This is a very good place for a landfall and pleasant land to look at—the journal of Robert Juet, mate to Henry Hudson aboard the Half Moon.
FOR 400 YEARS, folks have been capitalizing on that initial observation, made by one of the first Europeans to lay eyes on our gorgeous riverfront landscape. About 190 listings featuring the name “Hudson” appear in the Jersey City/Bayonne/Hoboken Yellow Pages, including the Hudson Reporter, Hudson County Racing Pigeon Club, and Henry L. Hudson himself.
I tried finding Henry L. Hudson, the only Henry Hudson listed in Jersey City. My dream interview would be a guy retired from the Colgate plant who was distantly related to the original Henry and had nothing better to do than jaw with me. His phone was unlisted, and the address was not close enough for my usual bike ride, so I borrowed my friend’s car and ventured forth. It was dusk on a Friday afternoon and my reception was as chilly as the late winter winds that swept down this residential street, lined with barren trees. The neighborhood called to mind Mr. Juet’s word “pleasant,” but I neglected to anticipate how I might look, ringing the doorbell, uninvited during an economic crisis. I could easily be the repro woman or protective services come to claim the kids. I was waved away by someone—maybe a Hudson descendant—glaring from an upstairs window.
I recalled that Hudson’s reception by the Native Americans wasn’t always cordial either. But I was luckier than a shipmate named Colman who was shot with an arrow through the throat and died.
It’s hard to imagine that Hudson, searching obsessively for the Northwest Passage, had any idea what effect four centuries of settlement, development, invention, innovation, and industry would have on the land that would become the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx and their neighbors across the river that would bear his name.
Hudson County has a good track record when it comes to honoring that voyage. In 1909, the 300th anniversary was celebrated with exhibits and programs; memorabilia from those events have been preserved for posterity. This year, there will be “lectures on Henry Hudson and the Dutch experience and on the river itself and what it’s meant to the people of the area in the industrial period and the formative days before the industrial period,” says Bill LaRosa, Hudson County director of cultural affairs and tourism.
He will be working with Pam Hepburn’s Tug Pegasus Preservation Project (See p. TK) on Hoboken events. Visit hobokennj.org to find out more.
Plays, readings, boat rides, walking tours, excursions, films, performances, lectures, sea shanties—the original Henry Hudson would be turning over in his watery grave. On June 22, 1611, the crew of another of his ships, again searching for the Northwest Passage, mutinied, and Henry Hudson was never seen again. JCM
If you decide to celebrate …
visithudson.org
(201) 459-2070
henryhudson400.com
hudson400.com