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On the 200th anniversary of the greatest sports event of 1824— a rowboat race across the Hudson River— two NYC boatbuilding non-profits will commemorate this event with their recently completed replicas of the winning boat, the 27’ long American Star.
That’s this Sunday, Dec 8 from about 9 am – and the weather looks good!
The two replicas, the ‘Bronx Star’ built by Rocking the Boat and the ‘Hudson Star’ built by the Village Community Boathouse, will be launched on Sunday, December 8th at Pier 40.
Four rowers and a coxswain will trace the original route crossing the Hudson River to Paulus Hook near Hoboken, NJ, accompanied by other rowboats and a motorized chase boat.
Late in the fall of 1824, with the hostilities of the War of 1812 gone if not entirely forgotten, the captain of a British warship anchored off the Battery issued a friendly challenge, offering $1,000 (which would be upward of $30,000 today) to any local crew that could defeat his four best oarsmen in a race to Hoboken and back. On December 9, a crowd of 50,000 people–one-third of the city’s population–gathered at the Battery to watch the showdown, “by far the largest crowd up to that time, and for some time after, to view an American sporting event,” marine historian John Gardner wrote. The local entry, the American Star, defeated Dart, the British gig, by a few hundred yards in the impressive time of 22 minutes, whereupon the crew and their 14-year old coxswain, John Magnus, were paraded through the streets and feted as heroes.
Less than a year later, another hero visited New York: General Lafayette, the French nobleman and naval commander who had intervened decisively in the Revolutionary War fifty years earlier. After rowing Lafayette to New Jersey and back for a dinner party, the crew of the American Star impulsively offered the boat to him, “in the hope,” John Magnus said, “that you will take it back to France where it may occasionally remind you of your grateful friends that you have left behind, the ingenuity of the mechanics of a country you helped to liberate, and also our great naval motto, ‘Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights.’ “
The American Star resides in France to this day, in a special pavilion on Lafayette’s estate. Using measurements taken from it, student boatbuilders at Rocking the Boat in the South Bronx built an exact replica–the Bronx Star–two years ago, while volunteers at the Village Community Boathouse, on Pier 40 in Hudson River Park, completed the Hudson Star last year.
Life Jackets and hot drinks will be provided for daring journalists and reporters who would like to cover the event from ashore or an accompanying boat.
Gathering time at Pier 40 is 9 am; please contact Rob Buchanan (rob@rockingtheboat.org) for more info.
the Rondout Rower 