It will always be my favorite Fourth of July celebration!
It was in 1976 that the Tall Ships came to New York Harbor to help us all celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the nation.
Sea cadets from countries all over the world, men and women who were training for life on the seas in defense of their own nations, were all gathering in New York Harbor to celebrate our freedom.
Yacht Clubs, historical societies and just plain nice generous people were hosting all kinds of activities and celebrations for our visitors, and Atlantic Highlands played a major role in providing the base for the cadets’ coming and going to their ships.
There were parties for them in Keyport, at Monmouth Hills, and so many other places and cadets of all nationalities and languages got treated to everything from American hots dogs and pizza to watermelon and corn on the cob, many for the first time.
It was a time we all also heard the terrible stories, true or not, of the Esmeralda, one of two four masted barquentines in this magnificent array of tall ships. The Esmeralda was the training trip of Chile and the sister ship of the Juan Sebastian de Elcano, though built 20 years earlier. The Juan Sebastian was also here as Spain’s training ship in the parade.
The Esmeralda was hosted during OpSail ’76 by the Keyport Yacht Club, and that club faced residents who marched in front of it carrying anti Esmeralda signs.
Stories preceded the Esmeralda that she was a “torture ship” having been a prison ship under the Pinochot regime in the late 1970s. Horrific stories of how Chile’s jails overflowed under the cruel dictator and the ship was used to crowd in more prisoners who were tortured and abused.
In Keyport protestors complained the ship’s history should mean the training ship should have no place in America’s freedom display. The protests and angry sign carrying Americans all derided the ship and their signs in front of the Yacht Club were meant to indicate the crew would not be recognized or treated to festivities.
Not so in Atlantic Highlands where the ship anchored off shore and the cadets came on land. The McCallums and other families, like the Ruddys and the Sundins not only welcomed the crew but hosted events, had them sleep in their homes, and in general showed them what the folks in these parts of America are really like.
At the end of festivities on July 3, the cadets had to report back to the ship for their early morning preparation for the Parade of the Tall Ships to New York July 4.
Fanny McCallum had made arrangements for the Capt. Louie out of Highlands and that boat owner volunteered to take the crew back to their ship. The cadets and American hosts and other friends, including me, were on the Capt. Louie heading back to the Esmeralda.
Minutes before midnight, the Capt Louie pulled up to the side of the Esmeralda, and as the cadets gave hugs and farewell wishes to new friends, they scrambled up the sides of their ship, asking us to wait a few minutes.
We did.
As the cadets lined the deck of the ship, resplendent in their white uniforms and bright white broad smiles shining forth from happy brown faces, a bell on the ship tolled; it was midnight , the moon was shining and July 4 had arrived.
And the sea cadets on the Esmeralda, in broken but beautiful English, sang Happy Birthday to America, and us in the Capt. Louie.
You can never forget thrills like that.
