An Annual Exercise in Clarification

This morning, reporting on the "Salute to Jesus" parade that took place on Warren Street yesterday, Logan Weiss noted, in an article for the Register-Star, that the parade included "a rented float from the city of Hudson" and goes on to say, "The float resembled an old wooden pioneer ship." The object in question is not a "pioneer ship." The pioneers traveled overland in Conestoga wagons. Rather it is a replica of The Hudson, a whaling ship and the first ship to be built in the City of Hudson, which, according to Anna Bradbury, was completed in 1785, the same year Hudson was incorporated as a city.

The Common Council on the replica ship, The Hudson, in 2009, the year of the Quadricentennial, Hudson's Namesake Celebration. Note the Henry Hudson style "ruffs" around the necks of several of the aldermen.

The replica ship/parade float was built in 1985 by DPW employees for the celebration of the city's bicentennial. Since 1997, it's been a regular feature in just about every parade in Hudson.

The Hudson in the 2017 OutHudson Pride Parade 
Photo: Jeff McKinney|Columbia County Current

To my knowledge, the City doesn't "rent" the replica ship for parades. Rather its use is simply requested when an application is made for a mass gathering permit. 

Last year, when the appropriateness of this municipally owned replica appearing in a "Christian parade" was questioned, Gossips discovered that the mass gathering permit application requesting its use referred to the replica ship, which was a whaling vessel, as "the Noah's Ark Boat Float."

This year, the mass gathering permit application confuses the replica ship with Henry Hudson's ship, the Half Moon.

Each time, there was no question of what was meant. It's not as though the City has a whole fleet of replica ships that are used as parade floats.
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