Operation Sail 2000 served as a tremendous celebration of the coming of the new millennium. It unfurled as a greater nautical spectacle than ever before, with the largest peacetime assembling of naval and training ships to date-120 tall ships, more than 40 warships from around the world, and 70,000 smaller pleasure craft.
On the fourth of July in New York Harbor, President Clinton reenacted for only the sixth time in history the ritual that President Grover Cleveland had first carried out from aboard the USS Dolphin in New York’s inaugural International Naval Review in 1893. This time, from aboard the USS Hue City, Clinton reviewed a 17-mile-long formation of imposing, gray-hulled titans-the frigates and destroyers of navies around the world, each man-of-war firing a one-gun salute as the president passed.
In addition to the large-scale celebrations in New York, other ports hosted parades of sail from San Juan, Miami, New Orleans, Norfolk, and Baltimore up to Philadelphia and New London.