CHAPTER 4
Hudson River Steamboats
The Famous Mary Powell
Just as Cleopatra continued her charm for three generations of admiring men, Mary Powell lived sixty years in the affections of many friends, receiving marked respect and holding favor years after most steamboats have been converted to other uses, scrapped or sunk, a notable example of steamboat longevity and appreciation.
Mary Powell was built for Captain Absalom Anderson of Kingston in 1860 and named for Mary Powell, of a family identified with Hudson River sailing sloops and steamboats for 100 years. A portrait bust of Mary Powell adorned the pilot house. Michael S. Allison of Jersey City was the builder and the design Captain Anderson's own, 260 feet length, 34.6 feet beam and 10.3 feet depth of hold. When first introduced the engine, by Fletcher Harrison & Company, had cylinder 62 inches diameter by 12 feet stroke. Boilers were return flue type with water bottom, located on guards, shell 9.6 feet diameter, 11 feet front and 33 feet length. The radial wheels were 31 feet diameter, with 26 buckets, 10.6 feet length and 42 inches dip. Mary Powell was lengthened in 1874 to 286 feet length of keel and 300 feet over all. Mary Powell succeeded Thomas Powell on the Rondout day route established by Captain Anderson in 1856.
Major Thomas Cornell of Rondout tempted Captain Anderson with an offer to buy Mary Powell during the winter of 1865-66. The Major's interest was genuine, but much of his experience was with another kind of steamboating and Commodore Van Santvoord purchased Mary Powell in 1869 from Major Cornell in exchange for the towboats Baltic, New York and Oswego and a one-day towing route from Rondout to Albany. Mary Powell was first operated by the Hudson River Day Line for a period of three years.
Next, the Mary Powell Steamboat Company, of which John Brinkerhoff had controlling interest, succeeded to ownership, and Captain Billy Cornell of Eddyville was commander. Mary Powell reverted to Captain Anderson in 1872 and was rebuilt in 1874 and the engine cylinder increased from 62 to 72 inches diameter. The new measurement was 983 tons.
Much discussion has centered upon Mary Powell's speed. One of the best runs was made in August, 1867, then commanded by Captain Fernand Frost, with Andrew Barrett chief engineer. Leaving New York at 3:32, Mary Powell's whistle blew outside Rondout Creek at 7:48 P.M., having made five stops, landed 800 passengers and taken on travelers. Poughkeepsie was made from New York, August 7, 1874, in 3 hours 39½ minutes, actual running time 3 hours and 19 minutes. Mary Powell, in 1881, made Rondout from New York in 4 hours and 12 minutes, distance 92 miles.
George W. Murdock, who spent much of his life aboard Hudson River steamboats, was a member of Mary Powell's engine room staff in 1877, '78 and '79. He tells of three remarkable performances:
"We came out of Vestry street and from the time we got the jingle and dropped the hooks, until we were abreast of Piermont, was just 59 minutes. This was the fastest time I ever knew her to make, though to show how consistently she performed there were two other trips made in 60 minutes and in 61 minutes. The distance is exactly 25 miles."
"Dropping the hooks" is engine-room parlance for that instant when the hand valving of the engine is discontinued and the hooks engaging the eccentrics begin the mechanical valving.
A race between Mary Powell and the Herreshoff high-speed steam yacht Stiletto was staged June 10, 1885, when Stiletto came down from Bristol, R. I., with Charles F. Herreshoff, father, and his sons, James B., John Brown, Nathaniel and Francis, aboard, with Gray fireman. Stiletto was 94 feet length, 11 feet beam and 7.9 feet depth of hold, powered with inverted compound condensing type engine with cylinders 12.6 and 21 inches diameters, of annular type, allowing large valve openings, and the boiler was sectional water tube type 7 feet by 7 feet carrying 160 lbs. of steam. Stiletto turned a four-blade wheel, 4 feet diameter, 400 revolutions per minute, and the fuel was egg coal.
The New York Morning Journal reported the start, opposite Hay's Soap Works:
"Jing-aling-ling, sounded Stiletto's bell, and with almost a bound she leaped forward. But Mary Powell was going very fast and crept up and up on Stiletto. It was a moment of intense excitement. Like the Prairie Belle 'on the Missip' the Powell had never been passed. Brave old Captain Anderson, whose pet she was for years, was not on board or his heart would have warmed to see this last word of science dropping back from his lovely queen. Cheers break out from the passengers on the Powell and handkerchiefs are waved."
When Sing Sing was reached Stiletto was ahead, making the run in 1 hour and 15 minutes, and 5 minutes later Mary Powell passed. Stiletto made Tarrytown in 63 minutes. Mary Powell continued up the river. Whether Stiletto could have gone a further distance at the same clip is debatable. The Herreshoffs were satisfied and the victory brought no discredit to Mary Powell, then 25 years old.
Guernsey Betts was long Mary Powell's pilot. He could tell with certainty what she would do in every circumstance. There were landings on the river where peculiar tide eddies formed. Betts could put Mary Powell alongside Milton dock, while a gangway was run ashore; leave' off and take on passengers, without making fast a single line. Few steamboats had the same ability to jump into full speed once the go-ahead bell sounded, her best clip in two lengths.
Mary Powell brought General Custer's body and the distinguished funeral party from Poughkeepsie to West Point for interment of the remains upon the reservation in the late '1870's. The crowd taxed capacity beyond safe limits and approaching West Point landing, moved to the shore side, carrying Mary Powell over to a dangerous angle. The boilers, being high up on the guards, did not give stability and there was a foot of water in the fire room, port side. The funeral party was soon ashore and the lines held, averting a tragedy.
Mary Powell was once struck by a cyclone and carried out of her course broadside against the rushing wind and tumbled about in what was probably the worst storm in man's experience on the Hudson, drifting two miles. Mary Powell lost her stacks before Pilot Betts could get her headed straight again.
The fiction that Mary Powell had but two commanders in her long career is difficult to down, though the record shows many good shipmasters, Absalom Anderson, Billy Cornell, Fernand Frost, Elting Anderson, Will Van Woort and Captain Warrington, Mary Powell's last master.
With Mary Powell safely berthed in Rondout Creek for the winter Captain Anderson once embarked on a vacation, a steamboat trip up the Nile. The Scotch commander noted him standing on the upper deck and inquired if he was an American steamboat man. Captain Anderson assenting, the steamer's master said: "I only know of one American steamboat-the Mary Powell." "That's my ship," said Captain Anderson with pride for Mary Powell's international reputation.
That Mary Powell should have lived so long, giving enjoyment to great numbers through many years, is explained from the care she always received. Summer seasons were short and the winter lay-up in Rondout Creek was painstaking, and she continued to be her best. It seemed as if she refused to grow old, and even when old age forced itself upon recognition, Mary Powell acknowledged her years gracefully just as she had done everything else.
Mary Powell was broken up at Kingston in 1923 by John A. Fisher for scrap salvage, but lives in Hudson River steamboat memories for the distinguished place she occupied through many years. Latterly there were steamboats capable of passing Mary Powell, boats with just enough more speed to go by her-but no steamboat ever did.
Thomas Cornell, 1,256 tons, Captain Charles Ru Ton, was built in 1863 by E. S. Whitlock, Brooklyn, 310 feet length and 34 feet beam. The engine, with cylinder 72 inches diameter by 12 feet stroke came from a Great Lakes steamboat. Thomas Cornell left Rondout in a haze, March 27, 1882, running on Danskammer Point, opposite New Hamburg. Passengers were rescued by John L. Hasbrouck. The hull was badly strained and the steamboat abandoned, being built into two Long Island Sound barges.
Berkshire was built by Morton & Edmonds at Athens in 1863 for George H. Power's New York and Hudson Line, 253 feet length, 37 feet beam and 10 feet depth of hold. The engine, built by James Cunningham & Company, came from South America, reconstructed by Fletcher Harrison & Company. There were two boilers forward of the engine room and two aft. Berkshire caught fire coming down the river, June 8, 1864, near Hyde Park, and forty persons were lost. The hull was reconstructed into the propeller Nupha. William T. Hamer connected New York and Newburgh in 1864. In the late '1870's Seneca served as police boat in New York harbor until Patrol was built, when Seneca became Silver Star and went South to run out of Charleston.
Metamora was a noted boat of Civil War times, running from several ports to Albany. The paddle boxes were ornamented with a carved figure of an Indian chief with bow and arrow. Captain John Stratton, afterwards Captain J. F. Tallman, commanded Metamora, which was owned by Romer & Tremper. Milton M. Martin, running from Hudson to Albany, was 191 feet length, 29 feet beam, 8 feet depth of hold, with engine having cylinder 44 inches diameter by 9 feet stroke and named for Milton Martin of Hudson. Metamora became a towboat operated by Blanchard & Farnham. Romer & Tremper ran Eagle and Constitution, which went South in the Civil War. George Washington, from Chesapeake Bay, built in the '1830's, Hudson and Metamora towed out of Rondout Creek for almost twenty years. After the Civil War Milton M. Martin ran from Newburgh to Albany taking the place of Constitution.
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