Sloops of The Hudson
by: William E. Verplanck and Moses W. Collyer
G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York & London, 1908

The book that inspired the building of the Sloop Clearwater

In the early 1960s, Vic Schwartz of Cold Spring, friend, commercial artist, and American history buff, told me that the Hudson once had many large stoops. Some of those sloops had booms 70 ft. long. It was hard to believe. Vic loaned me a tattered copy of S!oops of the Hudson, written by William Verplanck and Moses Collyer (Putnam, 1908). I read it through in a night.

Sloops of the Hudson may not have been great literature, but it was (and is) a fine little book. It inspired me one cold January night in 1966 to sit up until 3:00 A.M. typing a 7-page single-spaced letter to Vic. “Why don’t we get a few hundred families together and build a life-size Hudson River Sloop?”

The idea was about as practical as a plan to build a canoe and paddle to Tahiti. In early spring, Vic Schwartz called me on the phone. “Hey, Pete, when are we going to start building that sloop?”

“You must be kidding,” I replied.

“No. I’ve been talking it up on the commuter train. I passed your letter around, and we got a dozen people raring to go.”

I’d say the rest was history, except things like this don’t happen without a lot of planning, organization, and commitment. And at the time, it seemed like a frivolous idea. The world was full of agony, the Vietnam conflict was heating up. Money was needed for all sorts of life-and-death matters. There we were, planning to build a sailboat.

It must have been an idea that was meant to take on a life of its own. In June an organizational meeting was held at the home of Alexander Saunders near Cold Spring; 150 people attended. I sang a few songs; someone passed a hat; $167 was raised. At that meeting officers were elected to initiate the sloop project.

At our second or third meeting, we met at the home of a wealthy Hudson Valley resident who could have paid for the entire boat himself. He studied our proposed designs and said, “It’s a beautiful boat, all right. But why do you want to sail it on the Hudson? I sail the Virgin Islands myself.”

My fingers clenched in anger, but I didn’t say anything. He had just given us our best reason for building the boat. Cleaning up a river was a cause worth fighting for. We had allowed some people to make a profit from the Hudson, after which they went somewhere else to enjoy clear water. At the same meeting we made a decision to go public. It was a more far-reaching policy decision than any of us realized. The Clearwater would be everybody’s boat.

It was a bright sunny day on May 17, 1969, and over 2,000 people crowded the Gamage Shipyard and dock in South Bristol, Maine, when Clearwater was launched. To those of us who had been raising money for three years, it seemed like a miracle. The governor of Maine was there, as were many rank and file Maine citizens, young and old. Sloop members laid out a magnificent spread of homemade food. Several busloads of school children from Newburgh and other Hudson Valley towns helped smash a bottle of Hudson River Valley champagne on the bow. The crowd sang “This Land is Your Land” as the 100-ton hull slid into the water with a splash. It was a great day.

In the early morning of June 27th, Captain Allen Aunapu, together with eleven musicians, some of whom had never been in a sailboat, sailed Clearwater down the Damariscotta River. We covered 40 ocean miles in a fog and finally arrived at Portland, Maine, where we gave the first of a series of fundraising concerts which would help us make the final payments on the cost of construction, which in the end totalled $140,000.

Thirty-five days after leaving South Bristol, the first Hudson River sloop built in a century pulled into the murky waters of the East River. We tied up at South Street to the accompaniment of brass bands. Clearwater’s Hudson River career had started.

Pete Seeger
Beacon, New York

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary
of the launching of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, June, 1984.
Reprinted from Clearwater Navigator

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Home Page

Sloops of the Hudson River
by: William E. Verplanck and Moses W. Collyer

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