The Hudson

The excerpt about shipbuilding from Anna Bradbury's History of the City of Hudson quoted yesterday mentions that the first ship built in Hudson, completed in 1785, was called The Hudson.

In 1985, DPW workers built a replica of The Hudson for the City's bicentennial celebration. In 1997, the newly organized preservation group Historic Hudson persuaded DPW to take The Hudson out of mothballs for the first Flag Day Parade extravaganza, and it's been a regular part of the Flag Day Parade ever since. In 2008, the Common Council commandeered The Hudson and made it its official conveyance for the Flag Day Parade. No parade in Hudson is complete without it. The picture above shows The Hudson in this summer's Hudson Pride Parade.

The replica ship/float used to be towed by a giant white whale that would periodically spout water--much to the surprise and glee of spectators standing too close. The whale was designed to fit over a 1980s vintage Jeep. Unfortunately, the Jeep in question stopped running a few years ago, so now The Hudson appears in parades towed by an unadorned DPW pickup truck.