PENOBSCOT BAY — She loomed up from the pea-soup fog, first her bright golden forepeak and royal blue trim slipping into view, then her gunports. Towering above her decks, still partially ghosted in the mist, rose her three masts, 177 feet into the air. She was formidable; but everyone was looking for L’Hermione as marine radios crackled from the east and west side of Penobscot Bay — “has anyone seen her?” 

The Hermione represents a stately old friendship between two allies and her presence on the bay July 14 — Bastille Day in France — was nothing less than majestic.

The French frigate is a replica of the 1779-built Hermione, who carried one of North America’s favorite French figures, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette — the dashing Marquis de Lafayette — to America. He inspired the colonists in the fight against the British, and that is not lost to American memory.

“The visit will recognize not only that Castine (Pentagoet, then) was the first American military mission for Hermione, but also that the town’s strategic location and character were pivotal in the destiny of North Atlantic America during the long battle between England and France for dominance,” according to the Castine Historical Society. “Today, Castine is a singular remnant of French history in the U.S. and long a center of military resistance and commercial success.”

In 1780, Hermione sailed Down East to spy on the British garrison at Magabagaduce, now known as Castine.  

On July 14, thousands crowded on the docks of Castine to welcome Hermione on her last port of call in the U.S. It was the culmination of a voyage in the planning for decades. Hermione had sailed across the ocean from France in April, visiting major U.S. ports strategic in the Revolutionary War. Her final stop in the states, before heading to Canada, was Castine.

On the foggy but warm afternoon, she made a course northwest up the bay on a light easterly breeze. And then, the windjammers, yachts, lobster boats, motor boats and skiffs that had headed out from multiple harbors began to greet her, slipping in from all sides of the bay, from behind islands and points. They came from Sedgwick and Cape Rosier, Islesboro, Camden and Rockland and Belfast, congregating at the head of Cape Rosier, where they all proudly fell in line behind L’Hermione, saluting the frigate in a spontaneous and merry festival. 

It was to be an organized parade, but in somewhat of a Revolutionary War fashion, affairs slipped into place on their own accord. The dense fog didn’t help, but there were no collisions, thanks in large part to modern navigational technology, as well as the Maine Marine Patrol, whose officers aboard the Guardian circled around, advising boats to keep a respectable distance from the 213-foot long armed frigate.

Behind the Hermione came the Lynx, another replica (built at Rockport Marine in Rockport) of an historic ship. The Lynx had accompanied the Hermione Down East from Portland, and periodically gun shots from the ships cut through the air.

Maine Maritime Academy’s historic schooner Bowdoin was supposed to be second in the parade line, but with boats coming from all directions, there was little hope of military maritime order. Still, Hermione towered above all vessels, and she led the way, sails gently filling. As the parade got closer to the mainland, the fog cleared and the sun shone down on the water, changing colors from silver and gold to deep blues and whites.

Onboard some boats, such as Ben Ellison’s Gizmo, out of Camden, it was all French: the cheese and bread, crudite and chocolate, and sailors shouted across the water, “Viva la France!”

From somewhere came the sounds of bagpipes. Photographers leaned over the gunwales to get the best shots, and from the radios came the chatter aboard the frigate, sometimes in French, other times in English, as sailors scrambled up the masts. It was a Fitz Henry Lane painting in motion.

Eventually, a Fournier tugboat aligned with Hermione’s broadside as she came abreast of Dyce Head lightouse, and then the guns let loose. Onlookers waiting on the shore, at Castine’s forts, on the Catholic Church lawn, and finally at the dock, were greeted by cannon fire, and they responded with jubilant cheers.

The ship’s entrance was timed for the tide, so she would not have to fight the strong current emptying from the Bagaduce River at the other end of the harbor.

America has been honoring the ship as she arrived in various East Coast ports. Read about her visit to New York Harbor in the New York Times in the Hermione Sails Into New York Harbor, Cannons Blazing. And read another article about her in the Smithsonian: The Marquis de Lafayette sails again.

The Hermione II’s history stretches back 20 years, when a small group dreamed of reconstructing an exact replica of the Hermione. More than 3,000 oak trees were used in making the beamy frigate (almost 37 feet at her widest)

Today, the vessel is the largest and most authentically built Tall Ship in the last 150 years, according to the Castine Historical Society.  In 2012, the Hermione reproduction launched in France at the Rochefort Naval Yards. She set sail to the U.S. in April to commemorate Lafayette’s voyage, starting from the mouth of the River Charente, in Port des Barques, where Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier deLafayette boarded on March 10, 1780. 

The Castine Historical Society opened a Hermione exhibit specifically to begin celebrating this occasion June 19. 

The Hermione’s mission, according to the group that built her, is to create a lasting educational legacy;

To symbolize and rekindle intimate ties between France and the United States, and the spirit of liberty that sustains them; 

To demonstrate the inestimable value of history, to the present and the future, and to show that it can be a living force in increasing our understanding of the world; 

To celebrate the value of impeccable craftsmanship, the firm foundation of the authentic reconstruction of theHermione.