At the height of the American revolution, french General Lafayette persuaded King Louis XVI to provide financial and military support to the rebels. In 1780 Lafayette’s ship the Hermione arrived in Boston carrying reinforcements and much needed supplies.

Now, more than 200 years after the original ship was lost at sea in 1783 a 17 year project costing more than $30 million may see an exact replica of the ship return to Boston.

A exact reconstruction of the 213-foot three-masted ship, created using the same materials and methods used to create the originals, tested the waters for the first time at high tide on Sunday morning. The initial run took the ship from Rochefort docks toward the Ile d’Aix. This is expected to be the first of several tests before the ship retraces Lafayette’s route to Boston.

“It is an important step to sail Hermione at sea, which no one has ever done. There is real pride in the collective force behind this project. There have been tense moments, but we remained united,” said Benedict Donnell president of the Hermione-Lafayette Association, according to the Daily Mail.

The enormous price rage of the project was financed by the  Rochefort ship yards 4 million annual visitors as well as crowd funding efforts.

A crowd of thousands gather along the Charente river to see the ships first test run, which was delayed only slightly by a sediment build up.

Following initial trial runs, the replica of the Hermione will spend a week in Bordaux for public viewing before returning to Rochefort to prepare for its overseas journey. Ex-naval officer Yann Cariou will captain the ship on its maiden voyage to the United States.