NY400 Blog

NY400 on October 13th, 2009

NY400 events: The Rabbit and the Prince

As published in The Times Union Newspaper on October 12th

By Don Rittner

During the week of September 8th (my birthday) and the 13th, we were invited to New York City by the Dutch Government to participate in the Dutch Harbor Day Celebration. This was their contribution to the Henry Hudson 400th anniversary celebration better known as the New York State Quadricentennial under the directorship of Tara Sullivan.

There were many activities and events taking place throughout the city but one of our roles was to act as a backdrop for the opening celebration where the Prince and Princess of the Netherlands (Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, NYC Mayor Bloomberg and others cut the ribbon aboard the US Intrepid. We were docked next to the Intrepid at Pier 84. It was quite the contrast between our little 17th century jacht (52 feet long) and the Intrepid, which is the size of a small city! On Saturday morning, we met up with several ships near the harbor and sailed up to the Intrepid where the opening ceremonies took place. That day Richard Roth from CNN did a live remote from the decks of our ship and came back to do a piece for the Wolf Blitzer Show (The Situation Room) so we made CNN and were viewed in 240 countries that day. Greta’s mother called her from Belgium and told her she had seen her waving to the Prince. I received email from a friend in the Netherlands telling me the same thing.

The Onrust and the Royal Family’s Tromp! Photo by Will Van Dorp.

On Saturday night, Greta and I were invited to have dinner with the Prince and Princess on their ship the Tromp. There were about 100 dignitaries at the dinner and at our table sat the Lady in Waiting (the Queen’s personal secretary), a ship commander, and a few others. The Princess sat across from us (very stunning). During the dinner, the Dutch minister in charge of the ceremonies came up to our table and asked Greta and I to follow him. We did of course and were led over to the Prince’s table where we were introduced to him (I might add we were the only ones brought to his table). He stood up and quickly began a conversation about the Onrust and we spent about 6 minutes or so talking about the project, which he knew a great deal about, and then went back to our seats to finish dinner. We had rabbit as the main course.

The Onrust leading the parade in NYC. Photo by Bert Barat.

The following day, the Half Moon, our Onrust and several other ships led a flotilla of 80 ships past the royal Tromp and we fired off a 4 cannon salute to the waving Prince and Princess. The parade was carried on Dutch National TV. On Monday, we began our journey home leading 19 Dutch flat bottoms to Albany along with their crews of about 75 people.

We took the boats northward stopping at Nyack, Kingston, Catskill, Castleton and finally to Albany. All of the communities along the way hosted the Dutch flotilla until we arrived at Albany where not a single representative of the city or state greeted them. Pretty discouraging.

Don at the tiller

One of the Dutch Flat Bottoms following the Onrust.

Photo by Don Rittner.

About the Author:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaDon Rittner is a historian, archeologist, environmental activist, educator, and author living in the Capital District, Schenectady County, New York; in December, 2004 he was named official Schenectady County Historian, responsible for providing guidance and support to municipal historians and serving as a conduit between the State Historian in Albany and the local historians in their counties. Click here for more information