History Blog
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Editor's Note: Last week we visited the confusion around two Thomas Collyers, one of which ferried Abraham Lincoln to the Hampton Roads Conference, but the Conference itself took place aboard the River Queen, which we feature today. The following text is a verbatim transcription of an article written by George W. Murdock, for the Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman newspaper in the 1930s. Murdock, a veteran marine engineer, wrote a regular column. Articles transcribed by HRMM volunteer Adam Kaplan. Although having the distinction of once being General U.S. Grant’s private dispatch boat and also honored by being selected to convey one of the United States greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, on a mission of peace, the “River Queen” was one of the steamboats about which little is remembered by followers of the famous Hudson River vessels. Benjamin C. Terry built the wooden hull of the “River Queen” at Keyport, New Jersey, in 1864. She was 181 feet long, breadth of beam 28 feet five inches, depth of hold nine feet. Her gross tonnage was 578 with a net tonnage of 426, and she was propelled by a vertical beam with a cylinder diameter of 48 inches with a 10 foot stroke. The “River Queen” was originally built for service in and about New York waters but she was soon chartered by the federal government and placed in service as General Grant’s private dispatch boat on the Potomac river during the last year of the Civil War. The year-old vessel was recognized as a steamboat of extreme beauty, and because of this she was selected to convey President Abraham Lincoln and the peace commissioners from Washington to City Point on the James river, where they were to meet a similar delegation representing the Confederate government. At the close of the Civil War the “River Queen” was returned to service in New York harbor, and she was placed on a route between New York and New Hamburgh on the Hudson river as a freight and passenger vessel. She plied this route until 1871 when she was taken east and operated under the banner of the Newport Steamboat Company between Providence and Newport. From 1873 to 1880 the “River Queen” was in service crossing Nantucket Sound as a running mate to the steamboat “Island Home.” During this period of service the “River Queen” was operated on Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds by the Vineyard Company, replacing the steamboat “Monohansett,” which had been chartered to the Old Colony Railroad to run in connection with its Woods Hole branch line. The Vineyard Company finally sold the “River Queen” for $60,000 to the Nantucket & Cape Cod Steamboat Company who kept her in island service until the autumn of 1881. For several years afterwards she was chartered to various parties around New York and farther south. During the winter of 1891 the “River Queen” was sold to the Mount Vernon & Marshall Hall Steamboat Company of Washington, D.C. Under the ownership of this company she saw service on the Potomac river until 1911 when she was deemed completely worn out and dismantled. The hull of the “River Queen,” a steamboat once honored by the presence of Abraham Lincoln, was finally converted into a coal barge- ending a brilliant and notable steamboat career. AuthorGeorge W. Murdock, (b. 1853-d. 1940) was a veteran marine engineer who served on the steamboats "Utica", "Sunnyside", "City of Troy", and "Mary Powell". He also helped dismantle engines in scrapped steamboats in the winter months and later in his career worked as an engineer at the brickyards in Port Ewen. In 1883 he moved to Brooklyn, NY and operated several private yachts. He ended his career working in power houses in the outer boroughs of New York City. His mother Catherine Murdock was the keeper of the Rondout Lighthouse for 50 years.
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Today is the 50th anniversary of the last voyage of the Hudson River Day Line steamboat Alexander Hamilton. Her last sail on Monday, September 6, 1971 - also Labor Day - marked the end of an era. Built in 1924 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation for the Hudson River Day Line, she was one of the last of the Hudson River sidewheel steamboats to be built. Originally plying the Hudson River between New York City and Albany, by the 1950s her route was reduced to Poughkeepsie, and by 1970 to Bear Mountain. The Hudson River Day Line had been previously purchased by the Circle Line, who continued to operate it as a separate institution, but in 1971 the Circle Line ended steamboat service to Bear Mountain, replacing the Hamilton with the Dayliner, a sightseeing boat purpose-built to replace her. In the TV news spot below, the interviewer speaks to several crew, including Captain Edward Grady and Chief Engineer Elvoid Post, who retired with the boat. The following day, the New York Times wrote an article about the Hamilton and her retirement: BEAR MOUNTAIN, N. Y. Sept. 6—The Alexander Hamilton, the last of the Hudson River sidewheelers, made her final voyage on the river today. It was the end of an era that began 164 years ago with a paddlewheeler called the Clermont. The captain of that steamboat was Robert Fulton. The skipper of the Alexander Hamilton today was Edward VI. Grady of East Keansburg, N. J., who has spent 25 years on the water and eight years as master of the Alexander Hamilton. “There are not many of us left,” Captain Grady said on the last run, gazing out at the rain ‐ spattered river. “Steamboats?” a passenger asked. “Steamboats and Irishmen,” the captain replied. Replacement on Way Built in 1923 and commissioned a year later, the Alexander Hamilton will be replaced next season by a sleek new twin‐screw all‐steel diesel powered vessel to be called, prosaically, the Dayliner. The Hamilton, or the Alexander as steamboat buffs call her, may end up as a restaurant at the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, but her crew—at least some of them—secretly hope she will find some more work on the water. “There are another 40 years In her, easy,” said Chief Engineer Elvoid Post of Harrington Park, N. J., who joined the ship as a young oiler in 1931 and has been with her ever since, except for a year in 1939 Spent on the Peter Stuyvesant, now serving as a restaurant in Boston. Chief Post, 71 years old, retired tonight. There were rumors among the crew that he would set a speed record on the return trip from Poughkeepsie. “I'll open her up,” he said, “but I set my speed record on Sept. 23, 1942. We left Bear Mountain at 5:45 P.M. that day. We tied up and I was at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey at 7:15, where my wife was having a baby.” Chief Post said that the owner of the line then, who lived in Riverdale, the Bronx, told him the next day that all he saw going down the river was steam. “He told me not to have any more babies,” the chief said. “We did have one more, but it was off‐season.” An Emotional Trip To many of the 2,700 passengers today, it was a routine, enjoyable trip with stops at Bear Mountain and West Point, but to about 100 members of the Steamboat Historical Society, to the crew, to yachtsmen along the river and to hundreds of old‐timers along the shore it was an emotion-laden trip. The powerful tenor steam whistle on the Hamilton was rarely silent as other vessels saluted the 338.6‐feet‐long old queen of the river. “They know they will never see her like again,” said Captain Grady, as he hauled on the brass whistle pull. The Hamilton, built at Sparrows Point, Md., at a cost of $850,000, is the last of the old generation of Day Liners, and she is following into retirement not only the Peter Stuyvesant but also the Robert Fulton, now a workmen's dormitory in Nassau, and the Chauncey Depew, long used as a launch in Bermuda. The Hamilton's graceful wooden superstructure is of a kind now banned by Federal law but, as Chief Engineer Post observed, “We had a safety record the whole shipping world can admire.” Miss Mary Doran, a retired Yonkers school teacher, who remembered 50 years of Hudson River history, said she came from Florida for the occasion “I never really liked the Hamilton,” she added, “because it was built in the twenties, when they began to get rid of the old elegance.” Most of today's passengers—the last man to board the vessel in New York was James Norton of Jamaica, Queens —celebrated the day with Scotch and fried chicken served from huge plastic coolers. The host at one private party on board was William Olcott, a descendant of the family that owned the Day Line for many years and first operated ships on New York's rivers before the War of 1812. The Alexander Hamilton was christened by his aunt, Mrs. A. V. S. Olcott, in 1924. His family owned the Day Line until 1948, the year the last boats ran all the way to Albany. “My grandmother did not allow beer on the boats until the line went bankrupt in the thirties,” Mr. Olcott said. “They held church services on board every Sunday and there was no hard liquor until my grandmother died.” The new ship will have the same passenger capacity, about 4,000, or almost double that the largest trans‐Atlantic liners But little boys on board will no longer be able to go below and gaze in awe at the huge paddle wheel cranks pounding up and down in the engine room as the Alexander Hamilton cut through the river at an average speed of 18 knots. Nor will they be able to peek through the portholes at the paddlewheels themselves. The people on shore, too—the youngsters but more so their elders—will miss the paddles and the graceful glide of the Hamilton as she swept past on the Hudson. Like just about all of the Hudson River's sidewheel steamboats, the Alexander Hamilton had a sad end. She moved from pier to pier after her retirement, and ended up beached in Atlantic Highlands, NJ until December of 1976, when she was purchased by developer Fred Lafko, who had her pulled off the sandbar and towed to the Navy pier near Monmouth, NJ, where he hoped to restore her as a floating restaurant and museum. In March of 1977, she was added to the National Register of Historic Places. But it was not to be. On November 8, 1977, a storm blew up and the Hamilton sank at her pier. Although several groups tried valiantly to raise the funds, the Hamilton never floated again. You can learn more about the Alexander Hamilton and see artifacts from the boat at the Hudson River Maritime Museum's new exhibit, commemorating the 50th anniversary of her final year. If you have memories of the Hamilton, please share them in the comments!
If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today! This blog post is called "The Confusing Tale of two Thomas Collyers," and is about two steamboats by the same name, in operation around the same time, and the confusion that results. But in some ways it should really be about THREE Thomas Collyers - the two vessels and the man who built both of them. Thomas Collyer began his work as an apprentice shipbuilder in the Hudson Valley of New York, building his first ship - the aptly named First Effort - in the early 1830s. His second vessel, the Katrina Van Tassel (named for the love interest in Washington Irving's "Sleepy Hollow") was completed in 1838. Building steamboats in Troy, NY and Lake Champlain, he finally settled in New York City, building such boats as the Daniel Drew and Henry Clay. And, it turns out he built two separate boats named after himself - one in 1850, and another in 1863. A few weeks ago we shared George Murdock's steamboat biography of the steamboat Thomas Collyer, built in 1863 and Thomas Collyer's last boat he built before he died. But unmentioned in that account was that an earlier Thomas Collyer was built in 1850 in New York City, but serving the bulk of her life operating out of Georgetown, District of Columbia. She was later renamed City of Brunswick and operated out of Brunswick, Georgia, before being removed from documentation in 1896. A Thomas Collyer served as a dispatch boat for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It was not uncommon for fast steamboats to be pressed into service, but it's unclear which Thomas Collyer served when! Perhaps both? The 1850 Thomas Collyer served as one of the first steamboats to make regular trips to Mount Vernon. Tourists had been making pilgrimages to visit George Washington's tomb for decades, but in 1853 the Thomas Collyer started making regular landings at Mount Vernon itself. One reference indicates that by 1862 the Thomas Collyer was under the control of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. Mary Lincoln visited the historic site and Washington's tomb in 1861, again aboard the Thomas Collyer. President Abraham Lincoln did not accompany his wife, but was an admirer of Washington. On May 25, 1861, Naval records note that the USS Pawnee captured the Confederate steamer Thomas Collyer at Alexandria Virginia. Was this the 1850 Thomas Collyer pressed into Confederate service? Was the captured boat later repurposed? In 1864, Lincoln tried to visit Mount Vernon again. According to the University of Michigan: Lincoln's endorsement is written on a letter from Harriet V. Fitch, Vice Regent of the Mount Vernon Association, February 26, 1864, requesting that the steamboat Thomas Collyer be permitted to run between Washington and Mount Vernon: ``We have through much labor bought, and paid for, the, home and grave of Washington, and but for the national troubles, would long since have collected a sum, equal to its restoration, and future keeping. Now, we have no means to keep it---no revenue but such as this boat will bring us. With that we will be enabled to go on another year, at least, and at the end of that time, let us hope for brighter days, when we can add to our fund; by further collections in the States.'' Stanton's endorsement follows Lincoln's: ``The Secretary of War does not deem it expedient to allow a Steamboat to run to Mt Vernon at present.'' Although Lincoln never made it to Mount Vernon due to security concerns, it's unclear whether the Thomas Collyer mentioned here was his regular dispatch boat, or the vessel making the tourist runs. It seems likely that it was the original, 1850 vessel, given the destination, but it could have also been the 1863 vessel. The Thomas Collyer built in 1863 was used as a U.S. dispatch boat. One source indicates she was chartered in 1863. Known as a very fast steamboat, on November 11, 1864, the Washington, DC Evening Star reported "The steamer Thomas Collyer arrived here this morning from City Point with the mails and passengers. Having been placed on the mail route in place of the steamer Manhattan. The Collyer brings no news from the war front." But it did have thirty Confederate deserters aboard, having taken the "oath of allegiance," along with several Union soldiers being dishonorably discharged. In February of 1865, Lincoln visited Annapolis. He left Washington by train and arrived in Annapolis later that day, before boarding the Thomas Collyer to get to Fort Monroe for the Hampton Roads conference, which are held on board the steamboat River Queen just off the Union controlled fort. The peace talks ultimately failed. On March 14, 1865, the Evening Star reported that "A party of fifty or sixty excursionists, composed principally of Congressmen and their wives, bound on a pleasure trip South, left the 6th street wharf this morning on the Government steamer Thomas Collyer." The point of the excursion was apparently to view "points South now in the possession of our troops." Just short of a month later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at the Petersen House on April 15, 1865. On April 17, a special dispatch the New York World reported that when the news of Lincoln's assassination reached Richmond, VA, "Two steamers left City Point simultaneously - the City Point and the Thomas Collyer." It is unclear which Thomas Collyer is referred to. On July 28, 1865, the Thomas Collyer was still working as a dispatch boat for the government. A "Notice to Travellers" in The Norfolk (VA) Post announced that the M. Martin, another New York steamboat chartered for government service, along with the Thomas Collyer were available for both mail and passengers. The end of the 1850 Thomas Collyer is unclear, but on May 16, 1866, the Baltimore Daily Commercial reported on a US District Court Case involving the Thomas Collyer (likely the 1850 one). U.S. Marshall W. Bonifant reported that the Collyer was being sued by Charles Reeder for libel "in a cause of contract." Bonifant reported he had "seized and taken the said steamer, and have the same in my custody," holding it until the owner or owners appeared in court. After the war, the 1863 Thomas Collyer returned to New York for service. You can read the rest of her story in the George Murdock article. Even so, the tale of the two Thomas Collyers remains tangled. I guess we can only blame Thomas Collyer himself. If you have more definitive information on either of the Thomas Collyers and their Civil War service, please let us know! Email research@hrmm.org. AuthorSarah Wassberg Johnson is the Director of Exhibits & Outreach at the Hudson River Maritime Museum. Her interest in steamboats used as dispatch boats by the U.S. Government during the Civil War was first piqued by the news that the Thomas Powell was chartered as a dispatch boat, leading to references to the M. Martin and Thomas Collyer. In the meantime, the quest to untangle the two Thomas Collyers continues. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
Editor’s Note: The following text is a verbatim transcription of an article featuring stories by Captain William O. Benson (1911-1986). Beginning in 1971, Benson, a retired tugboat captain, reminisced about his 40 years on the Hudson River in a regular column for the Kingston (NY) Freeman’s Sunday Tempo magazine. Captain Benson's articles were compiled and transcribed by HRMM volunteer Carl Mayer. See more of Captain Benson’s articles here. This article was originally published September 3, 1972. Today, when there are only two passenger vessels operating on the lower Hudson River during the summer months, it is difficult to realize how many passenger steamboats were once in operation on all parts of the river. It is even more difficult to realize there were once so many passengers that at times extra steamboats on the same run were necessary to handle the crowds. When I was a deckhand on the Day Liner "Albany" during the seasons of 1928 and 1929, the Hudson River Day Line operated a fleet of seven steamboats with a total passenger capacity in excess of 25,000. On weekends and holidays it was not unusual to see all seven steamers loaded to full or near capacity. Since the "Albany" was then the oldest Day Liner in service and had one of the smaller passenger capacities, she was often used as the extra steamer on the regular runs. Labor Day weekend in particular was always a big weekend with especially large crowds. In those days, many families still spent the summer in the Catskill Mountains and it seemed that during those first few days in September everybody would try to return to New York City at the same time. Carrying the Crowds On Labor Day weekend 1928, the "Albany" left New York on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. to help carry the crowds leaving the city for the last big weekend of summer. After making all the regular landings, we landed at Catskill at about 8:30 in the evening. There, we were to lay overnight and precede the regular down steamer from Albany on Sunday to carry the big crowds returning to the city from Catskill and Kingston Point. I remember that early September Sunday morning at Catskill Point almost as if it were yesterday. When I came out of the foc’s’le, the up river air seemed so fresh after being in New York for a month or so. The smell of the flats at low water was just like being home. The fog banks of September were rising over the river. I could hear a boat’s whistle blowing one long and two short, meaning a tow was coming down. As the sound of the whistle got louder, I recognized it as the whistle of the Cornell tugboat "Osceola." As I looked out on the river, I caught a glimpse of the “Osceola" just above Catskill Point between one of the banks of fog. She had brick scows, cement barges, canal boats and a small schooner in the tow, strung out astern on about 450 feet of cable. The tug “George W. Pratt" was the helper and pulling alongside the tow. A Strange Scene As I stood on the deck of the "Albany," the scene assumed a strange look, for suddenly I couldn’t see the “Osceola" or the tail end of the tow. The fog banks closed in on both ends, leaving only the middle of the tow exposed to view. As a good ebb tide was running, it did not take long for the tow to be lost out of sight down river. When the morning sun cut the fog away and the river cleared about 7:30 a.m., there was nothing in sight either way up or down the river. Later in the morning after leaving Catskill, the “Albany” overtook the “Osceola” and her tow down off Saugerties. We preceded the regular down boat, the "Alexander Hamilton," landing at Kingston Point, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh about 15 minutes ahead of the "Hamilton," the two steamers being necessary to handle the large crowds returning to the big city. The next day, Labor Day, we were the regular up boat to Albany since the big crowds were all going down river. To give an idea of the large crowds, that Labor Day there were three departures from Kingston Point for New York - the “Alexander Hamilton" at 12:40 p.m., the “Hendrick Hudson” at 1 p.m. and the “Robert Fulton" at 3 p.m. That night the “Hendrick Hudson” dead headed back to Catskill and the next day, Tuesday, preceded the old “Albany” to New York, two steamers again being required to adequately handle all the passengers returning to New York. Unusual Caper On Labor Day weekend in 1930 occurred an incident to the “Hendrick Hudson” which turned out to be just about the only unusual caper of her long, virtually accident free career. As was the general practice of the late 1920’s, on that Labor Day the “Hudson” was the regular down boat for New York and the "Albany" the regular up steamer. After arriving at New York, the “Hendrick Hudson" was to dead head back to Albany so as to make her large passenger capacity of 5,500 available for the still large crowds expected on Tuesday. Going north the weather was hazy and on the upper river there were patches of fog. North of Hudson the river is quite narrow. Running through the fog banks, the pilot on watch apparently kept too close to the west bank and the "Hendrick Hudson” ran hard aground on the sandy bottom just below Van Wie’s Point — only about five miles from her destination. Unable to back off under her own power, she was pulled free at high water on Tuesday by the Cornell tugboats "Pocahontas" and “W. A. Kirk.” She then went back to New York, but too late to be of any help for the waiting passengers. AuthorCaptain William Odell Benson was a life-long resident of Sleightsburgh, N.Y., where he was born on March 17, 1911, the son of the late Albert and Ida Olson Benson. He served as captain of Callanan Company tugs including Peter Callanan, and Callanan No. 1 and was an early member of the Hudson River Maritime Museum. He retained, and shared, lifelong memories of incidents and anecdotes along the Hudson River. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
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