Editor's note: The following engraving and text were originally published in the New-York Evening Post June 28, 1817. Thanks to volunteer researcher George A. Thompson for finding, cataloging and transcribing this article. The language of the article reflects the time period when it was written.

For more information see Dr. Jonathan Daniel Wells' presentation for the HRMM lecture series, of his book "The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War" here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chjcZEQR9iY

KIDNAPPING -- This most odious, and I might even say, worst of crimes, which has hitherto been principally confined to the southern states, has of late found its way among us.  On Thursday last, information was lodged with the Manumission Society, that a gang of scoundrels were engaged in seducing, and decoying free men of color, on board a small schooner, called the Creole, then lying up the North River, a little distance above the state-prison, with the intention of transporting them abroad and selling them as slaves for life.  Assistance was procured from the police-office, the schooner boarded, and a search took place, when behold, on opening the hatches, 9 poor unfortunate sons of Africa, who were huddled together in her hold, half suffocated, leaped upon deck, and disclosed to their deliverers the scene of villainy which had been practiced upon them. 

One of the owners of the schooner, James H. Thompson, who belongs to Virginia, attempted to make his escape in the long-boat, but was overtaken, secured, and together with the people of colour were taken to the police-office. Upon examination it appeared that one Moses Nichols, who keeps a brothel in Love-lane, in the vicinity of this city, and one Royal Bowen, were accomplices of Thompson in his odious traffic in human flesh.  They have likewise been taken into custody and all three sent to Bridewell. The following are the names of the blacks who were kidnapped: -- Stephen aged 12, Jacob aged 19, Hannah aged 23, Mink aged 18, Mary aged 8, Harvey aged 10, Henry James aged 20, Caty aged 20 and Ann Freedland. Two of the above were brought from Albany, six from Poughkeepsie, and one belonged to this city. Various were the strategems used to deceive these poor ignorant creatures, and keep them in the dark as to the hard fate which awaited them.  At one time they were told that they would be employed as gentlemen’s servants; at others they were to be hostlers. They were conveyed to the schooner in a coach last Thursday afternoon, in a violent rainstorm, and soon after put under hatches, and would, in all probability, have been taken to sea that night, had not the authority interposed. 

​One of the colored women was brought to this city in a sloop from Poughkeepsie, by one of the above named fellows, (Nichols,) who pretended to be her master, and during the whole passage was observed to read frequently in the bible, and at other times to weep, and refuse all sustenance offered her. On the captain of the sloop inquiring of her the cause, she told him she was apprehensive that there was a scheme on foot to transport her out of the country. Thompson, the principal actor in this disgraceful traffic [had claimed last winter to have been] knocked down in Warren street and robbed of a large sum of money. We understand from the police officers he is an old offender, and was concerned with a couple of fellows who were indicted last winter for kidnapping.  It would, perhaps, be no more than fair to state, that the captain of the schooner, who was supposed to be implicated, has been examined and discharged. It is therefore presumable that he had no knowledge of the nature of the voyage he was about to enter upon.

 KIDNAPPERS TAKEN.  It gives great pleasure to state that a number of villains, engaged in the atrocious crime of kidnapping people of colour, have lately been discovered in this city, through the benevolent exertions of Mr. S. Kelly, of Poughkeepsie, who suspecting the plot, came to this city on Thursday last, and communicated the intelligence to the Manumission Society. Immediate measures were taken to secure them and rescue the unfortunate victims that had fallen into their clutches. The principal of the gang is a man calling himself James H. Thompson, who last fall purchased some slaves of a Captain Storer, who sailed from this port in a vessel called the Alligator, with four blacks on board kidnapped here, touched at Philadelphia and procured two more, and then proceeded to Baltimore, where they were sold. Thompson undertook to convey them to Georgia, but in passing through North Carolina, the blacks procured an opportunity to communicate their situation to some travellers, who interceded on their behalf.

On reaching the town of Winton, Thompson was seized, and bound to appear at Court. Having got bail, he came on to this city, for the purpose of procuring testimony concerning his slaves. During the winter, he was knocked down in Warren-street, by Arthur Miles, Captain Storer's mate, and robbed, as he stated, of rising one thousand dollars. After this he went back to Georgia, where he resides, being, according to his own story, a farmer in King's county, and has a family of seven children. Some time ago, he took passage in a vessel at Savannah, & came to this city, accompanied by a fellow who calls his name Crabtree. Here the nefarious combination was formed. Their head quarters was at a notorious gambling house, occupied by Moses Nichols, in Love‑Lane, a road but little travelled, about two and a half miles from the city. Nichols was supplied with funds, and sent out on a Northern tour -- at Albany he procured two, and at Poughkeepsie six blacks, pretending he purchased them for his own use, and had them conveyed to his brothel, where they were kept secure by the rest of the gang.  While Nichols was busy to the North, Thompson, Crabtree and others were to work here. 

In the whole ten blacks had fallen into their hands,  This being a tolerable cargo, and delays dangerous, they were preparing to depart with their booty, and would no doubt have left this port on Friday last, had not a discovery taken place. On Thursday, the standing committee of the Manumission Society watched their manouvres. In the night, while the rain fell in torrents, the blacks were conveyed in a carriage by Thompson, from the house of Nichols, and put on board a small schooner called the Creole of New‑York, then lying in the North River, about a half a mile above Fort Gansevoort. On Friday morning, information was given to the Police, who promptly afforded assistance.  The vessel was boarded, and eight blacks found on board, secured in the hold and cabin. On enquiry of Thompson, who appeared as the owner of the vessel, he stated that two of the blacks were his own property, the rest were passengers, put on board by Nichols, who were to be landed at Poughkeepsie and Albany, where the vessel was bound for a load of cheese, and from thence to Baltimore.  The schooner was seized by the Custom House Officer, and Thompson and his accomplices conveyed to Bridewell. On Saturday Thompson was brought before the Police for examination -- in the course of his evidence he stated he had purchased the schooner for coasting, and that the blacks were bought for his relations in Baltimore. He denied having any connexion with Nichols, and pretended he knew no such man as Crabtree, but being more closely questioned, acknowledged they came passengers together from Savannah. After his affidavit was drawn up, it was handed him to read, and notwithstanding he stated it to be correct, refused to sign it.

The following is Mr. Stilwell's affidavit, who was employed to navigate the vessel, but who it appears had no knowledge of the villainy going on.  He was accordingly discharged.
CITY OF NEW-YORK, ss.
William Stilwell of No. 22 Hester-street, being duly sworn, says that eight or ten days since he was employed by James H. Thompson, the man now here, to act as captain of the vessel called “The Creole of New-York” -- That deponent obtained coasting licence, and was to sail yesterday to a place called Darien, [Georgia] about 60 or 70 miles from Savannah, in South Carolina* -- that said Thompson said that he was to take nothing but passengers out, together with a few blacks, their servants, and he was to return to this port with a cargo of wheat.

WM. STILLWELL.
Sworn the 27th day of June, 1817.  J. HEDDEN, Police Justice.
When this villainous conspiracy shall have undergone a full examination, we have no doubt other actors will be discovered, and that it will be found to have consisted of a gang of BLOODY THIEVES who have long been engaged in kidnapping this unfortunate race of people.  We thank God that through the exertions of the friends of Africans, they have at length been taken, and are about to suffer the just sentence of the law for their atrocious crimes.
Names of the blacks and their ages -- Stephen aged 12, Jacob 19, Hannah 23, Mink 18, Harvey 10, Henry James 20, Caty 20, Jane Freedland, and one other.
New‑York Daily Advertiser, June 30, 1817, p. 2, cols. 1‑2

Happy Fourth of July! For today's Media Monday, we thought we'd share this amazing series of videos with leading historians on the American Revolution in the Hudson River Valley, centered on Dobbs Ferry. 

Two major turning points of the American Revolutionary War occurred in the Hudson River Valley - the American victory at Saratoga (October, 1777) and the bold decision of Washington and Rochambeau to march from Westchester County, NY, to Virginia (August, 1781). 

In 2009 the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society received a grant to record a series of interviews with leading historians of the American Revolution as part of the creation of the Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail (now known as the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route). These excerpts are just a few of the ten part video series! 

​Interview with Pulitzer Prize winning historian, David Hackett Fischer: During the American Revolutionary War Washington and Rochambeau, while encamped in Westchester County, NY, made the decision that would win the war. Dr. Fischer speaks about this decision and about Dobbs Ferry, starting point for Washington's 1781 march to victory at Yorktown, Virginia. Congress recognized the great historic significance of the march by establishing the Washington Rochambeau National Historic Trail in 2009. Dr. Fischer explains why Washington chose lower Westchester (Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale, Edgemont and White Plains) for the side-by-side encampment of the American and French armies and why he deployed the light infantry and light dragoons in Dobbs Ferry.

In this interview Thomas Fleming, past president of the Society of American Historians, speaks about the 1781 encampment of the American and French armies in lower Westchester (Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale, Edgemont and White Plains) and about the the march of the American army from Dobbs Ferry to victory at Yorktown, Virginia. ​

To learn more about the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, visit the National Parks Service. 

​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!​

The Rondout Creek, upon which was situated the terminus of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, served the transportation needs of the village of Rondout- the one-time commercial hub of Ulster County. The Creek was destined to be a shipbuilding center for the mid-Hudson region for well over a century, and the Rondout area was the home of many waterside activities which were dependent upon a supply of steamboats, tugs and barges to move the region’s products to market.
 
At one time or another during the past 150 years, wooden boats were built at Sleightsburgh, Ponckhockie, South Rondout, the Island Dock, Wilbur and Eddyville. Steel vessels were later built on the Island Dock and at Wilbur.
 
The shipbuilder at Ponckhockie was Jefferson McCausland, at whose yard was built, among other vessels, the tugs John D. Schoonmaker, Harry and Frank for the late lamented Cornell Steamboat Company- a longtime Rondout icon- in 1888, 1892 and 1893 respectively.
 
There was another obscure shipbuilder at Rondout in the person of Henry Pross who built the little tug Dr. David Kennedy in 1880. Certainly nobody today will remember “Dr. Kennedy’s Favorite Remedy,” a potent patent medicine that was Victorian Rondout’s version of penicillin.

Morgan Everson operated a shipbuilding yard many years ago at Sleightsburgh, where he built the tug H.W. Hills in 1864 for service at Hartford, Connecticut. In 1872, he constructed two tugs for Thomas Cornell- Coe F. Young and Thomas Dickson- which the old-time boatmen invariably and collectively called “the Youngs and Dickson.” Everson’s yard was active during the Civil War and beyond, and later it was run by a man named McMullen. Later still, the proprietor was John Baisden, who built the renowned and handsome tug Rob for the Cornell Steamboat Company in 1902. Baisden rebuilt Cornell’s tug Victoria in 1908. The site of this yard, just downstream of the present Kingston Oil Supply Company, was later used as a repair facility by the Cornell Steamboat Company. At this location, the hull of the tug Harry, hauled out on the marine railway and her engine and boiler removed, literally fell to pieces in the 1940s.
 
Upstream and across the creek in South Rondout (as Connelly was always known by the boatman), Jacob Fox had a small yard around the 1860s. Jake Fox built the tugboat George W. Pratt for Thomas Cornell in 1863, along with many barges and other vessels. Among the others was a tug named Thomas Cornell, and Fox also rebuilt the tug Greenwood in 1863 after she had suffered a boiler explosion. Long after Fox’s yard ceased to exist, George W. Pratt was rebuilt at Sleightsburgh in 1882 by McMullen.
 
By this time, Conrad Hiltebrant was operating a barge-building yard at South Rondout. This later expanded to become the C. Hiltebrant Dry Dock Company, which built many vessels, including steam tug s for the Navy in 1918-20. The yard continued its activities between the wars. During World War II, the Hiltebrant yard produced minesweepers for the Navy, and in the post-war period was active in the construction of state-of-the-art non-magnetic minesweepers.
 
After the closure of the D&H Canal at about the turn of the last century, the Island Dock (originally the Canal’s transshipment entrepot) lay fallow for a number of years. During World War I, the Kingston Shipbuilding Corporation constructed ocean-going wooden-hulled cargo steamships (the only vessels of the type ever built along the Creek), and, in the 1920s, patrol boats for the Coast Guard. The main mission of these was the interception of bootleg alcoholic beverages during prohibition; as a result, the patrol boats were known as “rum-runners” to the shipyard workers.
 
Shipbuilding on the Island Dock was revived during and after World War II under the name Island Dock, Inc. The wartime activities included the construction of four large wooden-hulled naval steam tugs (known as “ATRs) and some minor craft. After the war, the company converted to steel construction, and during the decade of the 1950s turned out a flotilla of barges and other vessels for the Army, Navy and commercial owners. Seventeen LCU landing craft, a ferry for Shelter Island, New York, and barges for the City of New York and others were among the notable latter-day products of the yard. Today, nearly 40 years after the yard closed, the historic Island Dock is home to a forest of trees, the ghostly remains of its former activities barely visible under the umbrella of their leaves.
 
In later days, the yard of W.F. & R. Boatbuilders, Inc., located across the slip on Abeel Street, was associated with Dwyer Lighterage, Inc., a Rondout tug-and-barge owner. The yard had formerly been the property of Jacob Rice (for whom the Cornell tug Senator Rice was named.) Many wooden barges were built on these premises over the years. The Dwyer family later operated a fleet of oil barges and the tug James F. Dwyer, none of which had been built at Rondout. The memorable gray-painted Dwyer covered barges, which carried bagged cement, stood out like beacons in Cornell’s tows during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

Rondout was also the home of a shop. Operated under various names, which built boilers for many of the steam vessels along the creek. Boilers were also constructed for steamboats, tugs and shoreside industries elsewhere in the Hudson Valley. The steamboat Mary Powell, Rondout’s own “Queen of the Hudson.” had during her long life six sets of boilers, three of which were built at the Rondout shop, of which the successive proprietors were a man named McEntee, John Dillon, McEntee & Dillon and McEntee & Rodie. McEntee & Dillon built the engine for the tug George W. Pratt. Later the Cornell Steamboat Company built engines and boilers at their extensive shops which were located in large brick creekside buildings downstream of the Museum.
 
Finally, we come to the Feeney yard at Wilbur. The Reliance Marine Transportation & Construction Corporation, still very much in existence, has been the sight of steel barge-building activity, and the home base of the Feeney tugs and barges, since the late 1940s.
 
Looking at the Rondout Creek today, with its marinas and its vast flotilla of pleasure craft, it is difficult to imagine that, for a century, hundreds upon hundreds of commercial craft- mainly barges and tugs- were launched from local yards. Reliance Marine alone carries on the long and proud tradition of shipbuilding along the Creek, but the shadows of Morgan Everson and Jake Fox and the others keep a silent watch over this historic waterway. In fact, if you stand on creekside when all else is quiet, you might just make out “the Youngs” or “the Dickson” through a shimmering morning mist.

Earlier this month we profiled the Mayflower II for Sail Freighter Friday. So we thought we'd share a few British Pathe newsreels of this momentous occasion. We'll start with this short newsreel of her under sail, arriving in New York in 1957:

Built between 1955 and 1957 in England the Mayflower II sailed across the Atlantic in 1957 and was welcomed to New York Harbor in June of that year. British Pathe also did this slightly longer account of her arrival:

Of particular note is the U.S. Navy blimp flying overhead and the harbor fireboats blasting their hoses and turrets to welcome Mayflower II to New York. 

To learn more about the Mayflower II's voyage across the ocean in 1957, check out this short documentary film, which features captain Alan Villiers, who shepherded the square-rigged ship across the Atlantic. 

In 2020, a young sailor who was aboard the Mayflower II on her transatlantic journey recounted his experience for the Associated Press. He took a color film camera along and shared some of his footage below.

To visit the Mayflower II in person (and to learn more accurate history about the original Pilgrims), visit plimoth.org. ​

​​​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!​

If you've been following Sail Freighter Friday, you'll have noticed last week was about a Fiji Government Vessel by the name of Na Mata-I-Sau. If you haven't read that article yet, you might want to catch up before you read this one. She was retrofitted with sails in 1984, but sank in January of 1985. Her rig was inherited by today's featured Sail Freighter, the Cagidonu. While the Cagidonu was larger than the Na Mata-I-Sau, the rig still proved useful, and the experiment in sail assisted propulsion continued.  ​

Last week we explored the Poughkeepsie Regatta, so this week we thought we'd take a look at how wooden rowing sculls were built in the past. This short film from British Pathe shows one family of boatbuilders in Eton, England, famous for the Eton College crew team. 

You can see examples of 19th century rowing sculls and more modern (1960s) wooden sculls in the Hudson River Maritime Museum's rowing exhibit.

Although rowing sculls are not built (yet) at the Hudson River Maritime Museum's Wooden Boat School, you can build kayaks, rowboats, and even carve your own paddles or oars. If you're interested in building your own boat, check out available classes. And if you'd like to learn how to row, check out our traditional rowing classes, or join the Rondout Rowing Club. 

Editor's Note: 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. For more of Murdock's articles, see the "Steamboat Biographies" category.

Known by rivermen as a “hard luck steamboat,” the “Saratoga” plied the waters of the Hudson river for 33 years, and during that time was responsible for some loss of life as well as doing a great deal of damage to the vessel itself. She played a foremost part in the coincidences which labeled steamboats whose names began with the letter “S” as “hard luck vessels.”

John Englis and Son of Greenpoint, N.Y., built the wooden hull of the “Saratoga” in 1877. Her keel was 285 feet long with an overall measurement of 300 feet, the breadth of her hull was 56 feet (over the guards she was 70 feet), and she was listed for 1,438 gross tons and 1,281 net tons. Her vertical beam engine came from the “Sunnyside” and was a product of Secor Iron Works of New York city- built in 1866. The cylinder diameter measured 56 inches with a 12 foot stroke. She had two steel return tubular boilers, and her wheels were 32 feet in diameter with 26 buckets to each wheel with a dip of 30 inches.

The "Saratoga" and the "City of Troy" ran in line between New York and Troy, forming the Citizen’s Line; the “Saratoga” having replaced the steamboat “Neversink” which had seen service on this route for a year, having replaced the “Thomas Powell” which was discarded in 1876. The month of June, 1877 makes the first trip of the “Saratoga” to Troy, sailing under the command of Captain Thomas Abrams, with Abram Parsell as chief engineer [editor's note - Abram Parsell was a relative of Rondout Lighthouse keeper Catherine Murdock]. She boasted sleeping accommodations for 550 people, a large freight carrying capacity, and a speed of 16 miles per hour. She was built at a cost of $175,000.

​The first accident recorded in the history of the “Saratoga” occurred on September 29, 1886. She left Troy on Monday evening, bound for New York with 230 passengers and 80 tons of freight aboard. About 2 o’clock in the morning, when the “Saratoga” was a mile south of Tivoli, she suddenly came in contact with something with such force that her joiner work was cracked and the vessel halted. It developed that her pilot had miscalculated his whereabouts and had run at full speed on the flats between Little Island and the tracks of the Hudson River railroad. Soundings showed that the steamboat was embedded in the mud in only five feet of water- and it was not until October 11, 1886 that she was floated again.

On March 26, 1897, the “Saratoga” left her wharf at Troy for New York at 7:30 o’clock. Upon turning around she refused to obey her rudder, with the result that she smashed into the Congress street bridge at Troy. The river was high and the current swift, and she was thrown against the pier on her starboard side, carrying away much of her upper wood-work. Distress signals were immediately displayed which brought the steamer “Belle Horton” and a tugboat to her aid, and she was towed to the dock where she was later repaired.

July 29, 1897, the “Saratoga,” while steaming up the river bound for Troy, collided with a large steam yacht, the “Hermonie.” She almost went to the bottom on this occasion- the accident occurring near Stony Point. The “Hermonie” struck the “Saratoga” on the starboard side, destroying her barroom, injuring one passenger and tossing many sleeping passengers from their bunks.

​​Other accidents are recorded in which the “Saratoga” was a factor, but she continued on the New York-Troy line until sunk in a collision with the steamboat “Adirondack” on Friday, October 12, 1906, off Crugers Island, 60 miles below Troy. She was carrying a large number of passengers when this accident occurred, and was running in a light fog. Two lives were lost and several were injured. Clarence Sherman, an oiler on the Saratoga, was crushed to death, and George E. Horton, a freight clerk on the “Adirondack,” was knock overboard and drowned. The “Saratoga” was struck on the port side, being torn up from a point just aft of the wheelhouse almost to the stern. The port boiler was torn from the guards and dropped overboard. The “City of Troy” came along at this time and took off the passengers before the “Saratoga” went to the bottom.

​The “Saratoga” was raised, repaired, and sold, and was then taken to the Jamestown Exhibition (1907), where she was used as a hotel during the summer. The “City of Troy” burned in 1907 and her boilers were installed on the “Saratoga” which was then placed on the route between New York and Albany (the summer of 1908), as an opposition vessel in line with the steamboat “Frank Jones” and running under the banner of the Manhattan Navigation Line. The “Saratoga” plowed the waters of the Hudson river until the fall of 1910 when she was deemed worn out and dismantled. Her hull was purchased by Charles Bishop of Rondout, in 1911, and taken to Port Ewen and broken up.

​​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!​