HUDSON HONORED IN NEIV YORK 319 



'He sprang at a bound from utter obscurity, accomplished his Hfe work and 

 vanished into the Unknown, 



The most spectacular features of the New York celebration were a naval 

 parade, a land pageant and a display of fireworks. 



The naval parade was held the morning of Sept. 25 amid a din of whis- 

 tles like that heard when the old year passes out and the new comes in, 

 made up of the combined clamor of all the harbor craft, the hoarse blast from 

 the tugs, and deeper bass of the big liners, the firing of guns, the cheering 

 of the folks assembled on the shores of the three boroughs, and the neigh- 

 boring state. 



From the lee of Jersey shore, where Kill von Kull cleaves the way between 

 the sister state and Staten island, there emerged a strange vessel. Its high poop, 

 its rigging, its entire makeup bespoke the day that has long since passed. Be- 

 sides the Cunarder Caronia, which passed in strung with flags from stem 

 to stern in its honor the foreign-looking boat appeared ridiculously small. In 

 fact, it was completely blanketed. 



Yet, after a lapse of three centuries, its day had come again — a glorified 

 day in which a great city paid its tribute in respect to the Half Moon and 

 what it stood for. 



Likewise the Clermont, typifying the day when Manhattan stretched to 

 Canal street and no farther, while Brooklyn was a village, when the science 

 of navigation by steam was in its infancy, got such a reception as Fulton never 

 had in the bygone days when his genius came to be recognized. 



There came near being an end to the most attractive feature of the entire 

 celebration before matters were straightened out and a start was made. The 

 Half Moon and the Clermont collided while rounding the turn off the ferry 

 house close to St. George. The Half Moon had broken out sail at the time 

 and w^as footing it in great shape under a cloud of canvas, but the twenty knot 

 wind proved too much for it. In spite of the efforts of the Dutch crew to 

 prevent it the vessel bore down on the long, low lying Clermont and rapped 

 it smartly on the port side amidships. 



The Clermont, with its outside paddle wheels churning the water of the 

 bay into a yeastly smother, tried to get out of the way, but the Half Moon, 

 which was like a chip on the ocean in comparison with the present day liners, 

 proved fully as ambitious as the record breaking four day boats and bore 

 down into the wind with a speed which would have made Henry Hudson open 

 his eyes wide in astonishment. 



