RICHMOND, Va. — With the help of the U.S. Army, three tall ships sailed up the James River and are docked at Rocketts Landing for Richmond SailFest, a commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary.
The Oosterschedle joined The Pride of Baltimore II and The Virginia along with dockside entertainment and concessions for the three-day, weekend-long festival at Dock Street Park.
Matu O’Flaherty, a native of Scotland, worked his way up from volunteer to chief mate on the Oosterschelde based in the Netherlands.
He now spends eight months of the year working, living, and sailing in open seas with six crew members on the three-masted topsail schooner.
“My personal goal sailing on these kinds of ships is to inspire young people just like I was when I was 17. To show people that this can be a vocation and show people the passion and the bug you can get from sailing ships like this,” O’Flaherty said.
The crew is in charge of the ship’s maintenance, painting, woodwork, plus their own cooking and hospitality when guests rent the ship for tours.
O’Flaherty said their purpose is to keep the largest restored Dutch sailing ship built in 1918 alive.
“It’s a ship with a story. It’s a ship with a history and is well over 100 years old. In this day and age, the best way to do that is to sail with a guest crew,” he said.
Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC) and the City of Richmond organized the “once-in-a-generation moment—one of celebration, reflection, and aspiration.”
Jamie Bosket, VMHC’s CEO and president, opened the festival with a countdown and a cannon blast.
“We knew we wanted to mark this moment celebrating America’s 250th and what better way than starting here on the river where the history is so rich,” Bosket said. “It’s been a long time since we had something this epic take place on the riverfront.”
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula said Parks and Rec Director Chris Frelke approached the museum and city leaders two years to begin planning for the event.
“Richmond plays a really important role not just in the history of Virginia but our entire country. We thought it was really important to put time, thought and planning to look at how to lift up that history,” Mayor Danny Avula said.
In his speech, Avula highlighted that the Powhatan tribe was already settled in the area years before European settlers sailed up the James River.
“Centuries before the Europeans arrived on these shores, dugout canoes carried families and food and tools and traded goods between villages and tribes,” he said. “This land was not a wilderness waiting to be settled. It was already a vibrant network or relationships, of economic activity, and community.”
Avula said the James River would later carry thousands of enslaved Africans in the city where families would walk along the riverbank to Shockoe Bottom.
“Our history is complicated, right? This is, in part, a celebration of our country, but, in part, an acknowledgement that our history hasn’t always been positive. And, in part, an aspirational look at who we can become over the next 250 years,” Avula said.
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