The 44-foot-long ship’s three-day visit, arranged by the Navesink Maritime Heritage Association as a dual celebration of the 350th anniversary of the settlement of Monmouth County and as a fundraiser, included stops in Red Bank and Fair Haven, and ended with its departure for home in Watertown, New York, on Monday. (Photos by John T. Ward. Mouseover to pause.)
The Onrust, a replica of the first deck-covered ship built in colonial America, heads up the Navesink River past the Oceanic Bridge Thursday afternoon. The vessel will spend the weekend in Red Bank and Fair Haven. Here’s the schedule of activities, which includes public tours. will berth for two days at Marine Park. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Seen here scouting the Hudson River, a working replica of the 17th century Dutch ship ONRUST puts into port this Saturday and Sunday for two public-invited events on the Navesink.
Much attention has been paid in 2014 to the 350th anniversary of the first non-native settlements in what would become the State of New Jersey — and among those oldest established communities are some right here in the greater Green.
This Saturday and Sunday, present-day settlers will have a unique opportunity to get a close-up look at the way those original traders and explorers sailed the region’s waterways, when the good ship Onrust (pronounced AHN-roost) puts into two Navesink River ports of call.
The Onrust, a replica of the first deck-covered ship built in colonial America, will berth for two days at Marine Park. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
They were the tractor-trailers of their day, hauling cargo from port to port in an era when inland roads were all but nonexistent.
Seventeenth-century sailing ships such as the Onrust plied the waters surrounding New Amsterdam, carrying produce and other goods from port to port.
“It’s how everything moved,” according to Michael Humphreys, a board member with the Navesink Maritime Heritage Association. “There were no roads worth traveling,” and hacking one’s way through the woods could get a visitor killed by an unwelcoming Native American, he said.
In June, the NMHA will bring a replica of the Onrust to rust-colored banks of Red Bank. But don’t say the name as it appears: the word is pronounced “AHN-roost.”
