Old Steamboat Days on The Hudson River
By: David Lear Buckman, The Grafton Press, 1907

CHAPTER 11

Barge Travel on the River

At first the barge was, however, conceived to afford passengers the means of travel by steam without being subjected to the dangers of being upon a steamboat, with the attendant possibilities of bursting boilers and other fearful accidents from breaking machinery. The first to appear were the Lady Clinton and the Lady Van Rensselaer and they were called “safety barges.”

The barges were boats with a main and upper deck almost as long and commodious as a steamer. The main deck was fitted up with a cabin, extending in some instances the whole length of the boat. There was a long saloon, with “state” or sleeping rooms arranged along on either side. Windows looked out on water and doorways opened in on the cabin. There was generally a long table in the saloon at which meals were served for fifty cents each to the passengers. The captain of the barge always sat at the head of the table and helped make the meal hour quite an event of the trip. These barges were towed by one of the regular passenger boats up to their home town, where they would be dropped.

The “safety barges” were quite popular in their day, for they carried many passengers who were enthusiastic over the pleasure derived from a trip on the water on boats of this character.

Thomas L. McKenney, who was attached to the Department of the Interior at Washington and one of the Commissioners who with Lewis Cass negotiated the treaty with the Northwest Indians, made a barge journey up the Hudson in June, 18-26, on his way to the Great Lakes. He has left us such a vivid description of these barges and the delights of the trip, the reader will surely pardon a somewhat longer quotation than usual:

“I left New York, as it was my intention to do, in the Lady Clinton, yesterday morning, at nine o’clock. It was the first time I had ever seen one of these barges. I must say I was struck with the admirable invention, and with the extent and variety and perfection of the accommodations. You have seen steamboats. This barge, in all respects except breadth of beam and machinery, resembles the finest you ever did see.

It took me the first half hour after getting on board to walk through this floating palace. It certainly exceeds anything I have ever yet seen in all that enters into the composition of safety and comfort. Indeed there is a splendor too in the ornamental parts which is very striking and as if the inventive genius of the owners was apprehensive that the ear might grow jealous of the eye that organ had been provided for also, with a fine band of music.

I have heard some question the security of this barge, by saying her buoyancy and great elevation above the surface of the water rendered her liable to turn over. But I doubt whether if she or her sister, the Lady Van Rensselaer, were to glide up and down the North River for a century such an occurrence would happen. Were they visitants of the sea the swells of the ocean might rock them over, but never in my opinion will the North River roll so as to occasion such a disaster.

“This beautiful barge is towed by the Commerce, an unusually fine steamboat, and of great power. The connection is by means of two pieces of timber some six feet long. They are fastened to either side of the bow of the barge, and uniting in the form of a pair of compasses, the upper or joint part receives a bolt of iron which rises out of the stern of the Commerce. The connection parts work on swivels, hence none of the motion of the steamboat is communicated to the barge. Communication is had between the two by means of a movable platform some two and a half feet wide, with hand rails on either side. Openings are made in the stern of the Commerce and in the bow of the barge in which the platform rests.

“Some of the advantages which the barge possesses over the steamboat are, in the security from the effects of a bursted boiler—freedom from the heat and steam and from the smell of grease and the kitchen, and from the jar occasioned by the machinery and the enlarged accommodations—the whole being set apart for eating and sleeping and walking. The cabin in which we dined is below and is the same in which the gentlemen sleep; and one hundred and eighty persons can sit down at once and each have elbow room sufficient for all the purposes of figuring with the knife and fork in all the graces of which these two instruments are susceptible.

At the termination of this immense dining apartment and towards the bow is a bar, most sumptuously supplied with all that can be desired by the most fastidious and thirsty. The berths occupy the entire sides of this vast room; they are curtained in such way as to afford retirement in dressing and undressing; there being brass rods on which curtains are projected and these are thrown out at night. In the day the curtains hang close to the berths as is usual. Next above this are the ladies’ cabin and apartments—staterooms rather—furnished in the most splendid style, and in which a lady has all the retirement and comfort which the delicacy and tenderness of her sex requires.

“Over the bar and upon this middle apartment or tier is an apartment where the gentlemen dress, shave and read. All around this second story, it being, I should judge, not over two-thirds the width of the boat, and resting on the middle deck, is a fine walk with settees where you can sit when you please and lounge. Then comes, and over all, the grand promenade, with an awning when the sun or rain requires it over the whole.

“It is not possible for New York to furnish in her best hotels a better dinner than we sat down to yesterday; nor in a better style of preparation. I suppose our company numbered one hundred. The captain is highly qualified, no less by his masterly knowledge of his duty than by his gentlemanly courtesy, for so splendid a charge; and the attendants appeared to be the best. Taken altogether I question whether the world ever witnessed anything so perfect in all that relates to the accommodation and comfort and pleasure of passengers."

Some of the passenger barges that plied for years on the river were the Newburgh, Susquehanna and Charles Spear. Their towing steamer was the Highlander owned by the Powell family, which gave the hudson two well-known steamers, the Thomas and Mary Powell. The first named, however, never equaled the latter in point of speed. The firm of T. & J. Powell of Newburgh ran a line of sloops on the river as early at 1802; and it was from that beginning the present daily evening steamboat service to that city came eventually into existence, the owners of the Homer Ramsdell Line (now included in the Central Hudson Co.) being grandsons of Thomas Powell.

It is. believed the propeller type of river boat was especially built to make it more feasible to tow these barges, as the side wheel boats made it very noisy, the revolving paddles splashing the water at the side of the barges all night long. With the propeller wheel at the stern this difficulty, as well as much of the motion, was overcome.

Traveling by barge was not always the height of enjoyment and comfort described by the enthusiastic traveler just quoted. Progress was slow and the boats latterly carried a varied cargo of farm products, baled hay and live stock. Calves and lambs bound for the city slaughter houses, and horses for the New York street car lines—the Third Avenue line had three thousand horses in its stables alone—frequently made such a chorus of “bahing,” bleating and neighing that rendered futile any attempt to sleep in the “ stateroom" in the grand saloon on the upper deck.

Most, if not all the passenger barges have been taken from the river, and after being altered, first, to make excursion boats for Sunday school and social club picnics around the cities, finally became hay boats to carry that staple product of the Hudson Valley farmers to the New York market. Doubtless there are grandfathers and grandmothers who may read this, who will be able to call to mind rare midsummer holidays spent aboard the “elegant and commodious barges” William Myers, Walter Sands or the Caledonia, in dancing and merry-making, as they were slowly towed to some popular picnic ground near the great city.

Possibly the best conception of what the old passenger barges were like may be found in the floating hospital of St. John’s Guild, the Helen C. Juilliard, which in the summer months can be seen almost daily being towed up the river or down the bay crowded with mothers and babies from the East Side tenements and affording them rare opportunities to be in the sunshine and breathe the fresh air. The boat is provided with every accommodation in the way of cabin accessories, having been built especially for the purpose. The floating hospital is considered one of the most beneficent charities of the great city.

Return to Top