THE VAMOOSE DISABLED. Her intermediate Valve Post Bridges Broken in Six Pieces.
The Vamoose left her pier in New London at 11:15 o'clock yesterday morning and backed slowly out into the stream. As she turned and began to get under way, she was saluted by all of the steam and sailing craft in the harbor. The new Gardiner schooner Alcæa which arrived in the harbor on Sunday saluted with her cannon and the boys on the school ship Constellation cheered her as she passed by. In a few moments she passed the New London light and started down the Sound at a sixteen-mile an hour gait under 125 pounds of steam.

Papers were thrown on the Bartlett Reef lightship from the Vamoose as she passed, and then every one settled down expecting to reach New York at 5 o'clock. In this they were disappointed, for about 4 o'clock, when off Eaton's Neck light, on the Long Island shore, there was a heavy jar, and the engines suddenly stopped. At first it was thought her propeller had struck a sunken log, but it was soon apparent that the trouble was in the engine room.

Investigation showed that the bridges of her intermediate valve post were broken in six pieces and that it would take nearly three hours to disconnect it from the other cylinders. Several sharp blasts were sounded on the whistle for assistance, and soon the steam oyster boat I. M. Mersereau of New York came alongside and offered to tow her in to Wilson's Point, near the Norwalk Islands.

The towing process proved very slow work, and it was nearly 6:30 o'clock when the Vamoose was finally brought up alongside of the Long Island and Housatonic Railroad Companies' dock at Wilson Point. The Captain of the Mersereau declined to take pay for his services, and said that he might be in trouble some time himself.

The accident to the Vamoose may necessitate a new cylinder, if so, it will be a long and expensive job, at any rate it is certain that she will do no racing for some time to come.

MR. MUNRO INDIGNANT AND THE VAMOOSE PEOPLE DISGUSTED.
Norman L. Munro, owner of the steam yacht Norwood, was a very much disgusted man yesterday. He was also considerably incensed and indignant. The cause of his irritation was threefold. He was surprised and displeased at the action of Capt. Hall, Secretary of the American Yacht Club, in declaring the race between the Norwood and the Vamoose off; he was disgusted at what he considers the determination of the Vamoose people to stand him off or shake him off and avoid a race with the Norwood, and he was indignant at the treatment the Norwood has received throughout the whole business of trying to got a tilt with the Vamoose.

He declared early yesterday morning that the Norwood would start at noon and go over the course alone if the Vamoose was not on hand to make a race. The agreement being to have the race the next day if the first attempt failed. But he was informed that the water was too rough even for the Vamoose to venture out, and so he was compelled to abandon this intention. What made him particularly indignant was that Capt. Hall should declare the race between the rivals off without giving any reason for so doing, because Mr. Munro believed there was very excellent reason, and that was that the Vamoose was not in condition to race and was on her way yesterday afternoon for New York for repairs.

On Sunday morning Mr. Munro received the following letter from his representative on the Norwood, which he thinks throws a great deal of much needed light on the matter:

NEW LONDON, Saturday, June 18, 1892. Mr. N. L. Munro,
Dear Sir: The Vamoose met with two accidents Friday evening. See clippings from Saturday's New London Telegraph.

They now have two pieces of timber about four feet long. 3 by 6, one piece on each side of the guard or gunnel at the bow of the boat, secured on with a clamp that lays over the deck, and another fastened halfway down from there to the water line.

Her stern was completely spit down to the water line after she struck the Stonington dock.
People here look on it with suspicion, and say as much as if it was intentionally done. It certainly looks strange that they should run into both docks. Yours truly, GEO. JOHNSTON.

The two accidents to the Vamoose mentioned the letter are told in detail as follows: It was on her return from a trip in the Sound on Friday afternoon that the accidents occurred. In an endeavor to lay up at the new railroad wharf, the Vamoose went head on against one of the spiles and split the spile clear to the water as cleanly as if done with a wedge. The stern of the Vamoose was seemingly uninjured by the collision, and she backed into the river and was headed for the Stonington wharf.

In endeavoring to make that wharf, there was another miscalculation, and her nose was run clean into the wharf with such force as to tear the screws out and break the iron head-piece that held the flagstaff, and split her stern down to the water line in two places. It was said by onlookers that the people aboard the Vamoose took the matter very coolly, just as though such collisions were an ordinary occurrence.

“This accident to the Vamoose," said Mr. Munro, “apparently explains the reason for the telegram of Capt. Hall declaring the Norwood-Vamoose race off. The accident seems to have been overlooked."

Mr. Munro intimated that he would have been surprised if the Vamoose had been able to race Saturday after the damage she received, and, being in the patched condition described by his agent, Mr. Johnston. She was able to get outside, but it would have been a remarkable thing if she could have made racing speed after she got there. But it was altogether too rough for the Norwood, an open launch, to go outside, and one of the stipulations of the race was that it was to be in fair weather and smooth water. 

“It is strange,” continued Mr. Munro, “that Capt. Hall should declare the race off without giving any reason for doing so. Such action I think very unsportsmanlike. There has been trouble before about cups offered by the American Yacht Club. There was trouble about the cup offered by the club for a race between the Atlanta and the Stiletto, and also about the race between Jay Gould’s launch, the Surprise, and my launch, the Henrietta."

“The Norwood is the fastest boat in the world, and is ready to prove it at any time under proper conditions. We will race the Vamoose at any place where we can get smooth water. Why couldn't they change the course at New London, as was suggested, to points that would ensure smooth water? A course could be laid out at New London where we could get smooth water five days out of seven, but at Race Rock it would be hard to find water one day in seven in which the open launch Norwood could live. We want to race the Vamoose, but it would seem that the Vamoose is very anxious not to race us. The Norwood will race any steamboat in America, of any kind or description, from one mile to eighty knots [sic], through smooth water. We will race for five cents or $20,000, and if the Norwood is beaten, the victors are welcome to take her. I don't think the Norwood is getting a square deal, and I want to say that when she does, she can beat anything afloat.”

The Norwood will give an exhibition of what she can do on a spurt on the day of the Yale-Harvard race. She is also going to beat the record of the Spanish torpedo boat, the Arrow, which now holds the record of having made the fastest time of anything afloat.

“If this is an attempt to shake me off and avoid a trial with the Norwood, and that is the way it looks to me, it will be a failure.” concluded Mr. Munro.

To say that the Vamoose people are angry and indignant would be putting it mildly, as a more disgusted lot of men could not have been found in New London when they received Mr. Hall's very brief telegram announcing that the race was off for the present. Engineer Heilbrun, who has charge of the yacht in Mr. Hearst's absence, said:

"We were ready and willing to race. I supposed that the race was to take place on the next clear day, or when we could get smooth water. Instead of that, the only representative of the American Yacht Club at New London left on the 1 o'clock train, when, if he had waited, he could have started the boats at 2 o'clock when there was smooth water. Or else he could have telegraphed the American Yacht Club and have asked authority to alter the course to this side of Race Rock, where the water was smooth. Mr. Munro's representative said that he was willing to have the course altered, and so was I, though it conceded an advantage to the Norwood. I did this so as to get a race at all hazards, and have it over, as I was sick and tired of waiting. I received no word from the American Yacht Club until 8:30 P. M. on Sunday evening, or over thirty hours after Mr. Wilkie left. I telegraphed to Mr. Hearst's representative in New York and he said, ‘Go Home' and for home I've started. In conclusion, there is one thing I would like to say, and that is that the public know that the Vamoose has been on hand every time, and it is not her fault that there was no race."
​
Capt. George W. Hall, Chairman of the Regatta Committee of the American Yacht Club, said it was proposed to have the race decided on July 2. The tide that day would be favorable to the yachts and help them on their journey. It would not do, he said, to race against a head tide, and the chances of having smooth water in July would be very good. Then the start will be made west of Race Rock, instead of four miles east of the rock. This will make the course about seventy-five miles instead of eighty, but the yachts will start in smooth water.

GOOD PROSPECT FOR A RACE STEAM PLEASURE BOATS LIKELY TO COMPETE NEXT SATURDAY. THE AMERICAN YACHT CLUB’S OFFER OF A PRIZE HAS AWAKENED GREAT INTEREST — FACTS ABOUT SOME OF THE POSSIBLE CONTESTANTS.

By this time next week, it will in all probability be settled which is the faster boat — the Norwood or the Vamoose. If the proposition of the American Yacht Club to get up a race of two or more very fast steam pleasure boats is accepted, and it really looks now as if it will be, the trial of speed will take place on the Sound next Saturday, unless a later day is agreed on by all the parties in interest. It seems doubtful at this writing if the Government boats Cushing and Stiletto will be allowed to compete, and if they are not in it, the race will unquestionably lose some of the interest it would otherwise awaken. But, although Acting Secretary Ramsay of the navy has already given an apparently positive denial, there is yet a possibility that Secretary Tracy will exercise his unquestionable prerogative and allow the boats to participate.

Anyhow, even without the Government boats, the race will be an exceedingly interesting event. Besides the Vamoose and Norwood, there is a certainty that the Yankee Doodle, formerly the Buzz, will be a starter, and a possibility that the Now Then and the Javelin will also be on hand. The Yankee Doodle has a record of a mile in 2:34, and it is claimed that she has since been improved. Whatever this claim may be worth, it is evident that her owners think that she has a very good chance to win or they would not have entered her.

Of the Javelin nothing is known concerning her speed, except to her owner and builders. Owing, possibly, to the fact that she has had no public trial, an impression has gone abroad that she is not a success, but that may be unwarranted, and it should be borne in mind that she is an even later production of the Herreshoffs than the Vamoose, for, although sent away from the yards sooner, she was not begun or launched until later than the other. The Now Then, it will be remembered, beat all of the Sandy Hook boats with ease in the Summer of 1887. It is not generally known, however, that under actual tests she made 23.002 statute miles per hour.

Notwithstanding the improbability that the Government boats will be allowed to race, a word should be said about them in this connection. The Cushing is not only larger, but more powerful, than any of the boats to which the race is open. She is also the only one of the boats that has twin screws. She is 137 feet long and 15 feet beam. Her machinery consists of two quadruple expansion engines of 800 horse power each. On a Government test at Bristol, R. I., made March 24, 1890, she ran 22.52 knots per hour [sic] for three consecutive hours. Since her acceptance by the Government she has developed a speed of 24.10 knots, something more than 28 statute miles hour, in short distance trials. This is a little more than three miles per hour less than the best torpedo boat record on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Stiletto is a much smaller boat than the Cushing, being only about 100 feet long and of much less displacement. Taking these circumstances into consideration, she is proportionally much faster, though her absolute speed is less. Her best performance was a short distance run at the rate of 23.195 knots, or 26.709 statute miles per hour. In the three-hour trial under Government tests she made 59 nautical miles, or an average of 19 3/4 knots — 22.646 statute miles per hour. As she is only a single screw boat, with estimated horse power of 380, she compares very favorably with the Cushing.

If any accurate test of what the Vamoose can do has ever been made, the figures have not been given out. Her performance with the Mary Powell does not go for very much, for the Stiletto did practically the same six years ago, and yet it has been shown the best she can do is something under 27 miles per hour. From what is given below concerning the speed of the Norwood, it will be seen that the Vamoose must be able to do much better than 27 miles in order to win the coming race. That is, of course, on the presumption that the Norwood figures are accurate.

In a trial on the Merrimac[k] River, July 8, 1890, the Norwood made 30 miles per hour for two consecutive hours, and one mile in 1:58. C. D. Mosher, her builder, has a certificate to the accuracy of these figures from several competent  engineers and machinists. If she can develop that speed in the coming race and maintain it throughout, she will in all probability win.

But, to say the least, it is doubtful if she can. There are several things that may interfere, but the chief difficulty in a boat of her size is to carry coal enough for so long a run as 80 knots. Mr. Mosher, however, says that she make the race with a ton and half of coal, if the right kind be selected, and she carry that much, although it will load her down considerably and thus hamper her at the start. As she gets rid of the superfluous weight, however, he thinks she will make a revelation for her adversaries.

The Norwood is in reality a little bit of a thing. Those who remember the Henrietta, the steam launch built for Mr. Munro by the Herreshoffs in 1886, which was really the pioneer of the type, will have a very good idea of Norwood's appearance if they picture finer and less beam in proportion to length. The Norwood is only 60 feet on the water line and 63 feet 2 inches overall. Her greatest beam is 7 feet 2 inches and her greatest draught 22 inches. She has one triple-expansion engine, with three cylinders of 9, 14 1/2, and 22 inches diameter, respectively, and 9 inches stroke. This engine, which is of Mr. Mosher’s own design, is a marvel of strength and beauty, and is capable of giving the wheel 500 revolutions per minute. The boiler, which is also of his own construction, is capable of developing 550 horse power.

The Vamoose is 108 feet long on the waterline and 112 feet 6 inches over all. Her beam is 12 feet 4 inches and her draught is 4 feet 11 inches. She has a Thornycroft boiler of the Herreshoff make, capable of giving 800 horse power. The engine is a Herreshoff quadruple expansion, and a counterpart of those in the Cushing. It has five cylinders, one of 11-14 [sic, 11 1/4?], one of 16, and two of 22 1/2  inches in diameter, with 15 inches stroke. It can turn the wheel at rate of 410 revolutions to the minute. The Vamoose will be docked at Tebo’s basin on Tuesday to receive her new Zeise [sic] wheel. Her colors in the coming race will be old gold and black. 

A COMING RACE. THE YACHTS NORWOOD AND VAMOOSE LIKELY TO MEET.
In a very few days, arrangements will be completed for a test of speed between Norman L Munro’s steam yacht Norwood and Mr. Hearst’s Vamoose. Since the Vamoose crossed the bow of the Monmouth on Saturday last in a race down the upper bay with the Sandy Hook steamer, Mr. Munro has been anxious for a match between the two yachts, as the Norwood has outsteamed the Monmouth, too.

It is Mr. Munro’s desire to have both yachts start with the steamer Mary Powell from her dock at the foot of West Twenty-second Street and steam up the Hudson fifty miles from the starting point and return, making a hundred-mile trip. Mr. Hearst has given Mr. Heilbron, the chief engineer of the Vamoose, permission to make a satisfactory agreement with Mr. Munro, and Mr. Heilbron will meet Mr. Munro within a few days.

The Vamoose was alongside Tebo’s Wharf, foot of Twenty-third Street, Brooklyn, yesterday to receive a fresh coat of white paint and get her brass polished. Engineer Heilbron and Capt. Stanwood had gone on a picnic, but the assistant engineer was on the boat. He said that Mr. Hearst was anxious for the Vamoose to meet the Norwood in a fair race, but that he wouldn't consent to a race on the Hudson River, for the Vamoose could only race in very deep water. The assistant engineer said that the Vamoose had already made a trip on the Hudson as far up as West Point, and during moderately high speed had “felt the bottom” a number of times, necessitating a slowing down of the engine.

The only course, he said, that would suit Mr. Hearst would be in Long Island Sound, either over one of the American Yacht Club's courses or straight away from Execution Rock to New-London.

Thomas L. Scoville of the American Yacht Club wrote to Mr. Munro on Tuesday, extending the use of the club grounds and landing float of the club in case a race was arranged between the Norwood and the Vamoose. The assistant engineer of the Vamoose said yesterday: "The Norwood could gain a mile an hour over the Vamoose in a race on the Hudson by following the eddy of the tide, while the Vamoose would have to keep in deep water. It makes a great difference in a race whether a boat draws eighteen inches or ten feet. If the Norwood outraced the Vamoose, I believe that Mr. Hearst would give her away."
Mr. Munro was in Long Branch yesterday, but it was stated at his office, 26 Vandewater Street, that he would not rest until he had brought the race about.

The Norwood is at present at Branchport, N. J.

NORWOOD AND VAMOOSE. THE VAMOOSE HAS ALREADY RACED THE MARY POWELL ON THE SLY.
She gained half a mile in a run of fifty miles, but had to cut across lots to do it. - Mr. Munro's proposition for a record race between the Norwood and the [Mary] Powell discussed by the Powell's Captain. - Will Mr. Hearst respond?

Norman L. Munro's proposition to race his little wonder, the Norwood, against the Mary Powell fifty miles up the Hudson and back, is likely to bring about one or more river contests of more than common interest. As Mr. Munro's letter in yesterday's SUN sets forth, his object in proposing the race is to make a record for the Norwood, which he hopes W. R. Hearst will feel compelled to try and beat with his new fast Herreshoff boat, the Vamoose. Mr. Hearst does not think the Vamoose is ready for a contest with the Norwood just yet, because he has not yet found a screw exactly suited to her. The Norwood, however, is all ready for a brush, and, in her owner's language, is “becoming restless and uncontrollable.” Fearing that when the Vamoose is finally ready, a race may in some way fail to come off. Mr. Munro asked THE SUN to assist in arranging a race against time for the Norwood, to come off within two weeks. He has probably selected the Mary Powell to race against because she is beyond question the fastest boat in New York waters and makes regular daily trips up the river.

Mr. Munro says:
“Permit me to suggest, with all due respect to Mr. Hearst and the Herreshoffs, that if the Vamoose starts for the Pacific coast neglecting to make a trial run over the course above mentioned[,] she will have to go with a record of about 19 60-100 [sic, 60/100?] nautical miles per hour, and that for a short distance, too. There will be no excuse of rough weather on the Hudson, as was the case when Mr. Hearst had a brush with the Monmouth. After crossing the Monmouth’s bow opposite Fort Hamilton, she returned to the city on account of the rough weather. I desire to give the Vamoose a fair chance; hence the selection of the Hudson."

Another reason for selecting the Hudson is that Mr. Hearst objected to a race of ten or twenty miles, saying that 100 miles was necessary properly to compare the speed of the two boats. Mr. Munro proposes to accompany the Mary Powell fifty miles up the river, and then return, the record to be made on the trip.

Additional interest will be lent to the contest with the Mary Powell by the fact that it was in a race with her that the famous Stiletto won her spurs on June 11, 1885. She was the first of the Herreshoff fast boats. The model was a novelty then, and the contest aroused widespread interest on account of the diminutive size of the new contestant for the big Powell’s laurels. The little Stiletto made the twenty-eight miles to Sing Sing in an hour and seventeen minutes, beating the steamboat seven minutes. There have been vast improvements since then in boats of the cigar model, however, and the Stiletto, which is now a torpedo boat in Uncle Sam's service, would probably not be in a race with some of the newest wonders. It has long been Mr. Munro’s hope to own the fastest steamboat in the world, and the Norwood is only the last of a series of astonishingly fast boats which he has had built. He believes her to be the fastest in the world, and hence his desire not to allow the much-heralded Vamoose to leave these waters without a contest which will definitely settle the issue between them.

Mr. Munro is probably not aware that the Vamoose has already had a brush with the Mary Powell, and that, too, over the same course which he now proposes. The contest was unannounced. Even the steamboat people received no warning until they perceived that the race was actually on. If the Vamoose had beaten her big rival, the story doubtless would have been told before this. But she only succeeded in holding her own by making cross cuts over shallows which the Powell had to avoid, thus covering less distance than the Powell.

It happened a week ago, last Monday. The Powell left West Twenty-second street a little after 3 1/2 o'clock on her regular trip. She carried 450 passengers and a great deal of baggage. Above Forty-second street she met the Vamoose steaming slowly down stream. Immediately after, the Vamoose turned sharply and followed hot in the Powell's wake. She was then about half a mile astern. From Forty-second street to Cranston’s, which is the Powell's first stop, is counted fifty miles by steam-boat men.

The Powell's passengers did not need to be told that a race was on. There were those aboard who knew the Vamoose by sight and who pointed her out to the others when the two boats met. Hundreds of curious eyes were still upon her when she turned sharply into the steamboat’s wake, and when she at once began to part the water into foamy jets on either side of her sharp nose and to shoot black clouds from her smokestack, there was excitement aboard the steam boat. The passengers crowded eagerly aft to watch the daring little craft's attempt to beat the fastest steamer on the Hudson. The Vamoose kept dead astern, a policy which was favorable to her big rival, for it kept the passengers aft and the steamboat trim. Had the Vamoose followed a course much to either side of that of the Powell, the Powell's passengers would have crowded to that side and given their boat a list which would have hindered her.

The race soon become uninteresting, however, for there was no readily apparent change in the relative position of the boats until Sing Sing was insight. The Vamoose was getting smaller and smaller, and it was evident that the big steamboat was running away from her. Opposite Nyack it was estimated that she was a mile astern.

At Sing Sing the river broadens and swerves to the west. Croton Point juts far out from the east bank, having Haverstraw Bay to the north and Croton Bay to the south. There is shoal water on the ebb tide along the west shore of the river here, and the direction of the ship channel made it necessary for the Powell to hug the eastern shore until nearly into Croton Bay, and then round Croton Point in a long, sweeping curve. Instead of following the Powell over this course, the Vamoose took advantage of her lighter draught and hugged the west shore. Thus she steered a nearly straight course into Haverstraw Bay and lined up behind the Steamer again only half a mile astern. This was a clear gain of half a mile.

The Vamoose made another gain in the same way opposite Peekskill. There is a sharp westward bend of the river here around Jones's Point. Directly off the point a schooner was met. To get around her, the Powell had describe a sweeping curve to the east. The Vamoose, however, took a crosscut through the shoal water between the schooner and the west shore. A short distance north of that the Vamoose made another gain by hugging the shore off Anthony's Nose, while the Powell was compelled to describe a wide curve in rounding the point. It was a nearly straight away course from there to the Powell's first landing at Cranston's. As she put about to go into dock, the Vamoose abandoned the chase, and returned home. She was then close astern of the Powell. She had nearly destroyed the Powell's lead of half a mile at the start, but, as against this, it was estimated that she had stolen over a mile by cutting across shoals. In other words, she had gained a half mile on the Powell, but the Powell had covered over a mile more.

So, if Mr. Munro succeeds in inducing Mr. Hearst to engage the Vamoose in no more satisfactory contest, he can get some satisfaction by racing the Norwood against the Powell from Forty-second street to Cranston’s. He can imitate the cross cuts of the Vamoose, if he chooses, and thus follow a practically identical course, or, if he feels sufficient confidence in his boat, he can take the longer course of the Powell, and, if he beats her, win still greater glory.

But will a Hudson River course afford a fair test of speed between two boats which steam over it at different times? Capt. A. E. Anderson of the Mary Powell says not. This is the way he talked yesterday just before he started on his afternoon trip:

“Unless the Norwood and the Vamoose go up the Hudson together, no fair test can possibly be made. For instance, suppose the Norwood goes up alongside the Powell on an ebb tide, and the Vamoose chooses a day when we start on a flood tide. The Vamoose would have a tremendous advantage. The ebb currents in the Hudson are often particularly swift. But the matter of steaming against a current or with one is not the only difference which differing tide conditions would make. It is well known that a steamer makes better headway with plenty of water under her than with little. The tide falls from the bottom first, and when you travel over shallow, being nearer the bottom, your boat is sucked considerably deeper in the water than when making over water of some depth. Of course, this makes a vast difference in the speed you get from a given steam pressure. There are many shallows in the Hudson after you get up a few miles ~ the bays, for instance. In Haverstraw Bay the Powell requires about 35 pounds pressure to make the same speed at low water that at high water she could get out of 25 pounds. You can thus get some idea of how unfair a test it would be if the two boats were to race the Powell with different tide conditions.

"But," said the reporter, “the Norwood could choose a day to go up with you when the tide conditions were the same as existed on the day when the Vamoose made the race."

"That is true enough,” said Capt. Anderson, but you don’t make allowance for the wind. If the two boats, both of which present very little surface to the wind, were to race strictly against time, without reference to the Powell, the actual wind trust would not make so much difference. But suppose when the Norwood made her race there was a good south wind to help the Powell along, and when tie Vamoose made her race a north wind held the Powell back. It makes good deal of difference, I assure you.

“But the greatest effect of the wind in such a test as this lies in its effect upon the tides. The wind retards or helps the force of the tide in the Hudson River amazingly. A west wind will practically kill a flood tide so far as its effect upon a steamboat is concerned. I have no doubt that, given two days when the start is made on identical tides, a difference in the wind effect on the tides might make a difference of fifteen minutes in time between Forty-second street and Cranstons.

“So there you have it. The Norwood may wait two weeks and start with us on a tide identical with that of the day of the Vamoose race, but how are you going to unite such conditions with identical wind conditions also? I think myself that the only way to have a fair contest between the two boats on the Hudson is to bring them out together.

The Norwood race with the Mary Powell will, however, be exceedingly interesting, in view of the Powell's previous races with the Stiletto and the Vamoose. Capt. Anderson handled the Powell on both occasions. He will be able to recall the tide and wind conditions of each race, and calculations can made of sufficient closeness to make an interesting and more or less instructive comparison possible.

The Mary Powell has a record of twenty-five miles in 1 hour and 1 minute, made in 1882, soon after she was rebuilt. She was built in 1862 for A. L. Anderson, the father of her present Captain, and in 1867 carried 450 passengers to Rondout, a distance of 100 miles, in 4 hours and 23 minutes. When she was rebuilt, the greatest care was taken to retain her lines exactly. Capt. Anderson said yesterday:

"It is, of course, flattering for the Powell to be singled out for these tests, but I would much rather not have them. The Powell is a business and family boat. We have never run her up to her limit of pressure which is 45. We never exceed 35 or 38. Consequently we can never be charged with racing her. A race is always sure to demoralize the passengers, and besides it is never a fair test of speed, because the passengers always crowd to the side on which the other boat lies and make us list in a fashion which interferes with our speed. In the race with the Stiletto there was a very large crowd aboard, and when the little boat got abreast of us, we listed, so that I ordered the engineer to slow up until she got well ahead. Then the passengers crowded forward, the boat righted, and we went ahead again. In other words, it is a contest between a fine racing machine in racing trim and a passenger boat with a business equipment. You might as well match a horse in a silky against another hitched to a light express wagon."

Part 7. The Exodus to Grand River (1783)

In 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, effectively ending the American Revolution. Many Esopus Indian families were still living in what was now called the Loyal Village outside of Fort Niagara, with an equal number of families living along Buffalo Creek to the south. The news of Britain’s defeat was devastating for the loyal Native allies of Great Britain, who had been burned out out of their ancestral homelands and who had made huge sacrifices in allying with the British Crown in their attempt to prevent the loss of their land. Rumors soon spread that a huge American army was assembling to invade Indian Country and commit total genocide on the Native allies of the British. Although the rumors were mostly unfounded, the Esopus Indians and their leadership took them seriously. They were the first to leave after hearing the “horrid report.”[1] They paddled across a short stretch of Lake Erie and made their way up the Grand River into what is now Ontario. They had found their new home.

The Grand River, a tributary of Lake Erie, runs through a fertile country that was once a patchwork of lush deciduous forests and wide prairies rich in game animals. The same limestone ridge that crosses through their Ulster County homeland also passes through the Grand River country, supporting many of the same plant medicines. Every spring, huge numbers of fish – especially walleye – ascended the Grand River from Lake Erie, allowing for the reestablishment of traditional spring fishing camps. The Esopus Indians had found a new country for their people. It was a country that, in many respects, was similar to their ancestral Ulster County home, only lacking in dramatic topography. Censuses taken over the 1780s and 1790s reveal a population of close to two hundred individuals, a number which also included a number of related Munsees and Unamis who had intermarried with them. They were soon joined along the Grand River by most of the other loyal contingents of the Six Nations Confederacy. Towns were established for each ethnic group, sometimes several miles apart; the village of loyal Mohicans from Onaquaga/Unadilla, also displaced from the Hudson Valley, would locate about ten miles upstream on the Grand River.

The settlements on Grand River would have government support. As compensation for wartime losses, the British government secured 550,000 acres of land along the river for their loyal Native allies through the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784. The Grand River Reserve, though much diminished, is still the largest reserve in Canada today. From their new home base, and with the war over, small groups of Esopus Indians would attempt to return to the Catskills Region and Ulster County for visits over the following decades. Records reveal that at least one Esopus family that had formerly lived in Otsiningo on the Susquehanna River temporarily moved back for two or three years. Other individuals trickled into the Catskill Mountains region to visit old settler friends and places of importance. Among them was notorious Esopus Indian war captain Benjamin Shanks, whose visits are remembered in a number of local histories.[2] Tragically, sometimes these visits resulted in murders committed by vengeful settlers against any Indians that reappeared in the region. In one account, Benjamin Shanks was almost killed in an ambush. His friend or relative, Canope, was not so lucky, and was shot and killed right next to him while fishing in the Delaware River in 1784. Ben Shanks was then purportedly killed by white settlers while picking apples in an old Indian orchard at Chenango (Otsiningo) Point three years later.[3]

As the war began to fade into a distant memory, it became safer for Esopus Indian families to visit their homeland from the Grand River in Canada. A number of records reveal their summertime visits over the course of the early 19th century. While living at Grand River, they were joined by many families of closely-related refugee peoples, including Munsees and Unamis who had formerly lived in the Delaware Valley and Mohicans from the upper Hudson Valley. Along with the Nanticokes (originally from Chesapeake Bay), these five groups became collectively known as the Delawares of Grand River. The Delawares of the Grand River – including at least one definitively Esopus chief – were instrumental in defending Canada from the American Invasion in the War of 1812. As late as 1820, an eyewitness noted that the Esopus Indians’ government continued to function on the Grand River. There, they would continue to practice their traditional religion through the mid 19th century. Amazingly, the Esopus Indians’ system of hereditary chieftainship – which can be traced back to their first encounters with the Dutch in the 17th century – persisted until the 1930s. Today, the Delawares of the Grand River Reserve number several hundred enrolled individuals.
 
Citations:
[1] Historical Collections, Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, Volume 20. 117-121
[2] Benjamin Shanks (aka Ben, son of Shanks), whose Esopus name was remembered as Huycon (possibly meaning ‘Big Knife’) was the son of a namesake who was also known in the records as Wesomainso (meaning ‘Black Oak’). Father Wesomainso/Jacob Shanks was involved in the sale of various parts of the Catskills in the Hardenbergh Patent. In the years immediately after the American Revolution, son Ben Shanks may have temporarily joined the Munsee community living with the Senecas at Cattaraugus and fathered one or more children; in the early 19th century, Seneca individuals at Cattaraugus appear with the surname Shanks.
[3] Munsell, W.W. The History of Delaware County, Town of Hancock.

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