She had a length of 21 metres and was commissioned by the VOC Chamber of Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic to covertly find a northern passage to Asia.

On behalf of the Dutch East India Company, she set sail from the Netherlands on April 6, 1609 under the command of the Englishman Henry Hudson to explore the northwest passage to the Pacific.

From Cape Sable, Hudson followed the eastern American coast south to the Delaware River, past Manhattan and Long Island.

The keel was laid on 29 October 1908, and on 15 April 1909 the ship was launched and then transported to the US on the Holland America Lines freight liner Soestdijk in order to attend the 1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration in New York, arriving in July.

Benton, a master ship-rigger and shipwright, was president of the Rigging Gang of Middletown, Rhode Island, which specialized in colonial ship restoration and design.

[16] At 10 feet (3.0 m) in both height and length, the model of Halve Maen on top of the SUNY System Administration Building in Albany, New York, is claimed to be the largest working weathervane in North America.

[17] Halve Maen is mentioned in the 1819 story of Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, when the protagonist ventures into the Catskill Mountains and discovers Henry Hudson and the ship's crew.