2009 Fall Voyage of Discovery banner
Half Moon Senior Crew

You can either scroll through these pages or click on a face to jump directly to that crew member. For the sake of public presentation during NY400 Week, we loaned provisional crew shirts at the beginning of the voyage, but mouse over the portraits below to see our new crew members be officially awarded their crew shirts at voyage's end.

BenDenniseEliEllisEmilyEric-JanJoramJosePwintRaynikaVincent
Captain William ReynoldsKipp Van AkenScott BeiterKees CollensEwout van GrondelleBob HansenRalf HenselMary Ellen JacobsRachel Laufer
Menno de LeeuwJohn W. MangrumSteve McLaughlanChristoffel MorelHenk MorelGrant PrimeFrank RodriquesMenno Smit

William Reynolds, Ship's Captain

William Reynolds: Ship's Captain

Captain William Reynolds has been captain of the Half Moon and Director of the New Netherland Museum since 1998. Before coming to the Half Moon, he captained numerous seagoing vessels, both historical and industrial. His background also includes training and work in the environmental sciences. He currently lives with his family in Selkirk, NY, and is looking forward to seeing the new student crew meet the challenges this Voyage of Discovery places before them.

Kipp Van Aken

Kipp Van Aken

Kipp Van Aken is serving as the Half Moon's chief engineer. Mr. Van Aken has a background in history, anthropology, and business, is a graduate of Hope College, and holds an MBA. He is a veteran of the US Navy Submarine Force and is retired from Southern California Edison's San Onofre Nuclear Station. He is a direct descendant of three early Dutch families in New York and is an original shareholder of the ship.

Scott Beiter

Scott Beiter

Scott Beiter is the 8th grade physical science teacher at Rensselaer Middle School.  This will be his fifth Voyage of Discovery. He looks forward to the history/science immersion of the voyage.

"This what education is about, not textbooks and worksheets."

Kees Collens

Kees Collens

Kees Collens was born in the Netherlands on September 1st, 1987. This marks the second time he's been on the Half Moon. He first sailed as a student on the 1999 Fall Voyage of Discovery, and has now returned as a member of the senior crew. On his 1999 voyage, as the Half Moon traveled upriver, the crew found themselves forced to battle Hurricane Floyd, but now Mr. Collens is back to celebrate 400 years of the Halve Maen.

Ewout van Grondelle

Ewout van Grondelle

Ewout van Grondelle, serving this year as the Half Moon's bosun and ship manager, first set foot on a sailing boat at age 13. He enjoyed sailing so much that he ended up 24 years later on a replica Dutch ship on the Hudson River. He went from sail instructor at sailing schools to mate and skipper on sailing barges. In the last few years he has been sailing as bosun on the bark Europa (external link) across the Atlantic ocean between Amsterdam and Antarctica.

On shore, Mr. Van Grondelle has a background in hospitality, tourism, and software engineering. He has a house in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, which he sees very little of.

Bob Hansen

Bob Hansen

Ship's mate Bob Hansen started sailing on the Hudson on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater; later, on two engineless sloops. Since the 1990s, he has served as a volunteer and mate on the schooners Spirit of Massachuesetts and Ernestina, as well as other vessels.

Having recently retired from a career as a self-styled "bureaucrat" with the New York State government, Mr. Hansen has now turned his attention to serving as second-in-command on board the Half Moon.

Ralf Hensel

Ralf Hensel

Ralf Hensel is a cabinetmaker and Cultural Scientist M.A. He hails from Frisia, Germany, on the North Sea coast. He met the ship’s former boatswain, Janine Oosterloo, and so heard about the possibility to volunteer on the Half Moon. He has sailed before on the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Mediterranean, but never before on such a beautiful ship—so he took his chance!

Mary Ellen Jacobs

Mary Ellen Jacobs

Mary Ellen Jacobs has an undergraduate degree in history and a Ph.D. in molecular biology & biochemistry. She is currently a researcher at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, CT. She is serving as science officer on this Voyage of Discovery, during which she hopes to introduce students to the biology of the Hudson River, as well as the history of the Henry Hudson & his crew on their 1609 voyage along the river that would bear his name.

Rachel Laufer

Rachel Laufer

Rachel Laufer first came to the Half Moon as a docent in 1999, then joined the crew as a student on the April 2000 Voyage of Discovery; she has continued to work on the ship ever since. Now that she has graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in American History and therefore has a free summer, she is thrilled to again have the chance to work on the ship for the 400th anniversary schedule.

Menno de Leeuw

Menno de Leeuw

Educator Menno de Leeuw lives in Heereveen (Friesland) and usually crosses the shallow Wadder Sea on foot. He's looking forward to this Voyage of Discovery and hopes that his students are having a wonderful time.

John W. Mangrum

John W. Mangrum

Originally hailing from the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, John W. Mangrum holds one of the most anachronistic positions the crew of a 17th-century wooden sailing ship could imagine: the Half Moon's webmaster. Seldom seen in front of the camera, the self-titled "Ship's Chronicler" oversees the daily updates to this website during our voyages. A roleplaying game designer in a past life, Mr. Mangrum is now starting his sixth year of voyages aboard the Half Moon. What started as a simple, impromptu dockside tour of the ship has since turned into a life of adventure. Mr. Mangrum is also the proud uncle of his one-year-old-and-counting nephew, who says hi.

Steve McLaughlan

Steve McLaughlan

Steve McLaughlin loves to cook and has wanted to crew on the Half Moon since his daughter sailed on a Voyage of Discovery four years ago. Recently retired from the N.Y.S. Department of Health, Mr. McLaughlin has eagerly returned for yet another voyage.

Christoffel Morel

Christoffel Morel

This is Christoffel Morel's first time on this ship. He's family of the well-known Mark & Henk Morel. Mr. Morel is a wooden shipbuilder and has worked on the Bataviawharf (external link), in Lelystad, The Netherlands. He has also sailed as a sailing instructor in the northern part of Amsterdam called Waterland, and studied Urban Planning at the University of Amsterdam.

Henk Morell

Henk Morel

Henk Morel has been a sailing instructor and has organized sailing camps all of his life, usually working with small open boats. His interests include classic sailing, restoration of old ships, and old-fashioned nautical skills. Besides this, he was worked for the Dutch government in location managing and also as a teacher in several practical technologies. The father of former Half Moon bosun Mark Morel and new crew member Christophell, Henk Morel has returned for his second Voyage of Discovery. He is pleased as ever to do so. He hopes to once again have a good time with the youths, to help overall, and to demonstrate some ropeworks and sailmaking.

Grant Prime

Grant Prime

Grant Prime teaches 5th grade at Taconic Hills Middle School. Mr. Prime has been involved with historical re-enactments for more than thirty years, and has been bringing his enthusiasm to the Half Moon each summer since 1998. He has completed his Master's in Elementary Education, and was a contributor to the New Netherland Museum's 4th- and 7th-grade curriculum materials.

Frank Rodriques

Frank Rodriques

Frank Rodriques is our usual ship's gunner. He is a resident of New Bedford, MA with a deep interest in sailing and the maritime arts. This, combined with his study of the material culture of the 17th and 18th centuries makes volunteering on the Halve Maen a natural choice.

Menno Smit

Menno Smit

Menno Smit is from The Netherlands. In 2o06 he sailed on the Half Moon for three weeks. In the Netherlands he is working as a sailor and freelance journalist about maritime history and fisheries. He also wrote some articles about the Half Moon following his first visit. In this special year he has returned to sail on the Half Moon for another two weeks. Maybe he'll meet the Half Moon again in Amsterdam by SAIL 2010?
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