Greenport Tall Ships Festival

Historic Greenport Harbor welcomed six Tall Ships from all around the world during a four day event. 

The six ships were:

AJ Meerwald-    A.J. Meerwald is the state ship of New Jersey. She is a restored oyster dredging schooner, whose home port is in the Bivalve section of Commercial Township in Cumberland County, New Jersey.

Lynx-    Lynx is a square topsail schooner based in Newport Beach, California. She is an interpretation of an American letter of marque vessel of the same name from 1812.

Picton Castle-    The Picton Castle is a fully certified and registered Cook Islands tall ship whose mission is deep-ocean sail training and long distance education.

Kalmar Nyckel--The original ship — a new type of gun-armed merchant vessel called a Dutch Pinnace — was built by the Dutch in Amsterdam in about the year 1625.  She was purchased in 1629 by a Swedish consortium to serve as an auxiliary warship for the Swedish navy, which she did until her decommissioning in 1651 — except for the years from 1637 to 1644 when she sailed the Atlantic for the New Sweden Company.  An exceptional ship with a long and remarkable career, she was sold to a private merchant after being decommissioned from the navy.  No completely definitive records have been uncovered as of yet, but Kalmar Nyckel was probably resold to the Dutch navy as an escort vessel and sunk in the North Sea while fighting for the Dutch in a war against the English in 1652. More information HERE

Sagres-   The NRP Sagres is a tall ship and school ship of the Portuguese Navy since 1961. It is the third ship with this name in the Portuguese Navy, so she is also known as Sagres III. This ship has lots of History.

Hermione-  The Hermione was a 12-pounder Concorde class frigate of the French Navy. She became famous when she ferried General Lafayette to the United States in 1780 for extension and spread of the war in the American Independence Movements 1754–1763 on behalf of the French interest. She grounded and was wrecked in 1793.
In 1997, construction of a replica ship started in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France; the new ship is likewise named Hermione.

My friend Rita lives in Greenport and walking distance to the festival. We walked into town to see the ships Sunday night. The Hermione came in Monday morning which was a thrilling.

I took lots of photos and hope you enjoy the SHIPS.