FOURAS, france — With champagne, fireworks and a presidential blessing, a painstakingly built replica of the frigate once used to bring French troops and funds to American revolutionaries is setting sail for Boston.
Saturday’s celebratory send-off for the $27 million Hermione seeks to retrace the 213-foot frigate’s trans-Atlantic journey in 1780, when its namesake under Marquis de Lafayette’s command helped to lay the foundation of French-American relations.
Lafayette persuaded French King Louis XVI to provide military and financial support to George Washington’s troops. Lafayette set sail March 21, 1780, arrived 38 days later in Boston and played an important role in the revolutionaries’ ultimate defeat of Britain.
The ship is the fruit of nearly two decades of brainstorming, fundraising and toil. Using captains’ logs and manuscripts from the era, maritime experts and historians ensured that workers used the same construction materials and methods as those that built the original.
Sailmakers sewed eyelets by hand on the 2,600 square yards of linen sails. Engineers replicated the pulley system. The vessel even was built in the same shipyard, in Rochefort in southwest France.
“It has been a very long project,” said Miles Young, president of the Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America. “You don’t create an 18th-century warship very easily these days. … It took enormous efforts to find enough oak trees naturally shaped so they could create the helm.”
Volunteer crew members will sail the frigate, with “Hermione” carved across its stern, across the Atlantic.
A rigger, Woody Wiest, praised the international camaraderie aboard, and the unique experience of sailing in the 21st century on a ship made up of natural fibers and materials.
“When you put people side by side aboard a ship, they’re puking together, they’re cleaning the toilets together, they’re really bonding,” he said.
U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley was expected to attend Saturday’s events.
Firing its cannons, the ship left the La Rochelle port earlier last week for a test run, escorted by sailboats and watched by thousands of cheering supporters on shore, some waving American flags.
