launch their little ship, known in history, according to De Laet, as the yacht Onrust, or Restless, of eight lasts, or sixteen tons burden; her length on deck, 44 feet 6 inches, and 38 feet on the keel, with 11 feet 6 inches beam. The Onrust was the first vessel built in this section of the country, and the second decked vessel built within the present limits of the United States; the first was the Virginia, of thirty tons burden, built at the mouth of the Kennebec River, in the year 1608.

When the Onrust was fitted out and ready for sea, Block sailed upon an exploring expedition through Hell Gate and the Sound, discovering Block Island, which bears his name. Then, six years before the Pilgrim ship Mayflower anchored in Plymouth harbor, he visited the unsettled shores of Massachusetts Bay. Subsequently, in 1616, Skipper Hendericksen sailed the Onrust into the Delaware Bay and up the river above the Schuylkill. This happened, too, seventy years before William Penn settled in this region, the Onrust, therefore, being the first vessel to explore these waters. Lossing states that this vessel sailed for Holland with a cargo of furs; but what became of her does not appear.

In 1621 the Dutch West India Company obtained a charter "to colonize, govern, and defend New Netherland," and was expressly bound to "advance the peopling of those fruitful and unsettled parts." Accordingly in the spring of 1623, the ship New Netherland, of 260 tons burden, landed thirty families at Manhattan. This was the first attempt at the agricultural colonization of this territory, which became known as New Amsterdam—now the city of New York.

In New Netherland, the whole country being intersected by broad water-ways, yachts were quite as necessary as in Holland. Fortunately, then, upon looking through the old records of the Dutch West India Company, we obtain occasional glimpses of the yachts of that period.

Among the list of effects of the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland returned to the Government, September 4, 1626, are included eighty-one vessels. Twenty-four of these are yachts. Two of the entries read: "33 ships of 200 a 300 a 350 lasts, including 9 or 10 big and little yachts which the Company hath still lying here in port, provided with metal and iron guns, and all sorts of supplies of ammunition of war,

A Private Yacht. 1650.

powder, muskets, arms, sabres, and whatever may be necessary for their equipment, which can be fitted for sea at the fourth part of their former cost, estimated, as more fully can be seen," and "3 yachts which your High Mightinesses promised to indemnify the Company for in guns, powder, and other munitions of war; as these are still wanting to complete the subsidy promised by the 40th article of the Charter and by divers acknowledgments made by your High Mightinesses, as to be seen in resolutions."

The following document has been preserved in the Dutch West India Company's records, covering the work done during the years of 1633 to 1638: "Return of the ships built and repaired in New Netherland during Wouter van Twiller's Administration.

"Before me, Cornells van Tienhoven, Secretary of New Netherland, appeared in presence of the undersigned witnesses, Tyman Jansen, Ship-carpenter, about 36 years old, and with true Christian words in stead and promise of a solemn oath, if necessary, at the request of his Honor, Director General Kief, declared, testified, and deposed that it is perfectly true that he, deponent, during the administration of Mr. Van Twiller has worked as ship's carpenter and has been engaged on all old and new work which Mr. Twiller ordered to be made, to wit:

"1633, the ship Soutberck, repaired and provided with new knees. Other carpenters have long worked on the ship Hope of Greeningen and Omlanden. The yacht Hope, captured in 1632, by said Van Twiller, was entirely rebuilt and planked up higher. The yacht Prins Willem has been built. The yacht Amsterdam almost finished. A large open boat. In the yacht Wesel an orlop and caboose made. In the yacht Vreede the same. The boat Omwal at Fort Orange. The yacht with a mizzen sold to Barent Dircksen. The wood-cutters boat. Divers farm-boats and skiffs were sold to various parties. Also many boats and yawls made for the sloops. Moreover, the carpenters constantly repaired and caulked the old craft.

"All of which the deponent declares to be true, and to have testified and deposed at the aforesaid request to the best of his knowledge, without regard of persons, but only in the interest of truth.

Wybrant Pietersen,

as witnesses.

Maurits Jansen,

X This is the mark of
Tymen Jansen."

In 1640 the Directors and Council, residing at New Amsterdam, received information that "some strollers and vagabonds" had landed at Schouts Bay, and had committed certain depredations. Hence: "In order to obtain good and correct report and assurance of the aforesaid. Jacobus van Curler, Commissary of cargoes, is sent thither with the yacht Prins Willem, who, coming to the place where their High Mightinesses Arms had been set up, hath found the same broken down; and on a

A Private Yacht. 1650.

tree to which they were nailed was a fool's face carved in the stead of said Arms. All which aforesaid appeared strange to us, being a criminal offence against his Majesty, and tending to the disparagement of their High Mightinesses."

In 1649 the New Amsterdam yacht St. Beninjo is mentioned as being arrested in New England for some alleged irregularity, a long correspondence ensuing.

In 1650, it appears, hostilities continued in the West Indies after peace had been declared; evident by the following communication:

"To the High and Mighty Lords States-General of the United Netherlands.

"High and mighty lords:

" The Delegates from New Netherland respectfully represent that they this day, the 12th April, 1650, received and had communication of a certain deposition of William Nobel, late Surgeon of Captain Blaeuw's yacht La Garse, stating that the Spaniards in the West Indies were ignorant of the peace, and that both sides still continued hostilities in those parts; also that peace has never been proclaimed in New Netherlands."

On June 16, 1654, Governor Stuyvesant commissioned Carsten Jeroensen "to command the yacht Haen as skipper and chief, and to navigate her from New Amsterdam to the Island of Curacao." He also issued minute instructions for the voyage. The Haen was, however, subsequently captured by three Spanish ships, and taken into St. Domingo, Jeroensen not arriving in Holland until 1657.

It is probable that at this period many private yachts were owned in New Amsterdam, else it is difficult to understand how communication could have been kept up, the first ferry to Long Island not having been established till 1637. It consisted of a skiff, which usually lay near the present Peck Slip, and was navigated by Cornelis Dinchsen. He had a farm near by; and, summoned by the sound of a horn, hanging against a tree near the ferry, he came to transport passengers.

It should be remembered that there were farms and settlements scattered along the shores at a considerable distance from New Amsterdam. It is probable, therefore, that the sturdy Dutch colonists brought from Holland their quaint old customs on the water, as well as those on the land. No satisfactory record of them, however, has been preserved; and this is to be regretted. Notwithstanding, enough has been cited clearly to establish the fact that there were yachts, and many of them, in and about New Amsterdam during the seventeenth century, while New Netherland was occupied by the Dutch, and although no portraits or models of these vessels exist, we may still form an idea of their design and construction from a small vessel discovered among the sands of Cape Cod in 1863, and exhibited in Boston soon after. This vessel proved to be the Sparrowhawk, referred to in Governor Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation A. D. 1620—27, stated to have

A Reiziger Jaght, or Passenger Yacht.

been cast away during that period. Her hull was found to be in an excellent state of preservation, excepting the iron fastenings, which had entirely rusted away. Her lines were taken off, and are here given, together with her dimensions.

In 1664, when New Netherland was ceded by Holland to Great Britain, the name was changed to

DRAFT of the PILGRIM SHIP SPARROW-HAWK
body, sheer, and half breadth plan
Dimensions—Length 40 feet, Breadth 12 feet, 10 inches, Depth 9 feet, 7 ½ inches.

New York. The population of New Amsterdam, then, was about 1500, the whole population of New Netherland numbering nearly 10,000. In 1673 the city was surprised and captured by a Dutch squadron and the former name restored; but in 1674, it was again ceded to Great Britain, and the name of New York resumed.