Norse American Centennial Sloop 1925 Issue-2c

''Restauration'' was a

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

built in 1801, in

Hardanger Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord and its inner branches of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord. It consists of the municipalities of Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik and Kvam, and is l ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. It became a symbol of

Norwegian American Norwegian Americans ( nb, Norskamerikanere, nn, Norskamerikanarar) are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the ...

immigration. Historical sources may contain several variations on the name of the sloop, including ''Restauration'', ''Restoration'', ''Restaurasjonen'', and ''Restorasjon''.

History

On what is considered the first organized emigration from Norway to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, ''Restauration'' set sail from

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

on July 4, 1825, with 52 people aboard, many of them Norwegian

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

. Probably many of this group belonged to a similar local movement, the

Haugean The Haugean movement or Haugeanism ( no, haugianere) was a Pietistic state church reform movement intended to bring new life and vitality into the Church of Norway which had been often characterized by formalism and lethargy. The movement empha ...

s, a Lutheran sect which derived its name from

Hans Nielsen Hauge Hans Nielsen Hauge (3 April 1771 – 29 March 1824) was a 19th-century Norwegian Lutheran lay minister, spiritual leader, business entrepreneur, social reformer and author. He led a noted Pietism revival known as the Haugean movement. Hauge is also ...

. The group, led by

Cleng Peerson Cleng Peerson (17 May 1783 – 16 December 1865) was a Norwegian emigrant to the United States; his voyage in 1824 was the precursor for the boat load of 52 Norwegian emigrants in the following year. That boat load was a precursor for the main ...

, landed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on October 9, 1825, after a three-month voyage. The voyage is described in

Ole Rynning Ole Rynning (April 4, 1809 – September 1838) was a Norwegians, Norwegian emigrant pioneer and author. Rynning was born in Ringsaker in Hedmark county, Norway. He was the son of the priest Jens Rynning (1778–1857) and the uncle of Bernt Julius M ...

's ''Amerika-boka'' (The America Book, 1838). For a vessel of her size ''Restauration'' had far more passengers on board than were allowed by American law. This resulted in a severe fine, confiscation of the ship and the arrest of the captain, L. O. Helland. The situation was solved when President

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...

pardoned the captain on 15 November, released him and the ship, and rescinded the fine. The people who made this voyage, who are sometimes referred to as the "Sloopers," moved onward to their first settlement in Kendall, Orleans County,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Recognition

The

Norse-American Centennial The Norse-American Centennial celebration was held at the Minnesota State Fair on June 6–9, 1925. Description The event served to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival during 1825 of the Norwegian immigrant ship '' Restauration''. T ...

was held in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

on June 7–9, 1925, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the arrival of ''Restauration'' in New York City. The

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

also issued two stamps to commemorate the 1825 arrival. The 2-cent stamp has for its central design a ship representing ''Restauration''. The illustration on the two cent stamp is an artist's rendition of what ''Restauration'' probably looked like based on a drawing of its sister ship. The 5-cent stamp has for its central design a

Viking ship Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia from the Viking Age throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as bein ...

. This design is from a photograph of ''Viking'' which sailed from Norway to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

for the

Columbian Exposition of 1893 The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

. The design on the 5-cent stamp was from a photograph of an exact size replica of ''Viking''. A flag of the United States is seen waving from the bow of the ship. That ship was a replica of the Gokstad ship on display in the Viking Ship Museum in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. In 1975, in honor of the

sesquicentennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. ...

of the arrival of ''Restauration'',

was depicted on a Norwegian NOK 1.40

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

. The date of

Leif Erikson Day Leif Erikson Day is an annual observance that occurs on October 9. It honors Leif Erikson (Old Norse: ''Leifr Eiríksson'', is, Leifur Eiríksson, no, Leiv Eiriksson, Swedish: ''Leif Eriksson''), the Norse explorer who led the first Europeans ...

in the United States was chosen to coincide with the day ''Restauration'' arrived in

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

: October 9. A replica of ''Restauration'' was built at Jørn Flesjå's small wooden shipyard at

Finnøy Finnøy is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The island municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was merged into Stavanger Municipality. It was located in the traditional district of Ryfylke. The a ...

Ryfylke Ryfylke is a traditional district in the northeastern part of Rogaland county, Norway. The district is located northeast of the city of Stavanger and east of the city of Haugesund and it encompasses about 60% of the county's area. It includes ...

, Norway.''Norwegian Mayflower'' (Ryfylke Trebåtbyggjeri at Finnøy in Rogaland)
The replica was launched in 2010 and is now used for education and charter excursions in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 47 ...

References

External links

{{Commons category, Restauration (ship, 1801)
The Norwegian Sloop Restoration Page

Hall of Stamps – The Norse American Stamps
Age of Sail sloops First arrivals in the United States Norwegian migration to North America Passenger ships of Norway Ships built in Norway 1801 ships

History

Recognition

References

Related reading

External links