Editor's Note: This series of blog posts recounts the dramatic story of the Esopus Indian Nation’s Revolutionary War exodus. The original inhabitants of Ulster County, the Esopus Indians successfully maintained their sovereignty and traditional way of life in the face of overwhelming odds for over a century. These blog posts are summaries of a much fuller story that will be published in 2027.

Part 2: A Peaceable Disposition (1776-1777)
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Spring, 1776. Over the New England border to the east, revolution was brewing. Within a few months, it had reached the isolated settlers living near to the Esopus Indians on the far side of the Catskill Mountains. In that year, Kingston resident Charles DeWitt, a member of the New York Provincial Congress, became colonel of the 2nd Ulster County Militia regiment. Like other colonial officials, he knew that the outcome of previous colonial wars greatly depended on the support of Native allies, especially the powerful Six Nations. In Ulster County, the Esopus Indians no longer resided in appreciable numbers around Kingston and the river towns. Over the preceding decades, nearly the entirety of the Esopus Indian Nation had moved over the Catskill Mountains to the headwaters of the Delaware and Suquehanna Rivers, where they were in regular communication with both the government of the Six Nations and with that of Ulster County. Individuals and families continued to visit their old Hudson Valley homeland, where many still counted friends among their Dutch colonial former neighbors. For DeWitt, maintaining friendly relations with the county’s former Native residents might ensure some measure of protection in case the war were to spread into the Colony of New York. And so, Col. Charles DeWitt and other Ulster County officials strove to strengthen the traditional bonds of friendship between Ulster County and its Esopus Indians.

Over the course of 1776, Kingston authorities sent letters and gifts to the Esopus Indians’ tribal government and elected chief, Philip Houghtaling. Notably, they sent quantities of gunflints, powder, and lead for ammunition over the mountains. These gifts of ammunition seem to indicate that DeWitt hoped for more than simply peaceful relations. Perhaps he hoped that, like the Stockbridge Mohicans in New England to the east, the Esopus Indians also sympathized with the Rebel cause. Indeed, quantities of ammunition were also sent over the mountains to those settlers who were known to be “hearty friends of the American cause.”[1] The Esopus Nation’s leadership, like that of their Nanticoke, Munsee, Mohican, and Tuscarora neighbors on the nearby upper Susquehanna, emphasized to colonial officials in both Pennsylvania and New York of their desire to stay out of conflict. They offered, instead, to shield Ulster County from the war while not otherwise offering support.[2]

That autumn, the thinly-scattered European settlers on the far side of the Catskills expressed alarm at a possible war afoot in adjacent Indian Country. The paranoia of Indian raids that spread among them was much like that which overtook Ulster County two decades earlier during the French and Indian War. What these settlers did not mention in their panicked letters was the fact that some of them had formed a gang and were actively persecuting Loyalist neighbors on the upper Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. Many of the so-called Loyalists were simply peaceful farmers who had little interest in joining a rebellion. The persecutions – which included violent evictions and theft of property – got so out of hand that armed local Indian warriors felt the need to protect these settlers.[3] The harassment by the roving Rebel gangs pushed many on the frontier – Indian and white – towards Loyalism. In that September, leaders from the tribal governments on the western side of the Catskills pledged loyalty to the British at a large treaty held at Fort Niagara.[4] Upon returning from Fort Niagara, Esopus Indian chief sachem Philip Houghtaling sent a representative, the war captain John Runnupe, with a message to local Rebel settlers: they had one week to leave the Western Catskills, with no guarantee of safety for those who refused.[5]

In response, Ulster County resolved that a company of rangers be formed to patrol the western frontier of Ulster County to protect non-Loyalist settlers.[6] A few days later, more alarming news arrived from over the Catskills: an elderly Esopus Indian woman “…weeping much… desired the [settlers] to move this week to get out danger, and that she would not see them [again for] a long time… she expected that in case they did not move off they would be murdered by the Indians in a short time…”[7] Many settlers now abandoned their frontier farms and fled eastward to the safety of the river towns. And yet, even if they had warned off rebellious frontier settlers, the Esopus Indians still showed no inclination towards conflict with Ulster County as a whole. A number of their leaders arrived in Kingston in November of 1776 to renew the treaty of peace, just as they had done nearly annually since the Second Esopus War ended in 1664. This would be the last time in history that the Nicolls Treaty was renewed.
           
The winter of early 1777 passed by relatively uneventfully. When travel became easier with the melting of winter snow, messengers were once again sent from Kingston to the Esopus Indians on the other side of the Catskills to enquire as to their intentions.[8] By early April of 1777, the Esopus Indians’ response was received: they still wished to maintain peace with Ulster County. The Esopus Indian leadership even offered to send one of their most respected citizens, Nicholas, to Kingston with his family to remain for the duration of the war as a sign of their good will (and as a potential hostage). Chief Sachem Philip Houghtaling ended his message stating that “We assure you of a truth, that it is our determination that we will lay still in this distressing time, and that you shall not receive damage by us… The remote tribes of Indians are mostly joined at Niagara, and we expect they will be on your [i.e., the rebels’] backs some time this moon, at the northward [towards the Mohawk River]…”[9]
           
Pragmatically, the Esopus Indians wished to avoid conflict with their friends and former neighbors in the river towns of Ulster County, regardless of political orientation. They promised to protect Ulster County from raids by Loyalists and loyal Indian allies, so long as Ulster County protected Esopus Indian families and settlements on the upper Susquehanna and along the upper branches of the Delaware River. But by all indications, in following the lead of the Six Nations, the Esopus Indian Nation had allied itself with Great Britain the previous autumn two months before renewing the Nicholls Treaty in Kingston for the last time. And they had good reason to do so: should the Rebels win the war, they would prove to be an existential threat to all of those Native Nations dwelling near to the Fort Stanwix Treaty Line.[10] Moreover, it is likely that many young Esopus Indian warriors were inspired by charismatic Mohawk war chief and British officer Joseph Brant, who spent lengths of time in these years living amongst them. By early August of 1777, the Esopus Indians had participated as victors in one of the bloodiest ambushes of the American Revolution: the Battle of Oriskany in the western Mohawk Valley.

Several weeks later, on August 23rd, a rumor spread among the Esopus Indian communities that a large Rebel force from Kingston was on its way to destroy them. Although the rumor was unfounded, Esopus Indian families and non-combattants were sent eastward for safety up the West Branch to an isolated one of their settlements, as well as to Joseph Brant’s base of operations at the town of Onaquaga. It is possible that they imagined that this attack would be retribution for their involvement at Oriskany. They then sent a friendly overture to the authorities in Kingston; just as in previous overtures, they noted that they would continue to shield the river towns in Ulster County from any Loyalist raids, while hoping that Ulster County would cast a blind eye towards their warriors’ support of British military endeavors in the Mohawk Valley to the north.[11] New York Governor Clinton’s response to the Esopus Indians was indignant: that since “…the young Indians & warriors who had joined [the Loyalist officer] Butler went there designedly to fight and kill our People and to assist the English, that we cannot, therefore, consider the Fathers & Mothers of those young Indians as our Friends…”[12]
 
                                                               To Be Continued…
 
Citations:
[1] Journals of the Provincial Congress of the State of New-York: 1775-1776-1777, Vol. I. Albany: Thurlow Weed. 1842. 539-540.
[2] Harvey, Oscar Jewell & Ernest Gray Smith. A History of Wilkes-Barré, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Vol. II. Wilkes-Barré: 1909. 888-889.
[3] McGinnis, Richard. "A Loyalist Journal, Part 1" in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 105(4). New York: 1974. 193-202.
[4] Journals of the Provincial Congress of the State of New-York: 1775-1776-1777, Vol. II. Albany: Thurlow Weed. 1842. 216.
[5] John Runnupe was likely the son or grandson of his namesake, whose full name was recorded under variations of Noondawiharind and who was involved in land sales in Shawangunk and for the Hardenbergh Patent earlier in the century.
[6] Journals of the Provincial Congress of the State of New-York: 1775-1776-1777, Vol. I. Albany: Thurlow Weed. 1842. 656-657.
[7] Ibid, Vol. II: 340.
[8] Calendar of Historic Manuscripts Relating to the American Revolution in NYS, Vol II. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons & Company. 1863. 93-94.
[9] Journals of the Provincial Congress of the State of New-York: 1775-1776-1777, Vol. II. Albany: Thurlow Weed. 1842. 423-424.
[10] The 1768 Fort Stanwix Treaty line was a boundary that more-or-less followed the Appalachian Mountains and which was meant to keep the peace by dividing the British colonies from the Indian Nations to the west.
[11] Calendar of Historic Manuscripts Relating to the American Revolution in NYS, Vol II. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons & Company. 1863. 276-277.
[12] Public Papers of George Clinton, Vol. II. Albany: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co. 1900. 272-274.

Breaking the Ice Gorges of the Hudson River
Captain Ulster Davis, Great Gorge Fighter in Command of All the Big Battles Against Ice Flood and Freshet in Recent Winters, Tells the Exciting Story of Perilous Attacks by Ice-Breaking Tugs.

ICE BREAKING in its simplest form is an art in which few men have been educated, in spite of the fact that the Hudson river in front of the city freezes tightly each winter and offers a fine opportunity for any man to serve his apprenticeship in conquering such a task. To be a successful man of ice-breaking knowledge one must know his boat, from bow to stern, and must know how she will behave in attacking with an ice floe or solid field.

In breaking gorges the task becomes a most difficult one. Gorges that have formed along the Hudson for years, especially in the vicinity of Coeymans and New Baltimore, have been often attacked, and sometimes such an attack has not brought forth results. Gorges usually extend for miles and are one concrete mass of ice, solid from the river's bottom to sometimes 10 feet above the surface of the frozen water at high tide. To fight such a gorge, which is in reality a Hudson river iceberg without a tide to move it playfully about in the water, calls for a man who knows the power of his boat or boats, and is acquainted with the details of attack, and to know just how and when to ram the gorge.

Albanians, especially those in the zone usually inundated by the spring freshets, greet the name “river gorge” with a shiver of fear, for the backing up of the waters over the docks and the flooding of the low-lying districts mean hardship, misery and want. The man responsible for the breaking of these gorges, which allows the turbulent spring waters of the Hudson to rush madly to the ocean, is known to every man, woman and child in the sections which suffer from freshets.

A Great Gorge Fighter.
Since 1902 Captain Ulster Davis, of Rensselaer, manager of the Albany Towing company and of the Cornell Steamboat line in this section, has been the man of the hour in ice-breaking attacks and gorge fighting. No man between New York and Albany knows the river better than Captain Davis, and no man is more capable of superintending gorge ‘busting’ than the Rensselaer captain. He has risen from the cabin wheel of a small tugboat to the responsibility of caring for everything that is done in the way of towing in this section, and to the topnotch in his profession.

Captain Davis has had charge of the ice breaking boats and the crews that manned them that attacked the gorges of 1902, 1903, 1907, 1909 and 1910. He has succeeded in accomplishing the task he set out to do each time, and has thus brought happiness to thousands along the Hudson.

Captain Davis reviews the work of his ice-breaking expeditions in a story, covering the work accomplished during the past eight years.

Ice Moved the Bridge.  
“The first work on gorge ice which served to demonstrate the practicability of plunging through the ice field and attacking gorges, was on December 22, 1902,” says Captain Davis.
“The ice moved in front of the city at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and gorged at the Livingston avenue bridge, piling up high, and each rush of the water jammed the crystal into a beach-to-beach gorge. The ice jam displaced the superstructure under the draw span of the Livingston avenue bridge. Edward McGiven, superintendent of the American Ice company, chartered the tug GEORGE C. VAN TUYL to break up the ice around the bridge. Before the tug was steamed up the ice began to move. We refused to leave the Albany basin until the heavy ice had passed down stream. After it had passed we proceeded to the bridge and found the ice jammed to the bottom of the river and piled up 10 feet high. The frame work under the draw span had been pushed south five feet.

“Putting the powerful little tug to a test, we cut the ice from above the draw on the west side and bucked the frame work back under the draw bridge. Dynamite was tried on this work, without success. Six days were taken up in this work, for which the tug was paid $405.

Saved Thousands of Dollars.
“This first successful ice breaking saved the American Bridge company thousands of dollars, as it was under contract to replace the old bridge and guaranteed not to stop traffic on the New York Central.

“The ice moved down the river from in front of the city and Troy to Mull's Bar, and gorged to the bottom of the river, causing the water to rise to an unprecedented height and creating alarm in the southern section of this city and in districts which suffer from a freshet. A cold snap followed and the waters receded although there was not a raise and fall of tide at Albany until March.

"It was, however, not until March, 1903, that the services of the powerful Cornell river tugs were enlisted in fighting and finally breaking up the ice gorges.

Cities Inundated.
“About the first of March, 1903, heavy rain and melting snow, due to the mild weather, caused the river to overflow its bounds and the ice broke up for a second time and passed to the Mull’s Bar gorge formed in December and jammed into a solid mass. The pressure of the water north of the gorge became so great that it lifted the Mull’s Bar gorge that formed in December, and it passed down the river two miles, lodging at Roah’s Hook, causing the water to rise so that the lower part of the city and Rensselaer were inundated.

“The Chamber of Commerce alarmed with the existing conditions took hold of the matter and a fund was raised by subscription, starting in Rensselaer, and $800 was raised from the merchants and manufacturers in the affected districts. In all $1,450 was the amount of the fund and the old side-wheeler NORWICH, in charge of Captain Jake Du Bois, and the W. N. BAVIER, commanded by Captain Herbert Du Mont, of Rensselaer, were engaged to come from Rondout to buck the gorge on the south.

Attacking the Gorge.
“The steamers started from Rondout on Thursday, March 5, and ploughed through the ice from Rondout to Coeymans. I was engaged by the Chamber of Commerce to look after their interests at Coeymans and joined the boats at New Baltimore.

“The ice was cut up in the reach at Stuyvesant and Coxsackie Lights, and the tugs proceeded to Roah Hook and attacked the gorge. The tide was normal on the lower side, but water flooded in the docks in this city. There was no current below the gorge and as the BAVIER—a new steel-hull steamer—would back up 500 feet and ran into the gorge at full speed the ice came up from the bottom in great chunks.

“It remained stationary there being no tide to float it away. After working into the gorge about 500 feet or more and in the deep water off Corwin & McCulloch's brickyard, at Coeymans, we began to get some current from beneath the gorge. The ice floated away faster than it has at any time since he began operations.

“When the BAVIER backed up and rammed the gorge the ice rolled up as solid and blue as it was in December when the original gorge knitted together. The ice was cemented with deposits of mud, logs and timber. Even though the engines of the BAVIER worked at full speed, the craft would not go over 25 to 30 feet into the gorge, with a start of 500 feet. The NORWICH could not accomplish much in fighting the gorge as the ice was so deep that it cut her below the copper sheathing and stove in some of the planking.

Like a Field of Ice.
“The gorge, when we started to cut it out, looked like a smooth field of newly frozen ice, with the exception that here and there a stick of timber would sprout up. The snows and storms had leveled it off smooth.

“Captain Jake Du Bois, of the NORWICH, asked me at this time where the ice gorge was, and I told him it was on Mull's, and that it would not take long to go through this smooth field — which was in reality the December gorge — he then let me know that he had encountered a stiffer gorge than was the first, as we had not made 200 feet in an hour.
“The ice was above the guard of the Norwich as she lay in the cut made through the gorge and the plane of the river bottom showed on the surface as the ice receded from the shores towards the centre of the river in concave shape.

Price to Break the Gorge.
“The steamers were sent from Rondout to attack the gorge by Fred Coykendall, on an agreement that the Chamber of Commerce would pay a minimum price off $2,500. People on the trains seeing the boats coming through made it known at Albany, and the subscriptions were halted with the result that but $1,450 was raised. William B. Van Rensselaer, at that time president of the chamber, phoned me to stop the boats as there was not enough money to pay them. The work was stopped at dusk Friday night after we had gotten to the new or March gorge where the boats jammed through with apparent ease.

“On the following Sunday the ice, weakened through the attacks of the BAVIER and NORWICH, passed out and the water fell, clearing the river for the season. This was the first work on the heavier type of Cornell boats on ice-gorge attacking.

Big Damage to Property.
“This gorge caused thousands and thousands of dollars worth of damage to property along the river banks. Traffic was delayed on the New York Central, ice having pushed the south-bound track on top of the north-bound main, and into the swamp at Poolsburg. No attempt was made to attack the gorge at this time.

“In 1907 the first day of the new year marked the moving out of the ice in front of the city. This ice gorged at Castleton, causing high water here. On Thursday, January 3, the gorge let go and part went down over the dyke into Schodack creek and jammed to the bottom of the channel, completely destroying the prospects of ice harvesting at the two mammoth houses of Ransom, Gardinier & Sons, and the 60,000-ton house of the American Ice company. The ice also jammed in Baker's Creek.

Clearing the Ice Pack of 1907.
“On Saturday, Supt. Thomas Clifford, of the ice company, and I conferred at Castleton and the tug GEORGE C. VAN TUYL was engaged at the rate of $15 per hour to clear the ice pack out of Baker's creek. This work was accomplished on Sunday, January 6, by Captain Edward McCabe and Bert Houghtaling, who were in charge of the tug.

“I went to Castleton with a livery rig on the same morning and the VAN TUYL tied up at the village dock after finishing its work. The Gardiniers and the American Ice company officials desired Schodack creek cleared of its obstruction as it was jammed from Burns’ dock to a short distance above Schodack Landing. The VAN TUYL was sent down the river accompanied by D. J. Driscoll. How the rig got back to Rensselaer can best be told by “Denny’’ — I drove to Schodack.

“Arriving at Burns’ dock I found the ice jammed to a depth of nine or ten feet, two or three feet out of water in the channel and piled high on the flats, mixed with timber, trees and debris from a haystack to a chicken coop.

Prying Logs From Propellor.
“We contracted with Gardinier and the ice company to clean out the channel and complete the work in 22 1-2 running hours. Considerable time was spent in getting a timber out of the propeller, which very often necessitated taking out the coupling bolts and prying the engine on the quarter, then replacing the bolts and turning on steam in the reverse motion from which the engine was turning at the time the log was picked up. It was very necessary at times to use pry bar and steam together to move the obstruction.

“Finally we attacked the gorge and it passed out and lodged at Pine Grove, in the narrow channel. Some damage was done to the boat in doing this work. Two planks were stove in on each side of the stern, and as there was no drydock to haul on at this time of the year, we kept up steam on her night and day to keep her afloat. We later proceeded to New York and had her hauled on the Leitjen & Lang drydock at Hoboken, N. J. It cost $500 to repair the hull and double plank it back from the stern to the widest part of the hull, such damage having been inflicted in a few days.

Tug Hercules Caught in the Ice.
“In the same month Welsh Brothers, ice dealers, of Coxsackie, chartered the giant tug HERCULES to go from Rondout to Grape Vine dock to cut the ice loose that had come down from above and gorged in front of their house. The tug was sent out alone to do this work and passed up through the narrow channel. Coxsackie was made with apparent ease by the powerful boat, but in turning around the ice jammed around her so that she could not be moved in either direction.

“On Thursday, January 10, 1907, Fred Coykendall, manager of the Cornell line, requested me to go to Coxsackie and see what could be done with the HERCULES. I went to Newton Hook by train and crossed the river in a small scow by being pulled through floating ice a half foot thick. I drove from Coxsackie to Pine Grove and found the powerful HERCULES, which was in charge of Captain John Silliman, of Rensselaer, hard and fast on top of an ice pack, and the tide rose and fell on her as though she was on a beach instead of in a channel with 14 feet of water.

The tender ROB, Captain George Gage, and Captain Charles Conklin for cook (and a mighty poor one, at that!) and also the big steamer POCAHONTAS, Captain Irving Hayes, were sent to rescue the HERCULES and to cut her from the pack.

“The POCAHONTAS stove a plank in her bow and had to be beached at Catskill to make repairs. The tender ROB made the distance, however, arriving on Friday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Captain Gage skirted the ROB alongside the bow of the HERCULES, so that both were fast.

“With both tugs helpless, hooks and bars were secured from an icehouse in order to pry the boats apart. After many hours’ work the ROB was pried loose and she settled down in the river with a splash. The ROB was then forced to cut the powerful HERCULES out of the floe, ploughing the ice below the boat and pulling her away with a stout hawser.

“The POCAHONTAS, after repairs had been made to her on the beach, with the HERCULES and ROB, kept at work fighting the ice and finally worked it past Athens and Catskill and down below Saugerties.

“At this time the diminutive harbor tug, VAN TUYL, was struggling with an ice floe at Four Mile Point and it was necessary to dIspatch the ROB to the assistance of the Albany tug. All four boats made Rondout safely on January 15.

“On Sunday, February 16, the ice broke up again in front of this city and gorged at New Baltimore. This obstruction was allowed to melt away.

Most Powerful Tug on River.
“One of the most recent gorge attacks was made during the winter of 1919, when we were forced to use the most powerful tug on the river, the CORNELL, which was, in fact, the biggest boat ever used in breaking the ice.

“The ice broke up unexpectedly in front of this city at 1:30 in the afternoon, February 27, and gorged at Van Wie’s Point. The water at 9 o'clock that night was over 12 foot above mean low water mark. It continued to rise rapidly and at 9:39 the next morning it was 15.1; 8 o'clock in the evening, 16.1, and two hours later, over 17 feet.

“At 10 o’clock on the night of February 29 the gorge at Van Wie’s Point let go and passed Cedar Hill. This water dropped two feet then.

Emergency Bill in Legislature.
“Continued warm weather and rain brought about alarming conditions on March 2.  At the morning session of the Legislature, Assemblyman B. R. Lansing, who was forced to wade through the water in front of his store in hip boots, made his way to the clerk’s desk and introduced an emergency bill, directing that boats be engaged to attack and break the gorge. The bill was rushed through both houses and was signed by Governor Hughes in the afternoon.

“Deputy Superintendent of Public Works Winslow M. Mead chartered a special train to go to Hudson so that the river could be inspected at that point. Mr. Mead was accompanied by Assistant Superintendent David Lewis and myself. We found the ice solid and teams were crossing the river when we reached Hudson.

“Boats were ordered from Hudson by telephone and we were advised that the CORNELL and ROB would be ready Thursday, March 3, at 10 o'clock in the morning.

Perilous Trip.
“The powerful CORNELL and tender, ROB, left Rondout creek at 11 o'clock on that morning. On board, besides the crew, was H. M. Hulsapple, representing the State. Later in the day the ROB was sent to Rhinecliff to meet a train. Mr. Mead and William B. Elmendorf came aboard the boat.

“We were forced at some points to push through over two feet of solid ice, the river being the same as when it first tightened up. He made about one mile an hour until 7 o'clock at night, when the boats crossed over to Red Hook island, on the east shore of the river. In the next four hours the ice was so thick that but two miles was made.

“While I was at the wheel of the CORNELL at this point, Captain Tim Donovan, the boat's regular commander, told me to save enough of the boat so we could get ashore in safety. The big boat was rocking and plunging and the thick and stubborn ice gave us a fight that he will long remember. It was the same as pushing the boat a brick wall. The ice was over two feet thick, and at 11 o'clock we stopped the fight and laid up for the night.

Ice Bent Steel Plates.
“Promptly at 6:30 the next morning, Friday, the two tugs were sent after the enemy again. After getting in midstream it was discovered that the plates on the steel hull of the CORNELL were bent and the frames twisted. Mr. Hulsapple  and myself were forced to walk to Tivoli and phone New York of the condition of the boat. We were told to break the gorge and relieve the suffering in the valley and to proceed to Albany.

“The boats renewed their attack and for a short distance below Saugerties creek there was open water, but from Saugerties Light to Malden, about two miles, it took four hours to make the distance, the ice being from 22 to 24 inches thick.

“Above Malden the boats were shifted close inshore and the snow water off the hills had weakened the ice in this stretch, so that he went along merrily without a stop until Germantown was in sight. We arrived at Germantown Landing at 7:30 in the evening, having covered but 10 miles in 13 hours, three hours of which was consumed in crossing the river from Alsen to Germantown.

“Assemblyman B. R. Lansing joined us at Germantown, Saturday, March 5, and leaving Germantown at 6 o'clock in the morning, we found hard ice to Linlithgo and open water on the west side of the river to Catskill creek. From Catskill to Athens the ice was 12 inches thick, and in Perry's Reach at Athens 18 inches thick. He reached Athens at 1:30 in the afternoon.

In the Path of the Ice Breaker.
“Here men and boys were out on the ice and it was at this point that the ice planks from Athens to Hudson were cut through. As the CORNELL approached a man with a large hand sled, with a passenger having two suit cases, started from the shore to cross the ice in the path of the ice breaker. He did, but he cleared the bow of the CORNELL only about six feet and was out of sight of the man at the steering wheel in the pilot house. The passenger stuck to the sled as he declared he had paid 50 cents to drive over. No whistles were sounded from the CORNELL as the boat had the right of way and the man with the sled was not going to stand on the cracking ice and dispute this fact.

“We proceeded to oil dock and turned around and came back below Hudson light to cut the heavy ice up in the reach. Then we headed for Newton Hook, reaching there at 7 o'clock at night.

“Sunday, although a day of rest with almost everybody, was one of hustle on the Cornell as the boat left Newton Hook at 6 in the morning. We found unusually heavy ice to Schodack Creek, and from there to Barren Island the ice was but eight inches thick.

Imprisoned in Ice Fields.
“We did not attempt to attack the gorge at this time, skirting back to New Baltimore. We here learned that the ROB was wedged in between two fields of ice at Lamp Island dyke. She was unable to help herself against the field of heavy floating ice and we had to cut her out and give her liberty. Both boats then shifted to Catskill, cutting the field ice as we went, so that it would pass out, and both boats tied up at Athens at 8 o'clock at night after fighting for 14 hours.

“Everybody was anxious to get to the gorge on Monday, March 7, and both boats started on the last lap of their journey. While making from Athens to Stuyvesant light, a government pile-driver was floating down through the field of broken ice. The driver was being pushed and abused by the ice floe, and we picked her up and towed her to a beach. No salvage can he collected from the government so that our hustle to get the driver availed nothing financially.

Ran on a Sand Bar.
“The real hard fight started when we made our first flying attack on the mountainous gorge at 10 o'clock in the morning, opposite the upper Briggs Ice House. The CORNELL here ran on a sand bar. Every effort was made to push the boat over the bar, but without success.

“The boat was turned in its tracks and sent to Barren Island and up through Coeymans channel. At the Coeymans dock Superintendent Kunze, of the Western section of the canal, and a corps of dynamite experts, with Deputy Superintendent Mead was picked up. The water was so high on the decks here that the passengers were forced to walk to the boat in hip booths [sic, boots].

“The ROB was left alone in her struggle against the gorge, but, as she was of light draft, cut up over the bar and found 30 feet of water. The CORNELL cut in the river above the bar, and both tugs worked at the gorge until 1:30 in the afternoon, when a hurrah went up from all on board. The ice was moving down stream.

Pushed by the Moving Gorge.
“The CORNELL was forced to drop back to Roah Hook light, where there is an angle in the dyke, and the giant tug kept her engines working to prevent her from being pushed down the river over the bar, so heavy was the moving gorge.

“The ice moved without a balk for half an hour, when it became unruly again and gorged, stopping the flow of the current. A second attack was made, and it started moving seaward at 3:05 o'clock and an hour later the ice was all passed below Roah Hook and to the ocean.
“The both boats headed towards Albany and we were forced to plough through thousands and thousands of tons of jammed ice. It was suggested to Kunze, the dynamite expert, that he try dynamite to dislodge the   remnants of the gorge, and be replied that the Big CORNELL could cut out more ice in one plunge than he could remove in a day with the explosive. He added that there was enough ice here to put Hades in cold storage for years!

Ovation All the Way Home.
“The announcement that the ice-breaking boats would proceed to Albany was evidently sent all along the river, as we were greeted from every dock, a cannon announcing our arrival here. The heroic boats passed through the Greenbush bridge draw span, and we tied up at the foot of Hamilton street in a snow storm.

“Many amusing and pitiful sights greeted the men in charge of the ice-breaking tugs. In the gorge at Coeymans in one of our attacks there was a chicken coop frozen in the top of the field. We found in the coop a hen setting on eggs and she greeted us with a cackle.

“In March, 1902, with the tug VAN TUYL, I went to Montgomery's Island, just below Albany, on the east side of the river, and found in the house a widow with six barefooted children, The home, in which lay her dead husband, was surrounded by water, and it was impossible to reach it in a row boat because of the floating ice. The woman was almost overcome with joy when the VAN TUYL stuck her nose against the home.

“The day when ice gorges along the Hudson will cause the water to back up and cause hardship and misery to these who have the misfortune to live in the affected district is gone, however, as the superintendent of public works is now authorized in an emergency to employ means at the State's expense to break such obstructions.
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“The only effective means towards breaking ice gorges is the employment of the giant tug boats. Ice breaking is not profitable to the owners of the boats. The damage done to the craft while thus engaged is almost equal to the compensation.”

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. ​

Built originally for a local concern, Romer & Tremper, with offices in Rondout, the steamboat “Jacob H. Tremper” was a familiar sight sailing in and out of the Rondout creek a few years ago. Today, the “Jacob H. Tremper” is no more as she was broken up in 1928, but memories of this graceful steamboat are not very dim in the minds of local residents, and the tone of her whistle still haunts the hillsides along the banks of the Rondout creek.
               
The wooden hull of the “Jacob H. Tremper” was built by Herbert Lawrence at Greenpoint, New York, in 1885, and her engine was constructed by W.A. Fletcher & Company of New York. She was 180 feet long, breadth of beam 30 feet, two inches. Her tonnage was listed as gross 572 and net 432, and her vertical beam engine had a cylinder diameter of 44 inches with a 10 foot stroke.
               
The “Jacob H. Tremper” was built for the firm of Romer & Tremper of Rondout to be used as a freight and passenger vessel on a daytime run between Newburgh and Albany. She ran in line with the steamboat “M. Martin.” In August of 1884 the steamboat “Eagle,” which had been running on the Newburgh route since 1856 and for several years before 1884 in line with the “M. Martin,” was destroyed by fire, and the “Jacob H. Tremper” was built to replace the “Eagle.”
               
The new steamboat proved to be an exceptionally fine vessel for the purpose for which she was built. She had a large freight capacity and fine accommodations for passengers, and these advantages soon made themselves evident by the appearance of the “Jacob H. Tremper” as one of the first vessels placed in service in the spring of the year and the last steamboat to be laid up in the fall.
               
In the winter of 1899 the Romer & Tremper fleet of river steamboats was purchased by the Central Hudson Steamboat Company of Newburgh. This transaction included the steamboats “Jacob H. Tremper, “M. Martin,” “James W. Baldwin,” and “William F. Romer.”
               
Another distinction which places the “Jacob H. Tremper” apart from many of the other Hudson river steamboats was her exceptionally clear record. In fact, only one accident to the “Jacob H. Tremper” was demed worthy of note in her history. This accident occurred on Monday morning, July 21, 1913. On this morning, the “Jacob H. Tremper” left Newburgh at her usual time for Albany. On her way up the river she struck an uncharted rock off Esopus Island. The captain immediately ordered her course set for the mud flats off Staatsburgh on the east side of the river, and at this place she sunk rapidly.
               
Following this experience, the “Jacob H. Tremper” was raised and repaired and again placed in service, and in 1916 she was plying her regular route under the command of Captain John Dearstyne.
               
The “Jacob H. Tremper” was also one of the last of the sidewheel steamboats of her class to continue in service on the waters of the Hudson river as a freight and passenger vessel. In the fall of 1928 the “Jacob H. Tremper” was deemed unfit for further service and was laid up at Newburgh, and in July of the following year she was sold to a junk dealer and broken up at Newburgh

I​f 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!​

Human nature being what It is, we all have an odd quirk or two.  Boatmen were no exception. 

The foibles of two boatmen that come to mind were those of Staats Winnie and Ira Cooper, two of the better old time boatmen on the Hudson.  Staats Winnie's Whim was that he wore red flannel underwear the year round — Ira Cooper’s was a dislike for uniforms. 

Staats Winnie was an old time pilot for the Hudson River Day line and at the turn of the century was second pilot of the “Albany.”  When the “Hendrick Hudson” came out in 1906 he was to become her first pilot and served as her head helmsman during that steamboat’s early years on the Hudson.  Like many old time boatmen, he had previously been a pilot on towboats and tugboats of the Cornell Steamboat Company. 

With an impressive mustache and a stern gaze, Staats Winnie was a formidable looking man.  As my good friend Donald C. Ringwald observed in his book “Hudson River Day Line,” Pilot Winnie looked as if he could steer anything afloat. 

Like a number of old boatmen in his era, Staats Winnie wore red flannel underwear.  Only he wore his year round, summer and winter.  During the hot days in July and August, Pilot Winnie would frequently doff his uniform jacket and roll up his shirt jacket [sleeves?], exposing a pair of bright red shod forearms.

Steamboatmen were always known as great arm wavers.  Whenever two steamers passed each other, it was rare indeed if several crew members were not observed vigorously waving in the direction of the passing steamboat.  One would have thought the crew members of the two steamers hadn’t seen each other in months. 

As a matter of fact, in some instances this situation would have been true — as when a line had two steamers running between New York and Albany in daily service.  The two steamboats would leave New York and Albany on alternate days and the only time crew members would see each other for months on end would be on their daily passing in the middle part of the river.  Many crew members of a particular steamboat line came from the same community and were neighbors.  During the season they would get but a fleeting glance of each other as their steamboats passed in mid-Hudson and this, perhaps, was the probable reason for the vigorous arm waving. 

Staats Winnie was well known as one of the arm wavers.  During July and August in his years of piloting the Day Liners, boatmen on passing steamers became accustomed to seeing a red shod arm waving a greeting from his pilot house window.  It was said that passengers, however were frequently startled by the sight. 

Ira Cooper was captain of the steamer “Onteora” of the Catskill Evening Line.  During the early years of steamboating, officers of the steamers wore their usual civilian clothes in carrying out their jobs afloat.  During the 1880’s and 1890’s, the larger steamboat companies began to introduce the use of uniforms for their steamer's personnel, particularly the officers. 

The practice of wearing uniforms soon spread to all steamboat lines.  First, it was just a uniform cap.  Then it became a full fledged uniform with brass buttons and gold braid.  On some lines, the uniforms were provided by the companies outright, others granted a uniform allowance and the officers purchased their own uniforms, while on others a partial reimbursement for uniforms was given to officer personnel. 

Captain Cooper was an individualist of the old school.  He would have no truck [sic] with the new fangled idea of uniforms.  For him, what was good enough to wear ashore was good enough to wear afloat.  To the very end, he steadfastly refused to don either a uniform or even the traditional steamboatman's cap.  He undoubtedly was the last captain of one of the larger Hudson River passenger steamboats to command his steamer dressed in civilian garb. 
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It was said Captain Cooper's ideas as to dress did not particularly please the owners and operators of the Catskill Evening Line.  It is my understanding, as a matter of fact, that a clash of wills ensued — and, since the owners held the trump cards, Captain Cooper left the “Onteora.”  He was later captain for many years of the big tugboat “J. C. Hartt” of the Cornell Steamboat Company — where he had no trouble dressing as he pleased.  The Catskill Evening Line’s loss, however, was the Cornell Steamboat Company's gain — for Captain Cooper was one of the best boatmen on the river.  

Editor's Note: This series of monthly blog posts by Justin Wexler recounts the dramatic story of the Esopus Indian Nation’s Revolutionary War exodus. The original inhabitants of Ulster County, the Esopus Indians successfully maintained their sovereignty and traditional way of life in the face of overwhelming odds for over a century.. These blog posts are summaries of a much fuller story that will be published in 2027.

Post 1: Setting the Scene (1770)
Five centuries ago, the hazy-blue peaks of the Catskill Mountains towered over a vast expanse of fertile, grassy flats and cornfields that stretched in swathes from Saugerties to Kingston and far to the westward. On these flats lay a mosaic of cornfields, lush bottoms of tall bluestem grass, and dense thickets of hazelnuts, blackberries and wild plums. Clusters of dome-shaped, bark-shingled houses were found here and there on the edges of the floodplains. The shimmering rivers that wound through these flats – the Esopus, the Rondout and others – were periodically crisscrossed with fence-like weirs and fish traps. The surrounding rocky uplands were cloaked in a forests of oaks and pitch pines and, in many cases, were barren at their tops due to frequent fires. This idyllic, park-like landscape was the result of centuries of careful management by the region’s human inhabitants: the Esopus Indians.

The Esopus Indians appear in the earliest colonial records under variations of the name Waranawankong, perhaps meaning ‘The Cove People.’ They spoke a dialect of what linguists today call the Munsee language.[1] The Esopus dialect survives today in the dozens of place names that still grace their ancestral homeland, including Ponckhockie, Ashokan, Shandaken, Wawarsing and, of course, Esopus. The Esopus Nation’s territory was divided among four matrilineal clans, and included the valleys of the Esopus, the Rondout, the Shawangunk, and the lower Wallkill Rivers as well as the headwaters of the Delaware River and lands across the Hudson River in the current towns of Red Hook and Rhinebeck. A chief sachem was elected to represent the four clans.

In the decades before and after the arrival of Dutch colonists in the early 17th century, the Esopus Indians lived in dispersed settlements that stretched along the terraces of land that border the fertile floodplain bottomlands. There, they grew their crops of maize, pole beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. They built stockaded strongholds in select elevated locations to retreat to during times of war. Theirs was a life built around the seasons: in the springtime, when the women were busy preparing their maize fields, most of the men could be found downstream in fishing camps where they took advantage of successive visits of spawning fish including alewives, shad, striped bass, sea lampreys, sturgeon, and eels. Summers were spent close to their cornfields. After the autumn crop harvest, younger and more mobile families visited hunting cabins in the uplands of the Shawangunk Ridge and in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. There, they hunted numbers of white-tailed deer, Eastern elk, black bears and beavers in massive collective hunts. By early springtime, everyone returned to their villages in the bottomlands.

The 1660s were a time of major upheaval in the region. The Esopus Indians controlled the largest stretch of contiguous cleared arable farmland in the entire Hudson Valley. This was extremely attractive to settlers, creating friction that eventually led to the devastating First and Second Esopus Wars with the Dutch settlers. Concurrently, the Esopus Indians were involved in a massive intertribal war with the Five Nations or Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Between 1664 and 1669, the Esopus Indians had little other recourse than to make peace with the Haudenosaunee, with the Dutch and with the British. They would renew these treaties of peace regularly over the entire following century.

Over the 17th and 18th centuries, the Esopus Indians and other regional Native Peoples faced catastrophic population declines, largely due to Old World viruses to which they had little immunity. They soon found themselves to be a minority in their own land. And yet, the New York colonial government continued to treat with them as the sovereign indigenous nation that they were. As a strategy of survival, between the mid-17th century and the mid-18th century the Esopus Indians sold the vast majority of their territory in dozens of land sales, many preserved in deeds to this day. The deeds occasionally reserved their right to reside in or to use select areas. They soon held legal title to very little of their traditional territory.

Land sales, the growing colonial population, and environmental degradation made a traditional life difficult. By the 1750s, the majority of the Esopus Indian People had moved to the other side of the Catskill Mountains. There, they dwelled in communities along Delaware River’s East Branch, where they preserved the traditional spring fish camps for American shad and striped bass and the tradition of winter hunting camps. Over the preceding century, many had gained some level of fluency in the Dutch language. They had also adopted many customs from their colonial neighbors, including keeping of dairy cows, horses, hogs and chickens and growing of new crops including apples, peaches, cucumbers and turnips. Records from this period reveal Esopus Indian individuals who had adopted colonial skills including cider production, violin making, and blacksmithing. And yet, they tenaciously maintained their traditional religion: the Esopus Indians are the only Native group in the Hudson Valley who refused to join the Christian mission at Stockbridge, and only a handful of members joined the Moravian Missions.

By the early 1770s, it became clear that an influx of settlers was coming to the isolated valleys of the western Catskills and upper Susquehanna River, where they had a village called Ahlapeeng. Between the sales of the Hardenbergh Patent and the 1768 Fort Stanwix Treaty, land speculators and settlers were ready to pour over the mountains. Early in 1770, the Esopus Indians even met with British Indian Superintendent Sir William Johnson to try to find a solution. Ultimately, their destiny lay with that of the Haudenosaunee, now the Six Nations, whose lead they had followed since 1669. With the coming of the American Revolution, the consequences would be disastrous.
 
[1] The Munsee language, which belongs to the Eastern Algonquian language subfamily, is still spoken by a handful of descendants on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario, Canada.

TERRIBLE DISASTER!!
Steamer BERKSHIRE Burned. Many Lives Lost. Intrepidity of of the Pilot. Incidents of the Conflagration. Full Particulars. (BY OUR OWN REPORTER.)
​
The conflagration which was seen by our citizens illumining the horizon to northward, on Wednesday evening, proves to have been another of those awful steamboat disasters which now and then startle the community and plunge multitudes of men, woman and children unprepared into eternity. Our reporter went to the spot Thursday morning and he has furnished us thus far the following communication:
​
SCENE OF THE WRECK, TWO MILES ABOVE HYDE PARK, JUNE 9, 1864.
The steamer BERKSHIRE caught fire at a quarter before ten o'clock, P. M. on Wednesday, off Esopus Island, and was burned to the waters edge in a very few minutes, the flames spreading with such rapidity that many lives, and every article of property on board were lost.

The fire is supposed to have started in the lamp room, caused by the bursting of a kerosene lamp.

One of the owners, who was on board, when he discovered the fire ordered the pilot to run her ashore immediately, which was done. The BALDWIN passed, bound up a few minutes after, and rescued about 60 people, who were floating on chairs, life preservers, &c. A number who had escaped were distributed among the houses along shore.

The following are known to be lost thus far:
Wife and two children of Capt. Bullet, of a Harlem boat.
Three children of a lady named Mrs. Hanford, of Delaware county.
The manifest of the passengers was unfortunately lost, the clerk not being able to save his papers on account of the rapidity of the flames.

This morning Joel Beam of Hyde Park, had his leg and thigh broken by the falling of a smoke-stack. Also, a man named Andrew Soper was probably fatally injured by the same cause.  They were digging about the boat, endeavoring to find bodies.

The body of a female, name unknown, apparently about 30 years of age lies upon the shore.

The shore in front of the wreck is lined with people, and the water in the vicinity of the ill-fated steamer is filled with boats and men fishing for bodies. 

It is thought that between 25 and 30 lives were lost, although the facts cannot yet be ascertained. 

Coroner Norris, of Rhinebeck, is on the ground, attending to his duties. It is raining very hard and the work of finding bodies is slightly retarded thereby.

The appearance of the remains of the vessel from the shore is sad. Nothing is left of her but a small part of one wheel house, one smoke stack and the skeleton of her machinery. At this time (low water) her hull lies out of the water, five or six feet. Her guards are entirely destroyed and the smoke of the ruins still continues to ascend. 

The wind at present, not blowing very hard, the search for bodies will be continued with, probably, better success.

A passenger thinks that hardly one escaped from the ladies cabin. The statement of course needs confirmation.

Although the exact number of passengers on board at the time is unknown, yet Capt. Frederick Power, her commander, states that as near as he can estimate, there were about 130 all told.

The conduct of the pilot of the boat is spoken of in the highest terms. It is said that be did not leave his post until the vessel was run ashore, and nearly everything about him was consumed by the flames.

SECOND DISPATCH.   12 o'clock.
The body of a little boy, apparently about eight years of age, supposed to be the son of Mrs. Hanford, has just been picked up. His face and head are badly burned. The mother of this little boy jumped overboard with her two other children in her arms, leaving him standing on the stern of the boat awaiting her return. Her two children were drowned, and she was rescued by a gentleman, who in turn lost his own child while rescuing her.

The steamer W. CRANE, from Rondout, having on board Capt. Tremper, of the BALDWIN, and Capt. Cornell, of the THOMAS CORNELL, arrived here early this morning, and they are doing everything in their power. It is utterly impossible, as yet, to give a detained account of the loss of life.  All sorts of rumors are afloat.

Four bodies have been found thus far.

FURTHER PARTICULARS.
The BERKSHIRE was a new steamer, this being her first season, commanded by Capt. Frederick Power. She plied between Hudson and New York and was on her down trip when the fire broke out. The flames spread with inconceivable rapidity and in half an hour nothing was left but the smoking hull and the skeleton of her machinery.

We were unable to find either of the officers of the boat, or anyone who was on board of her at the time, as the former had gone to Hudson when we arrived at the scene of the disaster, and the passengers who were saved had all departed for their homes. We, however, conversed with the captain and other officers of the BALDWIN which reached the wreck just after she ran ashore, and from them obtained such of the particulars as they could give.

STATEMENT OF J. B. VAN ERTEN.
I am pilot of the steamboat JAMES W. BALDWIN. On the night in question Mr. Mosher, the other pilot, and myself, were in the pilot house of the BALDWIN we being bound up. When opposite the stone quarry two miles above New Paltz on the west side of the river saw a bright light and supposed it to be the reflection of the head light of a locomotive. It growing brighter and larger, supposed it to be the railroad depot at Hyde Park, knew the BERKSHIRE was behind time. On rounding Crum Elbow saw that the flames came from the burning of the BERKSHIRE as we could distinctly see the vessel from that point. Put on all steam and hurried to the spot, arriving there after the BERKSHIRE was ashore. At the same time the river was filled with human beings. We succeeded in rescuing a large number. The whole vessel was completely enveloped in flames. We laid by her about two hours doing all in our power to aid the passengers. We landed 60 or 70 at Rhinebeck, together with the body of a boy.

STATEMENT OF CHARLES D. JOHNSON, 1st mate of the Baldwin.
On arriving at the scene lowered a boat and shoved out towards the fire. Hadn't gone but a short distance before I picked up two men. Went on little further towards shore and took a woman off an island. —  (This was afterwards ascertained to be Mrs. Hanford, spoken of above.) Her little boy, when she jumped off stood on the stern of the burning steamer crying out “mother! save me!” The last seen of the little fellow, he was enveloped in flames. We rescued three from the river and proceeding to the shore took there from a large number who had reached the beach in safety. While looking for persons in the river, one man whom I picked up stated that just before I got him the river about him was filled with human beings, hanging to chairs, &c., but before I got to them they all disappeared. Everything that laid in our power was done to rescue the unfortunates.

THE DEAD BODIES.
The little steamer WALTER B. CRANE, of Rondout, having a number of steamboat men on board, including Capt. Tremper of the BALDWIN, and Capt. Cornell of the steamer CORNELL, left the wreck just before noon for Rondout, having on board six bodies, which, with the one left by the BALDWIN at Rhinebeck the night previous, made seven found up to that time.

The following is a list:
Miss Catharine Niles, Spencertown, Columbia County, drowned.
Three children belonging to Mrs. Hanford, of Davenport, Delaware County. One of them a little girl five years of age, and a baby about seven months old were found on the beach between Kelly's dock and the wreck. The other child, a beautiful little boy about eight years old, was found at the stern of the wreck, lying in the water with his head burned slightly.
A colored man, name unknown, supposed to be one of the waiters of the BERKSHIRE, was found on the beach about five hundred feet south of Kelly's dock. He had on a life preserver, but it was adjusted on his back, which was probably the cause of his losing his life.

SCENES AND INCIDENTS.
An eye witness describes the scene in the vicinity of the burning vessel as awful. As soon as it was ascertained that she was on fire, the pilot immediately headed her for shore, the engine at the time working at full speed, but before she struck the mud, all-the wood work was one vast sheet of flame. The scene that followed beggars [sic] description. Men frantic with fear, children crying, (and it in said that there were quite a number of little ones on board,) men shouting, the flames crackling, and the passengers jumping overboard, formed a sight terrible to behold. Furniture of every description was floating in the water, some of the pieces upholding a few of the unfortunate beings.

One little boy with his grandmother was in a state room, and when he heard the alarm he endeavored to open the door of his room, but could not. He then managed to get out of the window and tried to save his relative, but so close were the flames that he had to jump overboard to save his own life. The lady was probably suffocated.

One of the most heart-rending scenes in this terrible disaster was the case of Mrs. Hanford. On ascertaining her danger she seized her babe and her daughter, spoken of above, and jumped overboard, leaving her little son standing on the stern of the vessel. After she got in the water she was compelled to relinquish her hold on her little ones and they both went down. A man with his child-in his arms who was in the water close by her, seeing that the mother was in the act of sinking, seized hold of her and buoyed her up; but alas! in doing so he lost his own child.

The pilot of the BERKSHIRE, (we are sorry we could not learn his name. [Capt. Frederick Power]) receives the highest praise for his heroic bravery and endurance. With the prospect of almost certain death before him he remained at his post until nearly everything about him was consumed by fire and the boat was brought to land. The officers of the BERKSHIRE and her crew are said to have conducted themselves in the best possible manner.

Too much praise cannot be awarded to Capt. Tremper and all the attachees of the JAMES W. BALDWIN, for their untiring exertions in behalf of the sufferers. It will be impossible to ascertain full particulars of the loss short of three or four day, or  perhaps a week's time.
Whether anyone was to blame  at the commencement of  the conflagration we could not learn, nor can we, in view of the terrible result, hint at such a thing.

STILL LATER.
We learn that a Mr. French, of Saugerties, together with his two children, a boy and a girl, jumped from the promenade deck of the steamer into the river, and reached the shore in safety.

After the vessel ran on the mud, and in consequence of no one being able to reach the engine room to stop the engine, the wheels of the burning steamer continued to revolve, thereby washing those who had jumped overboard from the stern out into the river. Many persons undoubtedly lost their lives in this way.

It is supposed that were about 130 or 140 passengers on board the boat at the time. Probably about 30 or 40 of these were lost. The vessel had on board at the time a large quantity of butter, hay, stock and country produce generally. Her original cost was about $100,000. A vessel like her could not be built now short of $200,000.

Mrs. Hanford, who is at present stopping at the house of Capt. Tremper in Rondout, yesterday proceeded to the steamer WALTER B. CRANE in Rondout Creek, and identified the bodies of her three children. Her feelings can better be imagined than described.

We left the wreck at twelve o'clock yesterday morning and proceeded to Rondout by railroad and ferryboat. The excitement there was great. Returning for Poughkeepsie we left Rondout at 8 o'clock on board the steamer EAGLE, which vessel on her way down passed close to the wreck of the BERKSHIRE. Persons were yet engaged in dredging for bodies, but the distance from us to them was so great that we were unable to find out whether any more had been found.

Most of the passengers on the BERKSHIRE had retired or were about retiring for the night when the fire broke out, consequently those that were saved were shoeless, coatless and some of them almost entirely naked. Their wants were partially supplied by the country people in the vicinity of the disaster and by the proprietor of the Rhinecliff House at Rhinebeck. The calamity has cast a gloom over every community hearing of it.

Early yesterday morning one of the passengers, an elderly lady, was found roaming in the woods near where the calamity happened, in a state of mind  bordering on insanity.

The only possible way to get anything like a true statement of the number lost is to take the number already accounted for, and subtract it from what was thought to be the number on board at the time of the accident, which, as is stated above, was in the neighborhood of one hundred and thirty. The JAMES W. BALDWIN landed about seventy at Rhinebeck, who took the cars from thence to their respective homes up the river. The pilot of the boat left Hyde Park at 10 A. M. yesterday having two ladies in charge. It is also stated that a number walked to Staatsburgh and Hyde Park and took conveyance from there. The loss in drowned and burned will probably reach forty. A large number of the passengers were from Catskill and vicinity, and Hudson.

During the forenoon of yesterday a great ma[n]y country people visited the spot and remained nearly all day watching with in tense interest every movement made by parties engaged in dredging the river.

Both smoke pipes attached to the hulk of the vessel are now down, the last one having fallen yesterday afternoon.

The WALTER B. CRANE sailed some distance up and down the river yesterday close to the shore, each side of the wreck, in search of more dead bodies, arriving at Rondout about 3 P. M., without finding any.

STATEMENTS OF PASSENGERS.
Since writing the above we have been furnished by Mr. Shurter, our collector, with the statement of two passengers who were on board the BERKSHIRE at the time of the conflagration. One of them, Mr. Niles, who lost his wife and daughter, says when he first was made aware of the true state of things, he in company with his wife and daughter started to save themselves. By some means or other his wife got away, leaving his daughter with him, and with whom he jumped overboard. After reaching the water a woman seized his daughter, breaking his hold of her and both sank together. He was picked up by the BALDWIN's boat and landed on a ledge of rocks. He believes his wife was burned to death.

Another passenger, whose name we could not learn, states that he left Catskill in company with a friend and took passage on the BERKSHIRE for New York; after retiring to their berths in the cabin, he suddenly heard a cry of fire. Jumping from his berth he ran to the companion way and ascended the the steps, intending to go out on deck, but on opening the door, the smoke rushed through the aperture with such density and fury as to drive him back. Concluding in an instant that he had to get out of the cabin or be suffocated, he made another attempt to reach the deck and succeeded this time in getting one foot out, when he observed a huge wall of flame directly in his pathway, utterly doing away with all possibility of escape. He again retreated to the cabin, which by this time was so filled with smoke as to make it an imperative necessity for him to make another attempt to get out or die. Groping his way along he entered an ante room in which was a window through which he could see a dim sky light. Rushing to it he broke the sash, when he jostled against a boy who was also endeavoring to escape. Seizing him, the two crawled through the window and dropped into the water. His friend, he believes, was burned to death or suffocated in the cabin. He further more says that he was the first one that made any attempt to escape from the cabin; and he is positive that after he retreated from the companion way the second time nothing could get out of the cabin alive. There being quite a number in their berths in the cabin, it is feared that this gentleman’s statement is too true. 

We will probably get further reports today. 

Looks as If It Would Make an Exception This Year, However — Last Season’s Record Recalls the Great Flood of 1857, When Much Damage Was Caused in Albany.
If the Hudson river should skip a year in its record of spring freshets, Albanians would be agreeably surprised, for the years in which it has not overflowed its banks at this point when the ice went out or soon after have been few and far between. Forecaster Todd has compiled a record from many sources of the floods that have occurred at Albany extending back to 1645. Many early years since then are omitted, of course, no records
being available, but it makes a telling argument for the deepening of the upper Hudson and the clearing out of sandbars that facilitate the formation of ice gorges that serve as dams and back up the water until it overflows the docks and inundates a considerable section of the city.

Highest on Record.
The flood of last year is still fresh in the minds of Albanians. The water at this point reached the highest mark on record, 23 feet above mean low water level, even exceeding that of the great flood of 1857, which was until last year the greatest flood in the history of the Hudson. In 1867 the highest point reached was 21.25 feet above mean low water. There is no absolute surety that a freshet will not occur after the ice has passed out of the river. Last year the river began to rise rapidly on March 26, after the steamers of the Hudson River
Navigation company had resumed navigation and had been running some time. The flood was caused by heavy rains, helped by ice that came down from the Mohawk. The water continued to rise on the 27th and on the 30th reached its maximum height of 23 feet above mean low water. At midnight the river began slowly to recede and by March 31 had reached nearly normal conditions. In this flood bridges were washed away, barns, lumber and all sorts of debris floated past Albany and nearly every industry in this city. Rensselaer and Troy was suspended, about 100,000 in the three cities being temporarily thrown out of employment. There was great suffering in the South End, but perhaps the worst effect of this flood was the putting out of commission of the filtration plant and the pollution of the drinking water, which caused a good many cases of typhoid fever.

In these days, however, we are better able to cope with flood conditions and bring relief to those who are marooned in their houses than Albanians were in 1857. Although the water last spring rose to a higher point than it did in 1857, the flood of the latter year caused greater suffering and greater destruction of property. We have had floods as late as the first part of May, but this of 1857 occurred early in February and was succeeded by a smaller one in May, when the river was swollen by heavy rains and melting snow in the north and west, and the pier and docks were inundated.

Flood of 1857.
The flood of 1857 started on Monday, February 9, early in the morning. The mild weather which had prevailed all the previous week caused the great quantities of snow which had accumulated in the streets and upon the adjacent hills to melt with surprising rapidity. This was the case in the Mohawk as well as in the Hudson valley, the result being to pour down into the rivers an immense volume of water, the effect of which was first seen on the Hudson about noon on Saturday, February 7. Then it was first noticed that the heavy, solid mass of ice which had bridged the Hudson for upwards of two months was being gradually pressed upward by the swelling stream. In the course of the next 24 hours the river had raised six feet. Throughout the afternoon the pier, the docks and portions of the streets leading from the latter presented a scene of activity that was suggestive of a very busy day during the fall season. By sunset most of the merchants who had in previous years been visited by floods had removed all their goods from the first to the second floors, and retired feeling perfectly satisfied that they had saved their property and that it was beyond the reach of the rising water. Early Sunday morning, February 8, the ice in the Mohawk river broke up and came down, forcing its way into the Hudson, carrying away everything within its reach on the banks and producing a very disastrous flood at East and West Troy. It was this ice, together with a change of wind from southeast to northwest, which caused the fluctuations of the Hudson noticeable during Sunday afternoon and evening, the water at times advancing to the thresholds of some of the stores, and then receding suddenly off the docks. This fluctuation continued until about 11 p. m., when the heavy ice in front of the city was raised up in a moment, as quickly broke into millions of pieces and then went crashing along in the wildest and most terrific confusion, impelled by a torrent hitherto unknown to the ‘‘placid Hudson.”

Ice Gorge Formed.
The course of the ice was checked this side of Van Wie's Point, not more than three miles below the city, and to the fact that it blocked up there suddenly was due the rapid rise of the water that followed. The rapidity with which the water came up may be judged from the fact, that shortly after the ice broke up the rise was four feet in 10 minutes. Between 10:30 p. m. Sunday and 3:30 a. m. Monday, a period of six hours, the rise was about 11 feet. The rise continued until 8 o’clock, when it reached its highest point, being three feet higher than at any other period of which there then existed a record. A little after 10 o'clock Monday night, February 9, the water commenced falling and continued going down at the rate of an inch and a half an hour during the night and throughout Tuesday. The weather turned extremely cold and the river froze over so firmly that on Wednesday several teams crossed on the ice from Albany to Greenbush.

Great Damage.
The damage to property caused by this flood was estimated at not less than $1,500,000. The merchants on the docks and piers supposed that their property, having been removed from the first to the second floors, was entirely out of danger. Such, however, was not the case. The icy and muddy water entered on the second floors to the depth of from one to three feet. On these floors merchants had stored flour, grain and groceries and most of it was rendered useless. A man who had 278 head of cattle at East Albany (now Rensselaer)
awaiting shipment lost all but 28 of them in the flood. He visited them at 10 o’clock and found water in the yard, but was assured that it would not rise higher. He went again at 1 o’clock in the morning and found the animals in immediate danger of drowning. He begged the use of a boat from a person he saw near by and offered $50 for the favor, explaining that he wanted to go to the yard and open the gate, so as to let the animals out to swim ashore. He was refused, and the pent up creatures were nearly all drowned. Snowden & Charles, butchers, had upwards of 250 head of cattle at the distillery of Edson & Co., and 100 of them were drowned by daylight and some of the few that were saved died from cold and exhaustion shortly after being driven out of the water.

The greater part of the fleet wintering in the upper basin was sunk when the heavy ice crossed the pier into the basin, cutting the boats from their moorings. Columbia street bridge was carried away Sunday night upon the first moving of the ice, and upon the pier were stranded eight or 10 canal boats. The steam tug H. N. Dowd was sunk in the basin, and the R. J. Grant was turned keel up and lay with a lumber office on it. A sloop passed down the river soon after the ice started, was capsized and sank by the weight of the ice. The propeller Western World was on fire several times and was extinguished through the exertions of Assistant Engineer Coburn and some citizens with water thrown from buckets, but finally got beyond control and the boat was scuttled. Two Boston vessels loaded with merchandise were caught in the ice below the city in the fall. One was the packet Victor, which for 20 years had plied between Boston and this city, and the other was the John C. Calhoun. Both were lost. State street bridge was raised several feet above the iron columns and the east end of it broken off from the supports.

Fire Adds to Terror.
While this dreadful destruction was going on, the citizens were thrown into great excitement by repeated fire alarms. Some one was so frightened that he sent word to East and West Troy that what was left of Albany after the flood was being destroyed by fire, and towards noon of Monday fire engine companies from those places came to Albany to render assistance, which was not needed. There were five fires which started within a short
time of one another, the first one starting long before daylight in the lime kiln and plaster works of E. C. Warner & Son on South Broadway. The water reached the lime, slacking it, which set fire to whatever was combustible about the premises, and as all the streets for blocks around were inundated to a depth of two or or three feet, the fire engines could not reach the fire. Soon after a second alarm called the firemen to Gibson & Dalton’s plaster and planing mill in the north part of the city. This fire originated in the same way as that at Warner & Son’s, and as the premises were surrounded by water to a depth of six or seven feet, the engine companies were helpless until boats could be procured in which to extend their hose, and by that time nothing was left of the main building but its walls. All the costly machinery and finished material were destroyed, entailing a loss of about $100,000. The warehouse of W. R. Barrett, on the pier, also caught fire from the igniting of lime in the
second story, and the building and its contents were partially destroyed, among the latter being 4,000 bushels of corn. Two other fires followed, but were put out before much damage was done.

Relief Measures.
Both the the city officials and a committee of citizens took immediate steps to relieve the poor who were sufferers from the flood. The city hall was thrown open to those who had been driven from their homes and had no places to sleep. Food was distributed to those in the South End who were prisoners in their houses, and Very Rev. J. J. Conroy, pastor of St. Joseph’s church, opened the house at 798 Broadway for the distribution of soup and provisions for the poor of his parish, under the charge of Sisters of Charity. The poor of the northern part of the city of all creeds and sects were invited to apply for relief here.

Great Suffering.
The greatest suffering was in the First and Second wards. There more than 150 families were driven out of homes so suddenly that they had only time to dress and run for their lives. Most of these families were poor, but had managed to lay in their winter’s supply of provisions, which were ruined by the water. Officials and police went to their assistance. Some of those in the South End were still in their half submerged houses. Officers Clinton and Keefe, for instance, discovered a family in the second story of a dwelling unable to reach dry land and suffering severely from the cold. Near at hand was a man in a rowboat who refused to go to their succor unless paid an exorbitant price. The family had not as much as he asked and he was about to desert them when the officers seized the boat, ejected him and relieved the unfortunates.

In portions of the Sixth and Seventh wards the premises of many poor families were flooded and they lost nearly everything. An interesting anomaly was that in the inundated district in the North End, where many families were imprisoned in the second stories of their homes, one of their pressing wants was water. They had too much of it of a certain kind all around them, but none fit to drink, the water in the pipes being frozen.

Thrilling Escapes.
There were many thrilling escapes. A man named Moore who lived on the island just below the city (then called the & Vegetable Garden”) became aware that it was threatened with speedy inundation and removed his family and horses Sunday night, returning to the island to watch his property. In the morning he found, his house completely hemmed in, nearly up to the roof, and no possible chance of his escape at that time. He suffered much from exposure, but managed to survive until the waters receded and he could be rescued. A
man was carried down from somewhere up the river on a pile of lumber about noon on Monday. As it was nearing Greenbush the current carried it toward the ferry slip, when some persons on the dock threw a line, which he caught and tied around his body and he was drawn safely ashore. The bookkeeper of Gibson & Dalton, a Mr. Wetmore, also had a narrow escape. He, with two other men, remained in the building over night.

About 3 a. m. the water was rising so rapidly that he sent his companions to apprise his employers of that fact. While alone he thought it best to remove the books of the firm from the first to the second floor. After doing so he attempted to go down stairs again, when he discovered that the building was on fire and his course impeded by the smoke. He had no means of egree [sic, egress], and, wet to the skin, he was compelled to remain in the building. He was finally rescued by firemen, who found him completely exhausted. Three men went in a boat from near the house of Archibald Dunlop on the Troy road to bring off a family occupying a house on the island at that point, when the boat was capsized by a cake of ice and the three men were thrown into the water. Two of them managed to clamber into a tree, but the third was so cold that he could not raise himself from the water and was taken out in a dying state. The men on the island were rescued in a cart which was backed up to their relief.

Lola Montez’s Adventure.
An adventure in which Lola Montez, the famous (or infamous) dancer who later captivated the King of Belgium, figured at this time was chronicled by the Atlas and Argus of Feb. 11, 1857, as follows: "LOLA MONTEZ PLAYING THE DEUCE AGAIN. — Yesterday afternoon this notorious woman, who has had rooms at the Stanwix Hall during her engagement at the Green Street theatre, came to the conclusion that she could not remain in the city another day. She must go. The nearest, and the most perilous way for her to reach the other side of the river and take the cars was to cross over in a small skiff. No one had yet ventured to cross since the breaking up of the ice. Here was an adventure just suited to her daring spirit, and of course she was on nettles to embark.

“Ferrymen were procured and off they started, Lola accompanied by her sister, her agent (who was so unfortunate as to fall upon the ice and become damaged by water, thereby exciting the loud laughter of the danseuse) and another gentleman. They were ferried over in safety. The ferrymen then came back for Lola’s baggage, two heavy trunks. With that precious load they again shoved off for the opposite shore. The wind from the northwest was very strong and piercing cold. The men were somewhat exhausted by their previous
exertions and when in the centre of the stream the wind and rapid current drove their little boat into some drifting ice, and before they could extricate themselves their craft was firmly frozen to the moving mass.

“In this situation they were discovered by many of our citizens. Their peril was soon communicated throughout the city and much excitement ensued. All who could procured positions on the roofs of the higher buildings to obtain a view of the poor fellows. Away they floated, and when opposite Westerlo street the bell of the South Dutch church rang out an alarm. But it was impossible for anyone on this side to go to their assistance. Happily
the current tended to the Greenbush shore, and when they had nearly reached the ferry slip on that side they were floated against the solid ice.

"A dozen or more men out of Greenbush started for their relief and reached them by means of planks. Just then the ice gave way and the rescuers were compelled to retreat. They again essayed, and this time with more success, saving not only the men, but the trunks. The ferrymen have undoubtedly been severely frost bitten in return for indulging their adventurous spirit."

Breaking Ice Gorges.
Bars in the river have frequently afforded lodgment for the great cakes of ice piled one on top of the other as they floated down the stream and ice gorges have formed which rendered navigation impossible while other parts of the river were open. This was the case in 1857. On February 21 a committee of the Albany Board of Trade visited the ice barrier below the city and found it extend from Van Wie’s Point to Castleton, and so thick and solid as to defy any attempt to open a channel. As at this time river traffic was of large proportions, the ice embargo was severely felt by the commercial interests of this city. A man named Smith proposed to fill a box from four to six feet long with powder, to place this at an advantageous point in the ice gorge and to set off the powder by means of electricity. This plan, however, was rejected. The powder would probably have had about as much effect on the gorge as the kick of a grasshopper. However, late in the evening of the 21st the lower end of the barrier broke away and went down the river, and on the 25th the rest of the ice dam disappeared and the entire channel was found to be unobstructed except by floating masses of ice. The retiring water disclosed the unshapen mass which remained of the State street bridge. Navigation was at once resumed.

It was not until December, 1902, that the idea of smashing ice gorges on the Hudson by means of ramming them with powerful tugs was adopted. On the 22d of that month Captain Ulster Davis took the tug GEORGE C. VAN TUYL and attacked a gorge at the Livingston avenue bridge. The ice was jammed to the bottom of the river and piled up 10 feet high. The attempt was successful, after six days of “bucking.” Early in March, 1903, the
lower part of this city and Rensselaer was flooded by backwater from a gorge at Roah Hook. The old side- wheeler NORWICH and the tug BARIER [sic, BAVIER] were brought up from Rondout and attacked the gorge. The BARIER was a new steel hull steamer, and as it backed up 500 feet and then went at full speed into the gorge, it penetrated 25 or 30 feet. After several days the obstructions were cleared. Since then steamers have been employed with more or less success to break up the ice gorges in the river. In 1907 the powerful tug HERCULES got stuck hard and fast in an ice pack near Coxsackie and the big steamer POCAHONTAS and the tender HERCULES were sent to her rescue. The POCAHONTAS stove a plank in her bow and had to be beached at Catskill. 

The ROB got stuck in the ice alongside the Hercules, but after many hours, was pried loose. Then the ROB cut the HERCULES out of the floe and pulled her away with a stout hawser.

One of the greatest achievements of Captain Davis in breaking an ice gorge on the Hudson was in March, 1907. when he brought up the powerful tug CORNELL and the tender ROB from Rondout, a good part of the way cutting through ice two feet thick, and smashed upon the great barrier near Coeymans. It took four hours to make the trip of about two miles from Saugerties Light to Malden. Even after the gorge had been broken the immense cakes of floating ice jammed and formed other barriers, but were in turn rammed and dislodged, and after four days of strenuous work Captain Davis and his crews had the satisfaction of seeing the ice flowing freely and knew that the river was open to the ocean. The State now makes preparations for attacking ice gorges in the Hudson with steamers whenever necessary.

First Flood Record.
From the records compiled by Forecaster Todd we learn that in 1645 “a very high freshet, unequalled since 1639,” occurred, "which destroyed a number of horses in their stables, nearly carried away the fort and inflicted considerable other damage in the colonie.’’ In 1648 freshets nearly destroyed Fort Orange and in 1661 the country around Fort Orange for miles was under water and a few days later the heaviest flood the colonists had experienced up to that time forced them to quit their dwellings and flee with their cattle for safety to the woods on the adjoining hills. The “woods” at that time were where some of the finest residences of Albany are located now.

In 1818 the greatest freshet known in Albany in 40 years occurred. The river froze over that winter on December 7, 1817, and remained frozen until March 3, 1818, when the ice moved out in a body for some distance south and then remained stationary. On the night of March 3 the water rose to a great height in the river, so that several families in Church street would have perished if they had not been rescued. The water was two feet deep in the barroom of the Eagle tavern, at the southwest corner of South Market and Hamilton streets. Sloops were thrown upon the wharf and the horse ferry boat was driven about half way up to Pearl
street. A family that occupied a house on the island opposite the city were rescued by the people of Bath. The river was not clear this year until March 25.

Open Three Times.
The river was open to navigation three times between December, 1823, and February 11, 1824. On the latter date the breaking up was so sudden that sloops and other vessels moored for the season were carried away.

The worst freshet recorded before 1857 was on January 26, 1839, when the water at Albany rose to 17.28 feet above mean low water mark. Many citizens were driven from their houses and a soup house was opened at the city hall for their benefit. A late spring freshet was that of 1833, when the river began to rise on May 14 and two days later had reached its greatest height, causing much damage. South Market street was impassable below Hamilton street. Another was on May 2, 1841. The ice had gone out without making any trouble on March 24, but later heavy rains swelled the stream and when a great snow storm set in on May 2 the water overflowed the docks.

Freshets Not Only in Spring.
Occasionally the Hudson river goes on the rampage in the fall. In 1823, it even cut up on Christmas day, when the rain and mild weather conspired to break up the ice and considerable damage was done. The pier, which was nearly completed, was exposed for the first time to such a freshet. There was such a heavy rain during the first four days of September, 1828, when nearly as much fell as in the months of July and August, that the river rose and submerged the docks and pier. Heavy rain sent the water over the docks on September 3, 1849, and on October 28 of the same year heavy rain that had fallen for 36 hours caused the island at the lower end of the city to be inundated for the eighth time that season, entailing great damage to crops. On November 14, 1853, heavy rain of the previous two days caused a rise in the river, which overflowed the docks. A great freshet caused by rain of the previous 36 hours on August 21, 1856, carried away the bridge over the Normanskill on the Bethlehem turnpike and damaged several mills. On October 8, 1903, the river began to rise rapidly and by the 10th reached 16.3 feet above mean low water mark at Albany. The greatest rainfall ever recorded for 24 hours at Albany was on the 9th, when 4.75 inches fell.

Editor's note: This excerpt is from Benjamin Silliman. Remarks Made on A Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec in the Autumn of 1819.  Second Edition.  New Haven, 1824. 
Thank you to Contributing Scholar George A. Thompson for finding and cataloging  the article. The language, spelling and grammar of the article reflects the time period when it was written.

 Albany contains from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants, and is the second city in the state (we might almost say empire) of New-York.  . . . it is one hundred and sixty miles from New-York, and one hundred sixty-four from Boston.  It rises, for the most part, rapidly from the river, and exhibits a very handsome appearance from the Greenbush side.  The greater part of the population, however, is on the flat ground, immediately contiguous to the river, where the Dutch, who founded the town, first commenced building, agreeably to their established habits in Holland.  Instances are innumerable, where people continue from habit, what was at first begun from necessity, and this seems to have been the fact in the present case.  The town extends about two miles north and south, on the river, and in the widest part, nearly one mile east and west.  It is perfectly compact -- closely built, and as far as it extends, has the appearance of a great city.  It has numerous streets, lanes and alleys, and in all of them, there is the same closeness of building, and the same city-like appearance.
               
The principal streets, and especially Market, State and Pearl streets, are spacious, and the houses in general, are handsome and commodious; many are large, and a few are splendid.  State-street is very wide, and rises rapidly from the river, up a considerably steep hill.  The Capitol stands at the head of it.  This is a large and handsome building of stone* furnished with good rooms for the government (p. 60) and courts of law; in the decorations and furniture of some of these apartments, there is a good degree of elegance, and even some splendor. There is also a State Library, just begun; it does not yet contain one thousand volumes, but they are well selected, and a fund of five hundred dollars per annum is provided for its increase, besides three thousand dollars granted by the legislature to commence the collection.
  
I could not but regret that the tessellated marble pavement or the vestibule, otherwise very handsome, was shamefully dirtied by tobacco spittle; such a thing would not be suffered in Europe.  It is, however, only a sample of the too general treatment of public buildings, and places in the United States, and constitutes no peculiar topic of reproach, in this instance; but it is particularly offensive in so fine a building.  
               
The view from the Balcony of the Capitol is rich and magnificent: the mountains of Vermont and of the Catskill are the most distant objects, and the banks of the river are very beautiful, on account of the fine verdure and cultivation, and of the numerous pretty eminences, which bound its meadows.
               
The Academy of Albany, situated on the Capitol Hill, is a noble building of Jersey free stone.  Although it has (as stated to me by Dr. B----) cost ninety thousand dollars, only the lower rooms are finished.  Schools are, however, maintained, in it; for nearly two hundred children, and it is prosperous, under the able direction of Dr. T. R. Beck, and several assistant teachers.
               
This Institution was erected at the expense of the city of Albany, and is honorable to its munificence, although a plainer building, which, when completely finished, would have cost much less  money, would probably have been equally useful, and might have left them, out of their ninety thousand dollars, a handsome fund, in addition to what they now possess.

Among the interesting things of Albany is the seat of the late General Schuyler, situated quite in the country, at the south side of the town.  It is memorable, principally, from its historical associations.  It was the seat of vast hospitality and the resort of the great men of the revolution.
 
The house of the late Gen. Schuyler, is spacious and in its appearance venerable; it has long since passed away from the family, and is now possessed by a furrier.
               
At the opposite, or northern extremity of Albany, and almost equally in the country, is situated the seat of the patroon, Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer.  It is well known, that he possesses a vast patrimonial estate of forty miles square, lying in the vicinity of Albany which has descended, unbroken, from his early American ancestors.  Such a phenomenon, in a republican country, is very remarkable, and cannot fail, in spite of our early prejudices, and the strong bias of national feelings, to excite a degree of admiration, if not of veneration.  We are still more disposed to indulge there feelings, when we find the hereditary possession of such wealth, associated with distinguished excellence, in public and private life, with the most amiable and unassuming manners, and with a princely although discriminating liberality.
               
The house, (which was built by the father of the present patroon,) is a palace.  It stands on the flat ground, by the river, and looks down Market street, which here terminates abruptly.  The house has in the rear, nothing but green fields and beautiful rural scenes.  It is embowered in groves, and shrubbery and reminded me powerfully, of some of the fine villas in Holland, to which, both in situation and appearance, it bears a strong resemblance.

Albany is the great thoroughfare and resort of the vast western regions of the State; its streets are very bustling; it is said that two thousand wagons sometimes pass up and down State street in a day; it must hereafter become a great inland city.
               
It stands near the head of sloop navigation and of tide water: sloops of eighty tons come up to the town, besides the steam-boats of vastly greater tonnage, but of a moderate draught of water.

The situation of Albany is salubrious, and eminently happy, in relation to the surrounding country, which is populous and fertile.  No one can estimate the importance of the regions west, which, in their progressive increase, and aided by the stupendous canal,* now in progress, must pour a great part of their treasures through this channel.

*  Already united to the waters of the Hudson, and beginning to verify the remark in the text.  1824.

Albany was the seat of the great convention, held in 1754, for the purpose of bringing about a confederation of the Colonies, for their mutual defense and general benefit, and it has been signalized, by not a few other meetings, for momentous public purposes.
               
We passed a part of three days in Albany, and were not without strong inducements to protract our stay.  The public houses are excellent, affording every accommodation and comfort with that quiet and retirement, and that prompt civility, so commonly found in English Inns, and which, until within a few years, were so rare in those of America.  Polished and enlightened society, and the courtesies of hospitality held out still stronger attractions, but our allotments of time did not permit us to remain any longer, and we hastened to set our faces towards the British dominions.
 
BANKS OF THE HUDSON, ABOVE ALBANY.
 
We determined to go by Whitehall, as we wished to avail ourselves, of the rapid and comfortable conveyance, to the confines of Canada, now established on Lake Champlain.  Being unwilling however, to pass rapidly by, or entirely to avoid, all the interesting objects on the road, we adopted such an arrangement, as might permits us to take the banks of the Hudson and Lake George in our route.  Indeed, from Albany, upon the course proposed, every part of our way was to be over classical ground.  History sheds a deeper interest over no portion of the North American States.  He who venerates the virtues and the valour, and commiserates the suffering of our fathers, and he, who views, with gratitude and reverence, the deliverancies which heaven has wrought for this land, will tread with awe, on every foot of ground between Albany and the northern lakes.

We were obliged, on this occasion, to deny ourselves a visit to Schenectady, and its rising literary institution, and to the waters of Ballston and Saratoga.  Leaving them therefore to the left, we proceeded along the banks of the Hudson, principally on the western shore.
               
This is a charming ride.  The road is very good and absolutely without a hill; the river often placid and smooth, but sometimes disturbed by a rocky bottom, is almost continually in sight, and flows through beautiful meadows, which are commonly bounded, at small distances from the Hudson, by verdant hills, of moderate height, and gentle declivity. 
    
SINGULAR HORSE FERRY-BOAT.
 
The ferry-boat is of a most singular construction.*  A platform covers a wide flat boat.  Underneath the platform, there is a large horizontal wheel, which extends to the sides of the boat; and there the platform, or deck, is cut through, and removed, so as to afford sufficient room for two horses to stand on the flat surface of the wheel, one horse on each side, and parallel to the gunwale of the boat.  The horses are harnessed, in the usual manner for teams -- the whiffle trees being attached to stout iron bars, fixed horizontally, at a proper height, in the posts, which are a part of the permanent structure of the boat.  The horses look in opposite directions, one to the bow, and the other to the stern; their feet take hold of the channels, or grooves, cut in the wheels, in the direction of radii; they press forward, and, although they advance not, any more than a squirrel in a revolving cage, or than a spit dog at his work, their feet cause the horizontal wheel to revolve, in a direction opposite to that of their own apparent motion; this, by a connexion of cogs, moves two vertical wheels, one on each wing of the boat, and these, being constructed like the paddle wheels of steam-boats, produce the same effect, and propel the boat forward.  The horses are covered by a roof, furnished with curtains, to protect them in bad weather; and do not appear to labor harder than common draft horses, with a heavy load.

* They have now become common, and are worked by four horses where the boat is large.  1824.

The inventor of this boat, is Mr. LANGDON, of Whitehall and it claims the important advantages of simplicity, cheapness, and effect.  At first view, the labour appears like a hardship upon the horses, but probably this is an illusion, as it seems very immaterial to their comfort, whether they advance with their load, or cause the basis, on which they labour, to recede.
 
TROY, LANSINGBURGH, AND WATERFORD.
 
Troy, six miles north of Albany, is a beautiful city, handsomely built, and regularly laid out; its appearance is very neat; it stands principally on the flat ground, by the Hudson -- contains five thousand inhabitants, a court-house, jail, market-house, and two banks, a public library, a Lancasterian school, and five places of public worship.  It has an intelligent and polished population, and a large share of wealth.  A number of its gentlemen have discovered their attachment to science, by the institution of a Lyceum of Natural History, which, fostered by the activity, zeal, and intelligence of its members, and of its lecturer, Mr. Eaton, promises to be a public benefit, and to elevate the character of the place.
               
Near it, on the opposite side of the river, are extensive and beautiful barracks, belonging to the United States, with a large park of artillery.  Below the town, are fine mill seats, on which are already established, several important manufactures, for which kind of employments Troy appears very favorably situated.  Small sloops come up to this town, which, for size, and importance, is the third, and fourth, in the state.
               
We had to regret that the arrangements of our journey did not permit us to pass as much time in Troy, as, under other circumstances, would have been both useful and agreeable.
               
Lansinghburgh, through which we passed, three miles north of Troy, is inferior ot it in the number and quality of its buildings.  Its population is not far from two thousand.  It is a large and handsome settlement, situated, principally, on one street, and has an academy, a bank, and four places of public worship.  Sloops come up to this place, and it enjoys a considerable trade.
               
It was formerly more flourishing than at present. Troy has, for a good many years, gained the preeminence, and seems likely to retain it.
               
Waterford is a pretty village, of one thousand inhabitants, and stands on the western bank of the Hudson, at its confluence with the Mohawk, where a number of islands, producing the appearance of several mouths, give diversity to a very beautiful scene.  It is ten miles north of Albany.  From the Lansingburgh side, we crossed into it, over a commodious bridge.  The name of this place, was formerly Half-Moon point. 

FORT EDWARD.
At this Fort, we first observed the canal, which is destined to connect the head waters of Lake Champlain with those of the Hudson.  It is now on the point of being united with this river, and they are constructing the walls of the Canal of a very handsome hewn stone: it is obtained, as I am informed, near Fort Anne, and presents to the eye, aided by a magnifier, very minute plates and veins, which feebly effervesce with acids. . . ; is it a peculiar kind of sand stone?  It is of a dark hue, and is shaped into handsome blocks, by the tools of the workmen.  I was gratified to see such firm and massy walls constructed of this stone; indeed, in point of solidity and beauty, they would do honor to the modern wet docks of Great Britain.
               
It is intended to have a lock at this place, where there is a considerable descent into the Hudson.
               
There is a village at Fort Edward, bearing the same name, and I ought to have remarked that there are villages, at Stillwater, Saratoga and Fort Miller; but there is nothing particularly interesting in any of them.  

Immediately after leaving this battle ground, we arrived on the banks of the canal, which is to connect the Hudson with Lake Champlain.  Being almost constantly in sight of it, and very often as near it as possible, we were seriously incommoded by deep gullies, and heaps of miry clay, thrown out by the canal diggers, through which we were compelled to drag our way; and when we were not in the mud, we found a road excessively rough and uncomfortable, from the united effect of much rain and much travelling, with occasional hot sunshine, in a country whose basis is a stiff clay.  We rode almost constantly in sight of Wood Creek, as well as of the canal.

​After a very fatiguing journey from Fort Anne, several miles of which I walked, we arrived safely at Whitehall, at the head of Lake Champlain, a little before night.

WHITEHALL -- THE CANAL.
The canal terminates twenty-two miles from Fort Edward, at Whitehall, where they are now (p. 181) constructing a lock, with handsome massy hewn stone.  There is a considerable descent to the surface of Lake Champlain, and Wood Creek, whose mouth and that of the canal are side by side, here rushes down a considerable rapid with some grandeur.  This is the place formerly called the falls of Wood Creek, at Skeensborough.
               
As Wood Creek is really a river, navigable by larger boats than those which will probably pass on the canal, and as the canal and river from Fort Anne, a distance of about ten or eleven miles, are often close together, so that a stone might be thrown from the one to the other, a traveller naturally inquires why the larger natural canal should, with vast expense, be deserted for the smaller artificial one.  The answer will probably be founded upon the shortening of distance, by avoiding the numerous windings of the creek -- the obtaining of a better horse road for dragging the boats -- security from the effects of floods and drought, in altering the quantity of water -- and the securing of a more adequate supply of water for that part of the route between Fort Anne an the Hudson; in either case, there must be locks at Whitehall.*

The immense utility of this canal is already sufficiently obvious in the vast quantities of lumber and other commodities which now find their way into the Hudson. -- March, 1824.

WHITEHALL PORT.
This is a well-built, and apparently thriving little place, situated on both branches of the muddy Wood Creek, which, on its way to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sluggishly flows through the village, till it makes its escape into Lake Champlain; it then tumbles down a steep declivity, over a bed of rocks, and foams, and roars, as if in exultation, at making its escape from its own Lethean channel.
               
Whitehall, anciently called Skeensborough, was famous in General Burgoyne's campaign.  Here he destroyed the little American flotilla, in July, 1777, and the baggage and stores of the American army; and here he had his head quarters for some time, while preparing to pass his army and heavy artillery over land to Fort Edward.
               
Whitehall is situated at the bottom of a narrow defile in the mountains, and has the bustle and crowded aspect of a port, without the quiet and cleanliness of a village.  Some of the houses are situated on elevations and declivities, and some in the bottom of the vale -- some are of wood, and others of brick, but I was gratified to see many of them handsomely constructed of stone -- of the fine gneiss rock which abounds here -- the two parts of the town are connected by a bridge over Wood Creek.  The population of this town is between two and three thousand, and the village contains a Presbyterian meeting-house, four ware-houses, ten stores, and more than a hundred dwelling-houses.
               
The fever and ague is now very prevalent here, and many sallow faces, and feeble frames, are to be see about the streets.
               
The country, both up Wood Creek, and down the lake contiguous to the town, looks as if it might nourish fever and ague, but the inhabitants deny that it is their inheritance, and profess to consider the visitation of this summer as fortuitous.  I am afraid that their canal, with its stagnant waters, will not help them to more health.  A thick fog prevailed here, most of the time that we were in the place, and rendered it uncomfortable to move out of doors till the middle of the forenoon, when it blew away.
               
This will probably become a considerable place, situated as it is, at the head of lake navigation, and at the point of communication, between the Hudson and Lake Champlain.  it derived some ephemeral importance, from the local navy maintained on the lake, in time of war; there is a small naval arsenal here, and at present there are a few naval officers and men at this station.

PASSAGE DOWN LAKE CHAMPLAIN.
The carriage and horses were received on board the steam-boat at Whitehall, and accommodation which we had not expected; and thus we avoided the inconvenience of having them go around by land, to Burlington, in Vermont, to wait our return from Canada.  The steam-boat lay in a wild glen, immediately under a high, precipitous, rocky hill, and not far from the roaring outlet of Wood Creek; we almost drop down upon the port, all on a sudden, and it strikes one like an interesting discovery, in a country, so wild, and so far inland, as to present, in other respects, no nautical images or realities. 
               
We left Whitehall between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, in the Congress, a neat and rapid boat, and the only one remaining on the lake, since the late awful catastrophe of the "Phoenix".   
               
The lake, for many miles, after it receives Wood Creek, is, in fact, nothing more, than a narrow sluggish river, passing, without apparent motion, among high, rocky, and even mountainous ridges, between whose feet and the lake, there is, generally, a considerable extent of low, wet marshy ground, of a most unpromising appearance, for any purpose, but to produce fever and ague, unless by and by, it should by dyking and ditching, be rescued, like Holland, from the dominion of the water, and converted to the purposes of agriculture.
               
The channel, through which we passed, is, for miles, so narrow, that the steam-boat could scarcely put about in it, and there seemed hardly room for the passage of the little sloops, which we frequently met going up to Whitehall.  At the very head of this natural canal, lie moored, to the bank, stem and stern, the flotillas of McDonough and Downie, now, by the catastrophe of battle, united into one.
               
When I passed this place in June 1821, these vessels were lying a little way down the lake, mere wrecks, sunken, neglected and in ruins -- scarcely seven years from the time of the fierce contention, by which they were lost and won.

Editor's note: The following article is from the Commercial Advertiser, November 15, 1822. Thank you to Contributing Scholar George A. Thompson for finding, cataloging and transcribing this article. The language, spelling and grammar of the article reflects the time period when it was written.

FOR THE COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.  The Catskill Mountains.
               
On the 18th of September, 1822, a large party of ladies and gentlemen visited the Pine Orchard, situated on one of the lofty summits of the Catskill mountains, and about twelve miles from the village of Catskill.
               
The road from Catskill to the base of the mountain, is tolerably good; and although it is over some considerable hills, the traveller feels little inconvenience, until he arrives at Lawrence's Tavern, near the foot of one of the cluster of mountains, and about seven miles from Catskill.
               
At this house, a large portion of the party halted, and partook of refreshments, and some proceeded up the mountain.  Immediately on leaving Lawrence's, the ascent becomes considerable, and often times difficult, passing over many rugged cliffs which continued almost without interruption, until we arrived at the Pine Orchard, which is distant about five miles.  As we approached the Pine Orchard, the views from the various openings of the woods near the road, become extremely interesting; occasionally, we ascended a very steep hill, and then winding on a course round some inaccessible cliff of rocks, again descended into a wild and lonely glen. At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the Pine Orchard, so named from a small flat of land, on the summit of one of the mountains, on which grow a number of yellow pine trees.
               
The scene that here was presented to the eye, was uncommonly grand and sublime.  This point of the mountain is an elevation of 2800 feet, and the summit on which we stood is composed principally of granite rock, of an immense perpendicular height.

The sun was shedding his last declining rays over the world beneath us, and already the faint mists of the evening, partially obscured the far distant mountains that seemed to stretch their blue tops to the horizon. From the hasty contemplation of this delightful landscape, the company was early summoned to a cold collation, and soon afterwards to the Ball Room.  The building for the accommodation of the company, corresponded with the situation in which it was erected.  It was a temporary frame house, one story high, built with rough boards, consisting of two rooms for the ladies, a kitchen and supper-room adjoining.  Connected with this building, was another, built in a similar manner -- about sixty feet long and designed for a ball room.  The dining room presented a most singular and beautiful appearance; . . . the wild mountain had afforded every decoration; and the boughs of fir, the hemlock, and the spruce, were tastefully arranged along its walls.

 ***  The company, consisting of about seventy ladies and gentlemen from different parts of the state of New-York, assembled in the ball room; and at an early hour cotillions and country dances commenced, and were continued during the remainder of the night, except for the necessary intermission in partaking of an excellent supper, prepared in a very handsome style, by Mr. Bigelow.  All seemed to enjoy the festivities of the dance -- the music was well selected, and the party in fine spirits.  Indeed it was a most gratifying scene to behold so splendid a collection of youth and beauty . . . on the wild mountain's top, surrounded by the tall ever-green trees, and where, but as yesterday, the wild beasts of the forest roamed undisturbed!
               
At a seasonable hour the company separated and retired to rest; but at the dawn of day the music beat the reveille, and, according to a previous arrangement, the party again collected on the summit of the mountain's brow, to witness sun-rise.  Female beauty, renovated by refreshing sleep, appeared in all its loveliness, and the fresh morning air of the mountain, added lustre to many a fair cheek.  The grey mists of the morning, still rested on the immeasurable valleys below, and the distant mountains were but dimly seen.  ***  As the day-light increased, the vapours of the night gradually began to move, until the sun, proudly rising in his glory, shot his long and genial rays over the boundless landscape before us.  Who could survey such a scene, and not feel his soul regenerated from every selfish feeling!  The winds seemed pillowed in the valley, and as the sun majestically rose and dispelled the morning dews, the view became more and more extensive, until the eye had a boundless range over mountains, and forests, and fields, and towns!  Here and there lay the cultivated farm, and the blue smoke, gradually curling among the green trees of the valley, pointed to view the farm-house, and showed the early preparation of its rural tenant for breakfast.  Yonder rolled the Hudson, whitened by many a sail on its azure bosom. -- At a further distance, in the perspective were seen numerous cities and towns; and the roving eye, still wandering, fixes on objects that "distance scarcely bounds."  *
               
The traveller is richly compensated for his toil and trouble in climbing the Catskill mountain, if he can be there on a cloudless summer morning, at sun-rise.
               
The company, after partaking of an excellent breakfast, prepared by Mrs. Bigelow, descended the mountain, and again met and sociably dined together at Lawrence's.  Then they departed to their respective homes, and will long cherish in memory, the happy moments experienced in a visit to the Pine Orchard.  OCTAVIAN.
               
*  This summit of the mountain has a view extending at least one hundred miles.

Most of the cities along the Hudson River, and even some of the villages, at one time had steamboats named in their honor. The old colonial city of Kingston was no exception and for a six-year period in the late 1880's, Kingston was the home port of a sleek and graceful steamboat named “City of Kingston.”

During the post-Civil War years, the Cornell Steamboat Company and the Romer and Tremper Steamboat Company operated freight and passenger steamboats out of Rondout Creek for New York, each company operating a steamer on alternate nights so as to provide daily service.  On March 27, 1882, the Cornell steamboat “Thomas Cornell” was wrecked by running up on Danskammer Paint, north of Newburgh, in a fog.  The “City of Kingston” was built to replace her and was launched at Wilmington, Delaware on March 11, 1884. 

When she first appeared, the “City of Kingston” was a sharp departure from other steamboats of the day.  Almost all steamboats then were wooden hulled side wheelers with walking beam engines, but the “City of Kingston" had an iron hull and a screw propeller powered by a 750 h.p. compound engine.  She was also equipped with 165 electric lights, which in 1884 put her well ahead of almost anything afloat or ashore.  She is generally credited with being the first steamboat of a type that later became standard as overnight freight and passenger carriers out of almost every major city along the Atlantic coast. 

Her First Trip
The “City of Kingston” arrived in New York from her builder’s yard the latter part of May 1884 and on May 31 set out on her first trip to Kingston.  With a group of invited guests, she left New York at about 1:30 p.m. and was escorted through New York harbor by the Cornell tugboats “Hercules,” ‘‘S.L. Crosy” and “Edwin Terry,” all gaily decorated for the occasion with flags and with guests aboard.  She arrived at Rondout shortly after 6 p.m. where she was greeted by a large crowd, including many local dignitaries. 

The “City of Kingston" entered regular service on June 2, 1884.  Her schedule called for her to leave Rondout at 6 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with landings at Esopus, Cornwall and Cranston's the later landing being named for the large hotel on the bluff south of the village of Highland Falls.  On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday she would leave her pier at the foot of Harrison Street, New York at 4 p.m. for the up-river run. 

During the summer, on Saturdays she would leave New York at 1 p.m. and make connections at Rondout at 6 p.m. with a special train of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad for Catskill mountain resorts.  Sunday nights, the train would make connections with the “City of Kingston’’ at Rondout from where she would depart at 11 p.m. for New York.  Arriving in the metropolis at 6 a.m., the steamer would then run right back up river to resume her regular Monday night schedule.  Normally, the steamer would run from the latter part of March until about the middle of December. 

On June 23, 1886 the “City of Kingston” had her first serious accident.  She left her last up-river landing at Cranston’s at about 9:40 p.m. and being somewhat ahead of schedule was proceeding down through the Hudson Highlands at reduced speed.  She had a good passenger list and a large load of freight, the principal item of which was Hudson River Valley strawberries.  It was a hazy night of early summer, the kind when the smoke from passing trains used to lay over the water off Conns Hook, there being no breeze to carry it away. 

Loaded With Cement
All of a sudden off Manitou, directly ahead of the “City of Kingston,” lay schooner the “Mary Atwater,” drifting with the tide.  The “Mary Atwater” had left the James Cement Company, opposite Wilbur, that morning loaded with 550 barrels of cement.  The schooner was displaying no lights, it frequently being the habit of schooner men in those days on a still night to keep all lights out so as not to attract mosquitoes and bugs. 
​
They would have a lantern ready in the hold and when they heard the plop, plop, plop — plop, plop, plop of the side wheels of an approaching steamboat, they would then run the lantern up the mast.  On a quiet night, they would normally hear the pounding of steamer's side wheels up to two miles away.  The “City Kingston," however, having a propeller made no noise at all through the water.  Since she made no noise, the “City of Kingston” had become known to sloop and schooner men as ”The Sneak.”

In the haze, the “City of Kingston” was upon the darkened ‘‘Mary Atwater” too late to avoid a collision.  Her knife-like bow cut the schooner in two and the “Mary Atwater” immediately sank.  Although the schooner’s helmsman was saved, her owner and the cook asleep below decks were drowned.  The “City of Kingston" was undamaged. 

Many steamboatmen used to think nothing could surpass a sidewheeler for speed.  So on one of the “City of Kingston's” summer Saturday up-trips — July 2, 1887 — the crew of the smart sidewheeler ‘‘Kaaterskill” of the Catskill Line thought they would give a lesson to the new propeller steamer from Kingston.  The “City of Kingston” left her New York pier a few minutes after 1 p.m. and between there and Rondout was scheduled to make landings at Newburgh and Poughkeepsie.  The “Kaaterskill” got underway a few minutes later from her dock three piers below and was to go straight through to Catskill.

Accepted Challenge
On the “City of Kingston," they could tell by the smoke pouring from the ‘'Kaaterskill's’’ twin smoke stacks and by counting the strokes of walking beam, that her throttle was wide open and she was planning a race.  The “City of Kingston” accepted the challenge and, at the time, it was estimated she had a lead of nine minutes.

All the way up through Tappan Zee and Haverstraw Bay, if one was standing on the shore at Ossining, Rockland Lake or on the Haverstraw steamboat dock they could heard the heavy beating of the “Kaaterskill’s” paddle wheels pounding into the clear waters of the Hudson for more speed.  But try as she might, she could not shorten the distance.

The “City of Kingston" was cutting through the water like an eel and causing hardly any commotion in the water at her bow or stern, while the “Kaaterskill” was causing water fly in all directions from her large paddle wheels. 

The “City of Kingston” lost approximately nine minutes landing at Newburgh and Poughkeepsie which canceled her lead.  Leaving Poughkeepsie, the two steamers were almost abreast of each other, the "City of Kingston" slightly ahead.  Between there and Rondout Light, the "City of Kingston’’ steadily increased her lead and made the 10 mile run from Hyde Park to the mouth of Rondout Creek in exactly half an hour.  As she entered Rondout Creek, her rival, the "Kaaterskill’’ was below Port Ewen and the loser of the race by four minutes.  Many old boatmen told me the “City of Kingston’s” success was due in large measure to the skill of First Pilot William H. Mabie getting her in to her landings and on her way again in minimum time. 

Another Collision
The following year, on June 5, 1888, the “City of Kingston’’ was in a collision in New York harbor with the steam yacht ‘‘Meteor." The steamboat had just left her pier and the yacht was getting underway from her anchorage off 24th Street.  The yacht's bow sprit hit the “City of Kingston” on the starboard side and ripped out considerable joiner work before it broke off.  In the investigation that followed, the ‘‘City of Kingston” was held blameless and the captain of the yacht had his license suspended for 10 days. 
​
In 1889, after only six years of service on the Hudson River, the "City of Kingston'’ was sold and went to the Pacific coast.  To get there she had to go all the way around Cape Horn.  

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