Figurehead of the 'Half Moon' ('De Halve Maen'), 1912 (colour litho)

The Halve Maen was a Dutch East India Company vlieboot which sailed into what is now New York Harbor in September 1609; commissioned by the Dutch Republic to find an eastern passage to Asia, the ship was captained by Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch Republic; Henry Hudson (b. c.1570) English navigator and explorer; The Hudson River in New York and New Jersey is named after him, as are Hudson County, New Jersey, the Henry Hudson Bridge, and the town of Hudson, New York; from a series of illustrations of ship's figureheads produced as cigarette cards by Players;