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Our History: He lost his ship, then found a new passage

By Joan Brown Wettingfeld

Out of the ventures of a Dutch lawyer-turned-explorer eventually grew the great commercial center of the city of New York.

The failure of a small band of Dutch sailors and their leader, Adrian Block, whose voyage ended on the tip of present-day Manhattan when their ship, the “Tiger,” was destroyed by fire in the winter of 1613, changed the course of our history.

It was the prospect of commerce, not colonization that motivated this former lawyer with an eye for enterprise. After the fire Block and his men, during the bitter cold winter, set about to replace his former ship using tools salvaged from its remains and timber from the trees on the island. It was the first ship constructed here. Block, who had been with Henry Hudson on his voyage, and his men set up a small temporary encampment of huts to provide shelter during the construction of the new ship, thus foreshadowing the New Amsterdam settlement that was to come. They christened the new ship the “Onrust,”or “Restless.”

From the misfortune of losing his first ship came historic developments. With a new seaworthy ship he planned to return to the Netherlands, and in the process, his venturesome nature led him to be the first European to sail up the Long Island Sound, believing as he did that it was an inland sea. He also was to discover the nature of the land that bounded the Sound. As his new ship sailed from New York harbor into the narrow inlet on the east side of present day Manhattan, the straits off of Ward's Island, he had to pass through the place we know as Hell Gate today. He named the passage ” Hellegat.” The tide here roared through, creating a dangerous passage, but Block and his crew made it through and became the first Europeans to sail into Long Island Sound, and thus began an important voyage of discovery.

Some suggest the name “Hellegat” in Dutch may have been a variation of “Horl-gat” or “channel of the whirlpool,” but later scholars claim the meaning to be “bright passage,” or “beautiful passage,” while admitting the latter possibly could be an indication of the entire East River. Such is the mythic nature of the origins of geographic names!

Block, as he proceeded up the river, carefully mapped his discoveries. He sailed in and out of inlets and eventually reached Block Island, naming it Adrian Block Eylandt. He also explored the mouth of the Connecticut River calling it “fresh river.”

Reaching today's Montauk Point he named it “Hoeck van de Visschers” or “Point of the Fishers.” Noting the vast open ocean beyond, Block realized that he had been sailing along a large island and he gave it the name Lange Eylandt and claimed it and all the territory lying between Connecticut and the Delaware Rivers for the Netherlands giving it the name “New Netherlands.”

In 1616, Adrian Block mapped Long Island, the first such map, showing what looked like a series of islands pushed together. Earlier in 1614, Block had also claimed North and South Brother Islands in the East River, naming them “De Gesellen” or “the companions.” South Brother Island remained part of Queens until 1964 and is the only major island in New York City that has never been publicly owned.

Another chapter in the story of Hell Gate occurred on Oct. 10, 1885 when nearly 300,000 pounds of explosives ( produced on Great Mill Rock and Little Mill Rock Islands) were detonated in the East River. This created the largest intentional explosion prior to the atomic bomb. The army was determined to eliminate Flood Rock, the “hellish” obstacle that had bedeviled explorers like Block and shipping for centuries. Hundred of wrecks had foundered here and larger ships had been denied passage. Some 100,000 spectators lined the banks of the East River to witness the explosion. Shocks from the blast were felt as far away as Princeton, New Jersey.

Block became a celebrity on his return to the Netherlands. Government officials, after hearing his report, declared the area he had surveyed, “Nieu Niederlandt,” and permitted charters to be issued to allow merchants to trade and for settlements to be begun, thus signaling the beginning of a future commercial metropolis, New York City. By 1636, the Dutch began their purchases of land on Long Island.

As restless as his ship, the “Onrust,” Adrian Block should be given the credit he has long deserved. He was an explorer whose venturous nature and courage led him to conquer misfortune, brave the risk of passage through then dangerous waters at Hell Gate, and sail into history. He recognized Long Island as an island, made its first map, claimed and named New Netherlands, discovered Block Island, which at the time was strategically placed for trading, and established a precedent for settlement and trade on the tip of present-day Manhattan, which is directly tied to the commercial history of New York City. Today, the seal of the city still bears an image of a beaver, to signify fur trade that launched our commercial heritage. It is reported that there is a tablet on 41 Broadway, which marks Block's sojourn on Manhattan as “the first habitation of a white man on the island of Manhattan,” a statement I cannot verify.

Hopefully, it is still in existence.