by Don Rittner
Around this time four hundred years ago, a small yacht, the first fur trading ship built in North America, sailed up from New York Bay to check on the progress of some of their colleagues.
Captain Adriaen Block and his crew had sent the crew of the Fortune under command of Hendrick Chrisiaensen up river to build a small fort on an island named Castle.
The small yacht, the Onrust, Dutch for “Restless,” was itself brand new. It was built in New York Bay over the winter of 1613-14 because Block’s larger ship the Tyger had burned. It was either freeze to death in the grips of a severe winter (we were in the little ice age at the time) or build a ship. It took four months to build the Onrust thanks to having a ship carpenter, 23-year-old Herman Hillenbrantsen on board to guide the workers.
Block and Christiaensen were part of an exploratory expedition to seek out Native populations and create a trading network with natives for much needed furs to keep warm back in Europe. A third party, under the command of Thijs Mossel and his Nightingale was part of this combined company – the three agreeing to share the profits. Not all went well with Mossel’s ship getting stolen by mutineers made up from all three ships and the following shoot-um-up was something out of a Johnny Depp pirate movie. The mutineers took the Nightingale out to sea. Block had to build the Onrust but sent Christiaensen up river with the Fortune. Upon completion of the Onrust, Block and crew sailed up the river to check on the progress of fort building.
This small outpost, named Fort Nassau, named after Prince Maurice, the Prince of Orange/Nassau in the Netherlands, had a trading house 38 by 27 foot, a defensive wall (either palisade or horizontal wall) 58 by 58 foot square and surrounded by an 18 foot moat. This was the only Dutch “occupation” with a building in North America.
Fort Nassau led to the founding of Albany and the founding of New York City indirectly.
This small fort was the beginning of the Dutch occupation of New Netherland as it was to be called and was six years before the often touted Pilgrim colony to the north, which incidentally would have settled at Albany if the Dutch government had honored their request for protection.
Christiaensen became commander of the fort until he was killed by a native named Orson.
Unfortunately Castle Island kept flooding each year and the Dutch traders moved over to the mainland and off the island and built Fort Nassau II in 1617 which they used until they built Fort Orange in 1624. Very little is known about this second Fort Nassau.
The Dutch made the mistake of siding with the Mohicans when they were fighting with the Mohawks and felt obliged to evacuate the civilians living in Fort Orange to move south to Fort Amsterdam, the beginning of New York City in 1626. By 1628 the war was over and the Dutch West India Company that took over the area in 1621 decided it was too costly to maintain a settlement and opened up the area for manorial grants and the Manor of Rensselaerwyck began in 1630. The rest is Albany history.
Unfortunately while we should be celebrating this history there is a proposal to build oil heating boilers on or near the site of Fort Nassau I, and maybe even Fort Nassau II since we do not know where that was located. The public gathering on Wednesday February 12 saw 75 people speaking out against this proposal by Global Companies to build the oil heating plant on the Port of Albany, formerly Castle Island. There was no mention of the fact that Fort Nassau, where the beginnings of American Democracy began, was underneath this proposed site.
Ironic that the very place that freedom of speech began, the place that created the mechanism for those 75 people to speak last night, may get further destroyed for good if the oil boiling plant gets approved.
Ironic that the replica of the Onrust, built by volunteers from 2006-2009, sits quietly on the southern part of the Port overwintering not far from the first visit of its namesake in 1614 and location of the oil boiling plant proposal.
Happy 400th to Albany and The Onrust.
You can contribute to the Onrust Project for the next six days at http://igg.me/at/onrust