Today, New York City residents watched as the French frigate Hermione and other replica warships sailed down the Hudson and past Manhattan as part of the "Parade of Ships," an Independence Day celebration. Hermione was one of several replicas that, along with other motorists, cruised down the river and around New York Harbor, as part of a unique 4th of July celebration.

Historians say Hermione and the good news it brought -- that French reinforcements were on the way -- buoyed the American spirit in the young nation's fight with the British.

"That message was the turning point in the whole war because it gave Washington the assurance that help was coming," Miles Young, the leader of a group called the Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America, told CBS News. "And then help came, and the rest is history."

Carrying Marquis de Lafeyette, a French general, aristocrat and friend of George Washington, the ship arrived in U.S waters in 1780 to assist in the revolutionary cause and protect French interests. The Hermione was a 32-gun frigate of the Concorde class, big and tall with cannons blazing over the sides.

More than 200 feet in length and boasting a 160-foot mast, the frigate hoisted massive square sails. More than two dozen 12-pounder long guns made up the warship's main armament. Its rigging featured a complicated web of ropes. It was a top-of-the-line warship for its time.

Miles Young, the head of the Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America, hopes the replica will help forge more French-American friendships.

"This is one of the symbolic journeys of freedom in history," Young told Voice of America. "It celebrates the birth of the United States as a free and independent nation."

The original Hermione, which wrecked off the French coast in 1793, was built in just 11 months. It took 17 years to build the replica. It sailed from France earlier this year and arrived in Norfolk, Virginia in June.

After passing the Statue of Liberty on Saturday (another gift from the French), the frigate will head up the coast and will continue to travel up the Eastern Seaboard through the end of the summer.