At nine o'clock on Thursday morning, November 3, the flotilla set sail from Albany on the broad Hudson; the canal boats were in tow of strong steamers, the "Chancellor Livingston" leading the way. Unfortunately "Noah's Ark" with its bears and Indians had not kept up with the main procession and did not arrive in time to start for New York. The steamers swept the boats rapidly onward; they were saluted at Catskill, West Point and Newburgh, and arrived at New York at daylight of November 4, anchoring near the state prison. The steamer "Washington," magnificently decorated, came alongside the "Chancellor Livingston" bearing the committees of the Corporation and the officers of the Governor's Guard. Alderman Cowdrey made an address to which Clinton replied. At nine o'clock the fleet from Albany accompanied by a fleet bearing the Corporation set out for open sea. The spectacle was one to attract much attention. Salutes were fired from the Battery, from the forts on Governor's Island, and from Forts Lafayette and Tompkins. The destination of the pageant was indicated by the U. S. schooner "Porpoise" which preceded the other craft and moored within the Hook, where the interesting ceremony of wedding the waters of the Atlantic and the Great Lakes was to be held. "... Never before," wrote an enraptured beholder, "was there such a fleet collected, and so superbly decorated; and it is very possible that a display so grand, so beautiful, and we may even add, sublime, will never again be witnessed. We know of nothing with which it can be compared.... The orb of day darted his genial rays upon the bosom of the waters, where they played as tranquilly as upon the natural mirror of a secluded lake. Indeed the elements seemed to repose, as if to gaze upon each other, and participate in the beauty and grandeur of the sublime spectacle."[40] At the auspicious moment the Governor of New York permitted the water from Lake Erie to fall into the ocean, saying: "This solemnity, at this place, on the first arrival of vessels from Lake Erie, is intended to indicate and commemorate the navigable communication, which has been accomplished between our Mediterranean Seas and the Atlantic Ocean, in about eight years, to the extent of more than four hundred and twenty-five miles, by the wisdom, public spirit, and energy of the people of the state of New York; and may the God of the Heavens and the Earth smile most propitiously on this work, and render it subservient to the best interests of the human race."[41] Whereupon the "Young Lion of the West" gave a brave salute from "a pair of brazen lungs" which he had provided for himself at Rochester, and a collation was served on the fleet.