The Hudson River Maritime Museum 2006 Exhibit

Ship and Boat Building on the Hudson River

Allynne Lange, Curator

The great importance of the Hudson River as a highway into the interior of the state and beyond required the building of many types of boats and ships from the days of dugout canoes to ocean-going cargo ships, military vessels, and thousands of barges and
scows. As settlements grew into villages, towns, and busy ports local shipping needs created many boat and shipyards over the course of several hundred years.

Our 2006 exhibit provides a look at this industry which employed thousands of workers over hundreds of years, and supplied the booming shipping and passenger trade on the Hudson. We are particularly featuring a rare look at the busy boat building of some of the smaller up river towns, like New Baltimore and Athens.

This years exhibit also takes a look at the building of the famous Hudson River Day Line steamboat Hendrick Hudson on the 100th anniversary of her launch. The Hendrick Hudson was built at the Marvel Shipyard in Newburgh, and ran for over forty years carrying many thousands of passengers on excursions on the Hudson.. Also, visitors are invited to take a look at our boat building shop exhibit, showing the techniques and tools used to build wooden boats.

Today, because of competition from the roads and railroads, river traffic is much less. There are very few boat- and shipyards building vessels in the Hudson Valley. Boat repair is practiced in the remaining yards such as Feeney's Reliance Marine, as well as some others. Boat building is still practiced at a few specialty boatyards such as Elco, in Athens and Scarano boatbuilding in Albany. Visitors will have a glimpse of the boats and boat builders still carrying on the craftsmanship and traditions of 250 years of boat building on the Hudson River.