The ''Onrust'' (; ) was a Dutch ship built by

Adriaen Block Adriaen Courtsen Block (c. 1567 – 27 April 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four voyages ...

and the crew of the '' Tyger'', which had been destroyed by fire in the winter of 1613. The ''Onrust'' was the first ship to be built in what is now New York State, and the first

fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

vessel built in America. The construction took four months in the winter of 1614 somewhere in

New York Bay New York Bay is the large tidal body of water in the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary where the Hudson River, Raritan River, and Arthur Kill empty into the Atlantic Ocean between Sandy Hook, New Jersey, Sandy Hook and Rockaway Point. Geogr ...

. Help from the local Native population is surmised based on the relationship developed by Jon Rodriquez, left on the island during a previous voyage. The ''Onrust'' was 44.5 feet long and capable of carrying 16 tons. In 1614, Block sailed through the whirlpools ( Hellegat) on the

East River The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, ...

, and into Long Island Sound. There he named

Block Island Block Island is an island of the Outer Lands coastal archipelago in New England, located approximately south of mainland Rhode Island and east of Long Island's Montauk Point. The island is coterminous with the town of New Shoreham, Rhode Isl ...

for himself. Block was also the first European to venture up the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...

. He managed to get as far as the Enfield rapids, about 60 miles up the river. Besides finding several inland water routes, creating trading networks and mapping native villages, the two first accurate maps of the east coast were drawn based on the voyages of the ''Onrust''. Later in the year, Block rendezvoused with the ''Fortuyn'', also under his command, near Cape Cod and sailed back to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

on 1 October 1614. The ''Onrust'' was last reported in 1616 as headed to explore the "New River", now known as the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

under Cornelius Hendrickson.

Onrust Project

From 2006 to 2009 the Onrust Project, a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

, directed by Don Rittner and Greta Wagle, built a replica of the ''Onrust'' at the

Schenectady County Historical Society The Schenectady County Historical Society, located in Schenectady, New York, was established on July 14, 1905, under the Membership Corporation Laws of the State of New York. The Society is an independent not-for-profit corporation, not a unit of g ...

's Mabee Farm Historic Site in Rotterdam Junction, NY. Master shipwright and naval architect Gerald DeWeerdt of the Netherlands, and shipwright Howard Mittleman of North River Restorations in Schenectady, N.Y. led the team of volunteers. Construction used both modern power tools and traditional hand tools to build the ship, employing authentic 17th century Dutch ship building techniques rediscovered by ship archeologists in the Netherlands. The material is mostly

white oak ''Quercus'' subgenus ''Quercus'' is one of the two subgenera into which the genus ''Quercus'' was divided in a 2017 classification (the other being subgenus ''Cerris''). It contains about 190 species divided among five sections. It may be calle ...

with pine decking, most of which was sawn nearby by one of the volunteers. The replica is held together by more than 4,000 hand-made

black locust ''Robinia pseudoacacia'', commonly known as black locust, is a medium-sized hardwood deciduous tree, belonging to the tribe Robinieae of the legume family Fabaceae. It is native to a few small areas of the United States, but it has been widely pl ...

tree nails called trunnels and iron rivets. Much of the metal fittings and rivets were hand-made by local blacksmiths of wrought iron; others, as well as cannon, use authentic bronze. The replica ''Onrust'' was first launched into the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson R ...

on May 20, 2009, and was able to participate in NY400 that year, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage.

Notes

External links

{{Commons category, Onrust (ship, 2009)
the Onrust Project
1610s ships Exploration ships of the Dutch Republic New Netherland