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French tall ship replica Hermione arrives in Yorktown

Posted at 8:37 AM, Jun 05, 2015
and last updated 2015-06-05 10:09:55-04

Yorktown, Va. – The French tall ship replica Hermione arrived in Yorktown Friday morning.

Fun fact: “Hermione” isn’t pronounced the same as Harry Potter’s best friend “her-MY-oh-knee,” it’s pronounced as the much more French “air-mee-OWN.”

Visitors will be able to take tours of the ship in Yorktown before it departs for other stops on the east coast.

The ship was guided into Virginia by the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Mitscher.

The original Hermione brought French General Marquis de Lafayette to America in 1780 to inform General Washington of France’s alliance and impending support of the American Revolutionary War.

The symbolic return of the Hermione pays homage to Lafayette and the Franco-American alliance that brought victory at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.