Sag Harbor Reception Introduces Plans To Bring Tall Ships Back to New York Harbor for Nation's 250th Birthday Celebration
Source: Sag Harbor Express
Americans have just shy of two more years to learn how to say "semiquincentennial," as the country prepares to observe the 250th anniversary of its founding on July 4, 2026.
But Chris O'Brien, the president of Sailth 250, has more pressing thoughts on his mind: His organization needs to raise about $30 million to underwrite the cost of bringing a flotilla of tall ships to New York Harbor and four other Eastern Seaboard cities during the festivities.
On Thursday, August 8, O'Brien presented those plans to a roomful of sailing enthusiasts at a reception at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, where participants watched a video reviewing past tall ship gatherings and outlining the semiquincentennial flotilla that is expected to draw at least 30 tall ships, including the USCG Eagle, as well as another 30 modern warships. Depending on the weather, the flotilla could draw more than the 40,000 spectator boats that crowded the harbor for a tall ship review to mark the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty in 1986.
O'Brien said he was bitten by the tall ship bug when he was a U.S. Coast Guard officer assigned to the Eagle during a 1992 celebration to mark the quadricentennial of Columbus's voyage to the new world. It didn't hurt that he got to talk to Walter Cronkite that day.
After leaving the Coast Guard, he became the director of Fleet Week, when the U.S. Navy and visiting countries visit New York, before becoming the president of Sail4th.
"You can't put your finger on it, but you know it's something special," O' Brien said of the tall ship reviews that have taken place over the years in New York's harbor. "This is going to be the nation's birthday party, so it's not just something happening locally. This is the main event for the country."
Besides New York, the flotilla is expected to make stops in New Orleans, Norfolk, Virginia, Baltimore and, after New York, Boston.
With two years to go, O'Brien and organizers are working on plans to reconfigure piers that are no longer used for docking so that ships can be tied up and the public given access to them and undertaking other infrastructure work.
Also present at the American Hotel event was Seth Kaller, a dealer in historic documents, who brought along "The Promise of Liberty" show, a collection of early printed copies of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and other documents, including letters from George Washington to Congress, and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, given at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.
Kaller said the documents should not be looked at simply as artifacts. "We shouldn't be talking about the Constitution as history. We should be talking about the Constitution as technology, because technology is a system of applying knowledge to solve problems," Kaller said.
"These people weren't trying to be doctrinaire, they weren't creating a religious movement. They weren't telling us, 'This is what you have to do, this is what you have to believe.’ They're setting up a system of government that, unbelievably, with only 5,000 words, is still, almost 240 years later, with a few more words, being used."
Kaller said American democracy remained a work in progress, and noted that King himself recognized that the promises made in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were "a promissory note that the founders made to all Americans."
"The Promise of Liberty" collection will also be displayed at sites across the country during the semiquincentennial.
Before the reception at the hotel, many of the guests took complimentary cruises in a fleet of Hinkley powerboats that were loaned for the occasion by Barton & Gray, a mariners' club that owns 90 boats, which it keeps at various locations, including several on the East Coast. Club members can rent the boats, which come with a trained captain and supplies, for day trips.