The bark Elissa sails free (far left) while the schooner Roseway follows the Esm eralda in the Parade ofSail.
anchorage. H ere munitions ships assembled during World War II. I sat up on Priscilla's foredeck and studied the Lower Bay. The history of these waters was on my mind. Across the vast expan se, I co uld see tall ships beginnin g to move out of their anchorage in Raritan Bay, turning out at Sandy Hook to form a line behind the Coast G uard's beloved Eagle, Am erica's Tall Ship . Binoculars came out as we studi ed the lin e of ships. 'T here's the Danmark behind Eagle." "Who's next? " Someone co nsulted the OpSail captain 's manual. "Christian Radich from Norway, th en the Libertad from Argentina." Each ship was under power, sailors out on the yards, and as th ey approached the Narrows, each ship in turn loosed its sails. I looked at my watch. Eagle, sails set, passed under the bridge on the dot of ten o'clock. We had front row seats for the most stupendous gathering of sailing ships of the 20th century. Looking over the fields of white canvas, I thought, "New York harbor has n' t looked like this since the 19th ce ntury, since the great age of sail. " W hat a moment to touch the past. We co ntinued to watch, everyo ne calling out th e ships they recogni zed. "There's Esmeralda, from C hil e"-her four-masted barkentine rig identifiable even at a distance. "There's Amerigo Vespucci, from Italy," her hull painted man-of-war fas hion with white stripes and black checkerboard gun ports immediately recognizable, as was Sagres !!from Portugal, named fo r the cape 10
where Prince Henry the Navigator had his famo us school. Large, red Jerusalem crosses on her fore and mains' ls recall the Portuguese caravels of the Age of Exploration. T he end of the column of big ships was approaching. Elissa, from Galveston, the "Tall Ship for Texas," was the last in line. T he small ships were weighing anchor and moving forward, closing on the line of march like human specta tors pushing for-
"With its seven bays, four river mouths [and} four estuaries, it is by far the world's best and biggest natural harbor and most of the world's major ports could easily be tucked into it. " ward at a parade. Ifwe didn 't move now we were going to be left out. "Let's get the ancho r up. " Hands sprang to the anchor cable, and she was aweigh in short order. The skipper turned the schooner south , out from G ravese nd into the Lower Bay and into the swirling mass of ships all maneuvering for a place. "Let's get the sails up ." Hands sprang to halyards, halya rds uncleared, look to the helm, thumbs up when yo u're ready. "Raise the mains'!." "Mai n up ." "Raise the fores' !. " "Fo resa il up ," then the headsails,
foresrays'l and jib; crewmen out on the bowsprit hammock loosing ties-headsails up. So we headed downwind and tacked just as the wind backed ro und from the south. We wo uld have a downwind run into New York. Mainsail boom to port, foresail boom to starboard, wing on wing, Priscilla was headed through the Narrows and into the greatest port in the wo rld. The port is officially known as the Port ofNew York and New Jersey, since most of the traffic goes up the Ki ll van Ku ll to the giant comainer port of Eliza beth, built in the Jersey marshes of Newark Bay. Geography is critical to understanding the Port of New York. As Life magazin e reminded its readers in November 1944: "With its seven bays, fo ur river mouths [and] four es tuaries, it is by far the wo rld's best and biggest nat ural harbor and most of the wo rld's major ports could eas ily be tucked in to it. " New York harbor co mprises a stagge ring area of more than 1,200 square miles, more than 430 square mil es of whi ch is water, in cludin g the vast 122-square-mile expanse of the Lower Bay as well as, above the Narrows, the deep, protected waters of the Upper Bay. It is a harbor carrographically turn ed upside down , opening southward into the Atlantic Ocean. T he tall ships will enter New Yo rk by steering no rth, guiding on the twin lighthouse ato p th e Navesi nk Hills, a landfall marked by navigators in thousands of ships makin g for New Yo rk C ity. Here, the l 9rh -ce n rury se maphore system te legraphed the news of arriving vessels via Staten Island's Todt Hill back to merSEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000