he opening of the newest cruise port,
Cape Liberty in Bayonne, N.J., across the Hudson River from New
York, brought back a flood of memories.
From its inception and for decades after that, Bayonne was the
place where Travel Weekly was printed. When I started working here
in the mid-'60s, I was given a schedule of dates when I would go to
Jersey Printing on Linnett Street in Bayonne to assist in the
closing of that week's issue.
Like others on the editorial staff who visited Bayonne on a
rotating schedule, I took the PATH train from Manhattan to Jersey
City and a taxi from there to Bayonne. From midafternoon until well
into the evening, I sat in a tiny room, waiting for the composing
room staff to bring proofs of the last few pages of the issue. I
would make corrections and, in telephone contact with the editors
in New York, I signed off on the issue that would ship the next
day.
Just passing through town every few weeks, I had little idea
about the history of Bayonne or its connection with the shipping
industry. In fact, the advent of Royal Caribbean cruises out of the
new port is but the latest chapter in a history that goes back to
Henry Hudson, who claimed the area for the Netherlands in the
1600s.
Bayonne was first known as Bergen Neck, located just south of
the Dutch settlement of Bergen, now Jersey City. In the late 17th
century, the region came under British control and, nearly a
hundred years later, Fort Delancey, in what is now Bayonne, was the
scene of a Revolutionary War battle.
A canal linking the area with the rest of northern New Jersey
was built in 1836, and Bergen Neck became a shipping center. It was
renamed Bayonne in 1861 and became popular as a resort area after
the Civil War.
A large shipping terminal was built in the mid-20th century and
became the largest drydock on the Eastern seaboard.
During World War II, Bayonne was critically important as the
site of the Military Ocean Terminal.
From that point through the Persian Gulf War and the Haiti
mission of the 1990s, the terminal bustled with activity as ships
carried goods to the war zones.
Now the Voyager of the Seas and the Empress of the Seas will
sail from Bayonne, and Cape Liberty, built with substantial support
from the state of New Jersey and Royal Caribbean, will join the
soon-to-be-expanded Port of New York in bringing the New York-New
Jersey region to the forefront of the cruise era.