Naval History & Heritage Command

VIRGINIA CAPES (June 2, 2015) The Arleigh Burke-class guid­ed-mis­sile destroy­er USS Mitsch­er (DDG 57), right, pro­vides a warm wel­come to the French tall ship replica the Hermione in the vicin­i­ty of the Bat­tle of Vir­ginia Capes off the east coast of the Unit­ed States. The orig­i­nal Hermione brought French Gen­er­al Mar­quis de Lafayette to Amer­i­ca in 1780 to inform Gen­er­al Wash­ing­ton that a French army was head­ed for the Unit­ed States to assist in the war effort.. The sym­bol­ic return of the Hermione will pay homage to Lafayette and the Fran­co-Amer­i­can alliance that brought vic­to­ry at the Bat­tle of York­town in 1781. Dur­ing the Hermione Voy­age she will vis­it York­town, Va June 5 and then con­tin­ue up the east coast vis­it­ing cities of Fran­co-Amer­i­can his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance. (U.S. Navy pho­to by Mass Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Spe­cial­ist 1st Class Michael Sandberg/Released) ‪#‎Part­ner­ships­Mat­ters‬‪#‎His­to­ry­Mat­ters‬ ‪#‎USNavy‬