by Stephen Cousineau
Special to The Weekly
CASTINE — Crew member Justine Bouchard, 26, was studying at the Sorbonne in Paris when she learned about the Hermione, the replica of the tall ship on which the Marquis de Lafayette sailed from France to America in 1780 to aid the cause of the American Revolution. She said the more she learned about the project the more she knew she had to be involved.
The Hermione sailed into Castine on July 14, Bastille Day in France. It left the next day, July 15, for Halifax and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, before beginning the voyage back France.
The new Hermione, also known as La fregate de la liberte, or freedom frigate, was some 15 years in the making. To provide the wood for the construction of the Hermione approximately 4,000 oaks were picked from French forests, the trees chosen for their natural curves. The hull alone took more than 2,000 trees to build. The shipbuilders constructing the Hermione used traditional tools and techniques of the 1800s to build the ship, and built it in the exact place in the French port of Rochefort where the original Hermione was constructed.
The attention to detail during the building of the ship, the sailors said, has been a labor of love for the volunteers involved in her construction. Where in some cases modern techniques and materials may have been quicker to use, the builders chose to stay as close to original as possible. The Hermione has hundreds of iron tackles and pins used in her rigging and all were made using blacksmithing techniques from the 18th century. The 19 different sails that help her harness the wind are made from traditional flax. The lines that make up her rigging, more than 25 kilometers, or 15.5 miles, are all of hemp rope.
When asked what his job was onboard Hermione, crew member Victor Weber, 21, of La Rochelle, France, shrugged sheepishly and replied, “I pull on the ropes and I do what they tell me to do” — which might well have been the same answer a reporter would have received from a sailor completing the voyage in 1780.
Bouchard and Weber have one major thing in common — an intense pride in being involved in the project and, more importantly, being a part of the crew. The Hermione’s 78 crew members, whose average age is 27, are mostly from France. Other nationalities aboard the ship include American, Swedish and German sailors, all trained to sail, and who have been working in watches just as sailors would have done in 1780.
The volunteers had to be fit enough to climb the rigging in all types weather and be prepared to live life as if on the original ship. This includes living in tight, cramped quarters, as well as sleeping in hammocks.
Both Bouchard and Weber agreed that the most important memory of their time onboard Hermione has been the friendships and bonds they have developed throughout the journey. They both spoke of how very amazing the ship’s arrivals in the various American ports along the Eastern Seabord has been.
Weber said, “Sometimes we would arrive in the smaller ports late at night but always there were smiling faces there cheering our arrival.”
Clearly, if Bouchard and Weber had the chance to do it all again, they would, without hesitation, say, “Oui.”