Suspended animation in fiction which is indistinguishable from death. In American fiction, the first story to deal with suspended animation is the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819 as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. In the story, a British subject in the American colonies wanders into the Catskill Mountains in the years before the American Revolutionary War, and finds a group of fairies, whose moonshine he drinks. He then falls asleep for 20 years, and returns to his village in what is now the United States, finding his home town
MV Rip Van Winkle Long Island as the "Yankee Clipper." During her time with the New England Steamboat lines, the vessel was contracted in service to the Navy as a ferry boat for the sailors in New London. Hudson River Cruises bought the boat in 1985 and brought it to Kingston, New York in September of that year. "Rip van Winkle" went into service on the Hudson River in 1986. MV Rip Van Winkle M/V "Rip Van Winkle" is a Hudson River tour boat based in Kingston, New York. She was built for use in the oil industry in 1980, but has served as