Hudson River Maritime Museum
  • Home
    • About
    • Board >
      • Join Our Board
    • News
    • Newsletter
    • Work With Us
  • Contact Us
  • Join Our Mailing List
  • Visit
    • Hours And Directions
    • Parking
    • Museum Store >
      • Museum Online Store
    • Docking
    • Book A Charter
    • Rondout Lighthouse
    • Facility Rentals
    • Area Attractions
  • Museum
    • Lighthouse Film
    • RiverWise >
      • Documentary Films
    • Museum at Home
    • Exhibits >
      • New Age of Sail
      • Warning Signs
      • Mary Powell
      • Rescuing the River
      • Online Exhibits
      • Walking Tours
    • Lecture Series
    • Speaking Engagements
    • School Programs
  • Boat Tours
    • All Boat Tours
    • Meet Solaris
    • Lighthouse Tours
    • History Tours
    • Tasting History
    • Special Guest Tours
    • Ecology Tours
    • Evening Cruises
    • Private Charters >
      • Visiting Vessels >
        • Maiden
        • Eleanor
        • John J Harvey
        • Kalmar Nyckel
        • Impossible Dream
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Lecture Series
    • Pilot Gala
    • Celebration of Woodworking >
      • Kingston Boat Builders Challenge
      • Sponsor
    • RiverWise
    • Riverport Women's Sailing Conference
    • NE Grain Race
    • Sail Freight Conference
  • Boat School
    • Wooden Boat, Sailing, & Rowing Blog
    • Youth Classes
    • Adult Classes
    • Instructors
    • Maritime Training
    • RWBS Library
    • Restoration
  • Sailing
    • Sailing School
    • Adult Sailing
    • Youth Sailing Program
    • Student Resources
    • Sea Scouts
    • Sailing Instructors
  • Rowing
    • Learn to Row
    • Rowing Instructors
  • Research
    • Research Requests
    • Research Library Catalog
    • Collections >
      • Digital Collections
    • History Blog
    • RiverWise
    • Submerged Resources Project
    • Pilot Log
    • Hudson River History >
      • Henry Hudson
      • The Hudson River
      • Sloops of the Hudson River
      • Robert Fulton
      • Hudson River Steamboats
      • New York Canals
  • Support
    • Member Login
    • Become A Member
    • Donate
    • Memorial Donation
    • Donate Items
    • Artifact Donations
    • Wish List
    • Boat Donations
    • Planned Giving
    • Volunteer
    • Museum Store
    • Library Membership
    • Business Supporters
    • Green Museum
    • Our Sponsors

History Blog

Media Monday: Little Old New York (1940)

8/22/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Movie poster for "Little Old New York" (1940), reading "Darryl F. Zanuck's production of Little Old New York with Alice Faye, Fred MacMurray, Richard Greene, and Brenda Joyce, Andy Devine, Henry Stephenson, Fritz Feld. Directed by Henry King, Associate producer Raymond Griffith. A 20th Century-Fox Picture."
Last week we learned about the real Robert Fulton and the launching of his North River Steamboat on August 17, 1807. This week we thought we'd have a little fun with the 1940 historical drama, "Little Old New York," a fictionalized account of Robert Fulton's struggle to get his steamboat funded and in the water.
The most famous scene is when local sailors, angry at the prospect of lost jobs, set the boat on fire. Like many historical dramas from the 1940s and '50s, this one is light on historical accuracy.

In the film, Fulton doesn't meet Livingston until he arrives in New York. In real life, Livingston met Fulton in France in 1801 and was impressed with his work. Livingston had already been interested in steam navigation and had been given a monopoly on steam navigation in New York in 1794. Together, they financed an experimental version of the steamboat in Paris. With no success in convincing either the French or British government to adopt his design for a submarine, Fulton returned to New York in 1807 to work with Livingston on a second steamboat. That would become the Steamboat (no additional moniker was needed for the only one) which traveled the Hudson River against wind and tide in August of 1807. 

There is also zero evidence that Fulton received any assistance from a pretty tavern keeper in Lower Manhattan, although it makes for good storytelling. Thankfully, the film writers had her fall for sailor "Mr. Brown" instead of Fulton. Robert Fulton married Robert Livingston's niece Harriet Livingston in 1808. They went on to have a son and three daughters. 

Although "Little Old New York" is far from historically accurate in storyline, the producers of the film did re-create Fulton's steamboat based on historical plans. The film also reflects an early 20th century interest in the "great men" of the American past and Robert Fulton stood large in that pantheon for decades. Ultimately, his legacy of successful steam navigation did change the Hudson Valley, New York, and the world forever.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!​
Donate Now
Join Today
0 Comments

A Scotsman's Journey up the Hudson in 1860

11/18/2020

0 Comments

 
Editor's Note: Hudson River Maritime Museum is pleased to feature this post by William Stewart Lindsay. He describes his introduction to the museum: "Having listened to your Museum’s interesting podcast interview with the Mariner’s Mirror (https://snr.org.uk/the-mariners-mirror-podcast/) , I am writing to you with details of a journey up the Hudson River, from New York to Albany, in October 1860, by my ancestor William Schaw Lindsay MP." Thank you, Mr. Lindsay, for accepting the museum's invitation to share this article.
Picture
William Schaw Lindsay, MP
Lindsay was on a tour of the Northern States to discuss potential improvements to the Navigation Laws. Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and brought up in relative poverty, he spent nine years at sea. He became a successful ship’s broker in London, and owned one of the largest shipping companies in the UK at the time. He was elected MP for Sunderland, and advised the government on Maritime matters. He wrote extensively, and twenty or so of his journals are now housed in the National Maritime Museum in London.
​
He was greatly impressed with his trip up the Hudson River. He wrote to his brother-in-law Robert Stewart…
I think that the sail from New York to Albany is one of the finest of its kind in the world; and it is greatly enhanced by the size and beauty of the boats on which you make the trip, and the conveniences, and luxury, of their apartments. The view of the great city on a fine bright morning is in itself, with its domes and spires and busy hum of life, a sight of considerable interest.
 
Then with Jersey City on the opposite shore and Staten Island in the distance, studded with beautiful villas, it forms altogether a most attractive scene. Sailing rapidly past the almost interminable streets, and wherein there lay moored fleets of great ships, towering steamers, and river craft of various kinds, we soon reach the “Palisades”, precipices which rise in some places 500 feet above the river in an almost straight line from their base, richly wooded on their summits, and extending full 20 miles along the Southern shore of the Hudson.
 
From thence to Sing Sing which is 33 miles from New York, there is a succession of charming country residences. Here the river Croton joins the Hudson, and 2 miles further on the aqueduct which carries its clear water to the Metropole, commences. Perhaps no city in the world has a better or longer supply of water than New York, and should it ever reach London in size the Croton River will be far more than sufficient for all its wants.
 
Lindsay then continues, praising the building of the aqueduct. He says that it reminds him of the great work that his bother-in-law Robert carried out, bringing water to the City of Glasgow in Scotland, from Loch Katrine. Robert was Lord Provost of Glasgow at the time, and had to overcome many objections from his colleagues to enable the project to go ahead.
 
Lindsay explains to Robert that the rough weather has prevented him from writing more on this part of the journey. He proceeded up the river on the Persia, one of the Cunard Line ships. He continues…
 
There is no easing in the Cunard line. They have got their works to do in a given time and they go to it full steam ahead right against any gale and clean through the waves so that the green seas in a solid body wash right on the forecastle head when the ship is driving against a gale of wind and are only prevented from washing right aft by the “driving boards” – strait planks stretching across the ship on the fore part of the main deck.
 
As the gale still blows from the Westward and the ocean swell is coming from the Eastward the sea is consequently very confused, and even the Persia is rolling and pitching and at times bobbing up and down with heavy thumps or swaying like a great Yankee rocking chair. I hope we are not going to have a gale from the East for though an old sailor I hate a gale of wind at sea especially when it is right ahead. Everybody in the shape of a passenger is sick and even the sailors look like drenched scarecrows. Then, as the water in sheets of spray flys [sic] over the deck, there is no chance of breathing fresh air unless at the expense of a ducking. So I cannot get out, and here I sit jammed between the sofa and the table with a portfolio before me and an ink stand that every now and again makes a start as if it was determined to fly to the other side of the ship. It is most unpleasant and the only consolation that one gets is the announcement from one of the mates to one of the stewards “that we are going have a regular sneezer* right ahead.” [*A sneezer was an ancient sea term for a gale of wind]. I hate “sneezers right ahead” for they not only disturb one’s equilibrium and stomach and temper but they set everything cracking and jaunting and  splashing, so that I took the liberty of telling the mate that if he’d no better news to give us he would better hold his tongue.
Picture
British passenger liner "Persia" operated by the Cunard Line. At the time of her launch, she was the largest ship in the world and the first Atlantic record breaker constructed of iron. Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Persia

However I shall endeavour to banish all these unpleasant feelings, by going back in imagination to the South waters of the Hudson and endeavour to make more progress with my log of an idle hour than I did yesterday, in spite of the increasing gale.

Conspicuous from the river, and within a mile of Sing Sing, where the waters of Croton commence their artificial course to New York, may be seen the great prison of the State. I was told that the building for the male prisoners was about 500 feet in length with accommodation for 1000 persons, and that for the females three fourths as large. The whole, with outbuildings and yards (for there are no walls round the ground) within the circle of the sentry’s march, occupying about 130 acres.

 
Passing various pretty towns and villages we next reach Caldwell’s landing at the foot of the Dunderberg mountains a very fine and extreme range from which I was informed the view is truly grand and also beautiful. Amidst these mountain ranges the river Hudson forces its course smooth and placid in some parts and at others writhing and rushing in abrupt courses, as if struggling to be released from its iron bound limits.
 
The Hudson here in my opinion far exceeds in grandeur and in beauty any part of the Rhine, Though there are no views of Feudal castles to diversify the scene, there are the modern villas of the merchants of a great and free country – objects to my taste much more interesting that the emblems of a dark and barbaric age which only remind us of the despots who were once their lords and by their reminiscences cast a gloom over earths finest regions.
 
Here Lindsay discusses his impressions of American River Steamboats. He was very impressed with them as he explained…
 
In the midst of this mountain range stands West Point the celebrated military school or college. Here the Daniel Drew stopped to land and embark passengers, the first berthing place since we started from New York from which it is distant 54 miles. We arrived there at 8.20am and had performed the journey in 2 hours and 12 minutes, for I timed it, or at the rate of 25 miles an hour with the wind somewhat ahead of us and a slack tide neither for or against the steamer. I never was in a boat that steamed at anything like her speed and I afterwards learned that the Daniel Drew, American built and engines, was the fastest vessel in the world.
 
I had no idea of her fame when I stepped on board and indeed I had not previously heard of her. She was very much in appearance like the other ordinary passage boats on the Hudson. Her saloon on deck was light, roomy, and elegant – and her form was graceful with a very fine wedge like bow and remarkable clean stern. She moved through the water with great ease and hardly any motion, and her speed, as she passed the various points of land and vessels anchor, more resembled that of an express railway train than a steamer.
 
Her easy and swift motion attracted my attention and, learning that her builder was on board, I soon made the acquaintance of Mr Thomas Collyer of 43rd Street New York. I found Mr Collyer to be a plain sensible man; and the appearance of the Daniel Drew and her performance sufficiently testified to his abilities as a builder of great skill and knowledge. From Mr Collyer I ascertained her dimensions and follows:
Length over all                                             250 feet
Breadth without the usual platform            30½ ditto
Depth from main deck to flat of floor          9½ feet
Picture
The "Daniel Drew", steamboat on the Hudson River, by Joseph B. Smith, c. 1860, oil on canvas - Albany Institute of History and Art - DSC08102.JPG
On the main deck there was a saloon of about 100 feet in length, and in midships and forward, houses for the engineers and crew. The engines were direct acting and low pressure with the usual high shafts or cranks. The boilers I saw had been tested up to 57lbs per square inch and she was allowed by her centipede to work up to a pressure of 45lbs per square inch, but at the time she was going at the rate I have named the average pressure had not been more than 35lbs so that she had not been at full steam when she accomplished the extraordinary speed of 25 miles an hour. 
 
She was a paddle wheeled boat but except when she started, the motion of the paddles was not felt, and was barely heard by the passengers in the saloon. A very small wave was raised by their motion and the water from her bows was hardly disturbed as she cut through it like a knife merely sending forth a jet which fell in a graceful curve on either deck of the sharp stern.
 
I am disposed  to ask how it that we have not similar boats in England – We have nothing on our rivers or along our coasts at all approaching the Daniel Drew in beauty, grace, elegance, comfort, and above all in speed. The only vessel with us that I have seen which can bear any comparison with her is the Iona which runs between Glasgow, Rothesay and Tarbert, and the greatest speed got out of her was I think only 18 miles an hour. 
 
But how is it that we have never in any country reached a speed on the ocean much beyond the speed attained by the Daniel Drew on the river. The Persia, the vessel on board of which I now address you is, I understand, the fastest ocean steamer in the world, and yet on the quietest run she can make across the Atlantic, she only managed 13.95 nautical with 16.08 statute miles per hour. Her great American competitor the Vanderbilt on the same voyage fell short of this speed as her average was 13.86 nautical or 15.98 statute miles an hour. So that the highest average speed on the ocean yet reached has been 16 miles an hour, while on the river, 25 miles per hour has been attained.
 
The Great Eastern was an attempt at great ocean speed and her builders were certain that she would on a voyage to India average at least 20 miles an hour. But her speed has not proved equal to that of the Persia and the reason is evident. There is nothing new about her except her gigantic size which as I predicted long before she was launched would be her ruin. In model she is the same as other steamers and if her engine power is a great deal more, it is not more in proportion than the greater weight which these engines will have to propel through the water. 
 
In considering the question of ocean navigation it appears to me that we want a form which, while it gives safety and stability at sea, will combine the qualities of the Daniel Drew and the steamers which the Americans employ on their lake navigation. I have before me the particulars of some of these boats. They are from 1000 to 2000 tons register and I see their average working speed is about 20 statute miles per hour. Now though these vessels would be adapted to the navigation of the Atlantic Ocean, they encounter at times very rough seas and make their voyages with great regularity. Michigan lake is more like a sea than a lake, for in some parts there is a range of from 200 to 300 miles of water on which in a gale there are waves in size and fares not much short of those on the Atlantic, and yet we have no more instances of these vessels floundering than we have of our own vessels employed between England and the Mediterranean.
Picture
Hudson River Day Line steamboat "Daniel Drew" docked at West Point or Cornwall. Donald C. Ringwald Collection, Hudson River Maritime Museum.
Lindsay then continues with his description of his journey…
 
I have I fear detained you too long at West Point but the performance of the Daniel Drew induced me to make the remarks I have done in regard to the speed and comfort of our sea going steamers. I must now ask you to accompany me to Albany.

Leaving West Point, which in scenery and in its association is one of the most attractive spots on the Hudson, we pass Crescent, one of the finest of the mountain groups and reach Storm King the last of the range of these Highlands.
 
We then meet scenery if not as grand, quite as beautiful, and from the numerous villages  and well-kept lawns, and magnificent clusters of trees,  interspersed with rocks of sparkling granite, more picturesque. From thence we see the pretty town of Undercliff, pass swiftly on the Island of Pollepel and thereafter the bay of Newburgh around which are the graceful villages of New Windsor, Cornwall, Fishkill and Newburgh.
 
A few miles further on we come to the Town or “City" of Poughkeepsie, entertaining a population of 15000 and situated 75 miles from New York. Five miles further on we reach the village of “Hyde Park” on the Eastside of the river, and in the midst of a country of great fertility studied with handsome villas, and apparently thriving homesteads.
 
From this point to the base of the lofty range of hills known as the Catskills, the scenery is exceedingly beautiful and very interesting. Nor is it much less so from thence to Albany, as we pass a member of thriving towns and pretty villages amongst which may be noted Athens and Stockport,  and various other places the names of which I now forget.
 
Albany is situated 145 miles from New York and the rapidity of the Daniel Drew’s passage gave me close upon five hours to spare before the train started for Niagara. I employed the spare time at my disposal in strolling through the Town or rather “City” as that is the name given to any place in America containing more than 10,000 inhabitants. I think they are all either villages or corporate cities.
 
Albany is an old and somewhat aristocratic city containing 65,000 inhabitants, and it is the capital of the State of New York. It is pleasantly situated on high ground rising from the Hudson and carries on a considerable trade with the West and North by means of the Erie and also the Chaplain canals: and it is besides, the point from which many important lines of railway diverge. The streets are wide and in many cases lined with trees, and the houses are well built, and to all natured appearances very clean. In the vicinity of the State Capital, which is an imposing building, there are many very handsome mansions.
​
Picture
Robert Fulton's steamboat "North River", also known as "Clermont". Image provided by the author.
​Here, Lindsay ended his description of his journey on the Hudson River. Many years later, in 1876, he published a comprehensive reference entitled ‘The History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce’ in four volumes. For many years it was a reference that many interested in shipping, turned to. In this work, he praises Robert Fulton, whose early steamer, the Clermont, on the Hudson River, paved the way for passenger steamers. He devoted several pages to Fulton. (see History of Merchant Shipping, Lindsay, Vol 4 pages 48-59). He felt that Fulton’s innovation had been overlooked.
 
His comments were also published in The Pall Mall Gazette, 26 December 1874…
 
Mr. Lindsay is deliberately of opinion that the Marquis of Worcester is the first person who ever constructed a steam engine; and that though Papin, Savery, Jonathan Hulls, the Marquis de Jouffroy, Bramah, and others, helped forward very materially the knowledge of steam as a motive power, to Fulton is due the credit of having put former discoveries and his own improvements to practical use by running a steam-boat regularly for purposes of trade. This pioneer vessel, destined to have myriads of followers, was the Clermont, which as the year 1807, only two years after Nelson had fallen at Trafalgar, plied regularly between New York and Albany, and made an average speed of five miles an hour.
 
We agree with Mr Lindsay in his strong reprobation of Rennie and other engineers who have not scrupled to call Fulton a charlatan and a quack because he made use of other men’s discoveries.
 
Lord Worcester was the first man to make a steam-engine; Watt was the first man to show how such an engine could be used to propel ships; Fulton was the first man to propel ships with steam-engines. Surely, when we reflect what steam has done for the commerce, the civilization, the happiness of the world, we can do equal homage to that triumvirate of genius without disparagement to either.
 
Poor Fulton was neither so prosperous nor so happy that we need grudge him his fair share of fame. Persecuted by jealous rivals, oppressed by the State which he had benefited, he died poor and broken hearted; but he has left behind him an enduring fame and an everlasting stigma on those who nicknamed his undertaking “Fulton’s Folly”.
 
I can’t end mentioning Fulton without this cutting. It was among Lindsay’s papers:-
 
ADVENTURES, NATIONAL CUSTOMS, AND CURIOUS FACTS.
 
FULTON'S FIRST STEAM VOYAGE,
BY R. W. HASKINS.
Some years since, I formed a travelling acquaintance, upon a steamboat on the Hudson River, with a gentleman, who, on that occasion, related to me some incidents of the first voyage of Fulton, to Albany, in his steamboat, the Clermont, which I never met with elsewhere. The gentleman’s name I have now lost, but I urged him, at the time, to publish what he related; which, however, so far as I knew, he had never done. -
 
"I chanced," said my narrator, "to be at Albany on business, when Fulton arrived there in his unheard-of craft, which everybody felt so much interest in seeing. Being ready to leave, and hearing that this craft was to return to New York, I repaired on board and inquired for Mr. Fulton. I was referred to the cabin, and there found a plain, gentlemanly man, wholly alone, and engaged in writing.
 
'Mr. Fulton, I presume?’
 ‘Yes, Sir?’
 ‘Do you return to New York with this boat?’
 'We shall try to get back, Sir.'
 `Can I have a passage down?’
 ‘You can take your chance with us, Sir.'
 
"I inquired the amount to be paid; and, after a moment's hesitation, a sum, I think six dollars, was named. The amount, in coin, I laid in his open hand; and, with an eye fixed upon it, he remained so long motionless that I supposed there might be a miscount, and said to him, 'Is that right Sir?

This roused him, as from a kind of reverie; and, as he looked up at me, a tear was trembling in his eye and his voice faltered, as he said, 'Excuse me, Sir, but memory was busy, as I contemplated this, the first pecuniary reward I have ever received for all my exertions in adapting steam to navigation. I would gladly commemorate the occasion over a bottle of wine with you, but really I am too poor, even for that, just now; yet I trust we may meet again when this will not be so.’
 
"Some four years after this, when the Clermont had been greatly improved, and two new boats made – making Fulton's fleet three boats regularly plying between New York and Albany - I took passage in one of these, for the latter city. The cabin in that day was below; and as I walked its length to and fro, I saw I was closely observed by one I supposed a stranger. Soon, however, I recalled the features of Mr Fulton; but without disclosing this, I continued my walk, and waited the result. At length, in passing his seat our eyes met, when he sprang to his feet, and eagerly seizing my hand, exclaimed, ‘I knew it must be you, for your features have never escaped me; and although I am still far from rich, yet I may venture that bottle now.’ – It was ordered; and during its discussion Mr Fulton ran rapidly but vividly over his experience of the world’s coldness and sneers, and of the hopes, fears and appointments, and difficulties that were scattered through the whole career of discovery, up to that very point of his final, crowning triumph, at which he so fully felt he had at last arrived.
 
‘And in reviewing these,’ said he, ‘I have again and again recalled the occasion and the incident of our first interview, at Albany; and never have I done so without its renewing in my mind the vivid emotion it originally caused. That seemed, and still does seem, to me, the turning point in my destiny – the dividing line between light and darkness, in my career upon earth; for it was the first actual recognition of my usefulness to my fellow men.’
 
Such, then, were the events coupled with the very dawn of steam navigation – a dawn so recent as to be still recollected by many; and such as Fulton here related them, were causing a revolution in navigation, which has almost literally brought the ends of the earth into contact.
 
Having read this, all I can say is how lucky you are that your Museum is associated with such a fine pioneer. I am sure that you serve him well. He deserves it.

References:
https://snr.org.uk/the-mariners-mirror-podcast/
W S Lindsay’s journals: National Maritime Museum, London. (Reference NMM:LND).
Hudson Journey: LND-7
W S Lindsay Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Schaw_Lindsay
Fulton; Lindsay, History of Merchant Shipping, Vol 4 pages 48-59, also The Pall Mall Gazette, 26 December 1874, also LND-2-12

Author

William Stewart Lindsay FCIM DipMa is a great-great-grandson of William Schaw Lindsay. In retirement he joined the Society for Nautical Research and the Navy Records Society and is pursuing his lifelong interest in maritime matters. He has published several articles on Victorian Shipping.


If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!​
Donate Now
Join Today
0 Comments

    Author

    This blog is written by Hudson River Maritime Museum staff, volunteers and guest contributors.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All
    17th Century
    1830s
    18th Century
    1950s
    1964 World's Fair
    19th Century
    20th Century
    21st Century
    9/11
    Abraham Lincoln
    Accident
    Accidents
    African American
    African American Philanthropy
    African Americans
    Agriculture
    Airplanes
    Albany
    Albany Rural Cemetery
    Albany To New York Marathon
    Algot J. Benson
    Alison Kraus
    American Eel
    American Revolution
    Amusement Parks
    Archeology
    Ashokan Center
    Ashokan Reservoir
    Atlantic World
    Australia
    Automobiles
    Baldwin Shipyard
    Ballooning
    Bannerman's Island
    Barge
    Barge Families
    Barges
    Barque
    Beacon
    Bear Mountain
    Benjamin Wright
    Benson
    Bicycling
    Billy Sunday
    Black History
    Boatbuilding
    Boat Christenings
    Boating
    Books
    Brickyards
    Bridges
    Britain
    Brooklyn Bridge
    Bud Atkins
    Buster Keaton
    Callanan Road Improvement Company
    Canada
    Canalboat
    Canals
    Canal Workers
    Canoes
    Captain Absalom Anderson
    Captain Benson
    Captain Benson Articles
    Captain Charles A. Tiffany
    Captain Samuel Schuyler
    Captain William O. Benson
    Capt. Eltinge Anderson
    Catherine Murdock
    Catskill And New York Night Line
    Catskill Evening Line
    Catskill Mountains
    Catskills
    Central Hudson Line
    Central Hudson Steamboat Company
    Charles Lindbergh
    Child Labor
    Chinese Exclusion Act
    Cholera
    Chris Mancuso
    Civil Engineering
    Civil War
    Claverack Landing
    Clean Water
    Clearwater
    Coal
    Coast Guard
    Conrad Milster
    Cornelius Vanderbilt
    Cornell Steamboat Company
    Covered Barges
    Coxsackie Lighthouse
    Crew
    Crime
    Cross-head Engine
    Croton Aqueduct
    Daniel Drew
    Danskammer Point
    Dar Williams
    Delaware Bay
    Delaware & Hudson Canal
    D&H Canal
    Disaster
    Dobbs Ferry
    Documentary Films
    Dogs
    Draft Riots
    Drydock
    Duck Hunting
    Dutch
    Dutch East India Company
    Duty To Rescue
    Earth Day
    Ed Carpenter
    Eddyville
    E. E. Olcott
    Electricity
    Elevators
    Environmental History
    Environmental Preservation
    Epidemics
    Erie-canal
    Erie-railroad-company
    Esopus-creek
    Esopus-island
    Esopus-meadows-lighthouse
    Excursion-boats
    Excursions
    Farmingdale
    Farmland
    FDNY
    Featured Artifact
    Ferries
    Ferryboats
    Fire
    Fireboat Fire Fighter
    Fireboat John J. Harvey
    Fireboats
    Fishing-nets
    Floods
    Foghorn
    Fourth-of-july
    Frances-franny-reese
    Franklin-delano-roosevelt
    Freight
    French-and-indian-war
    Freshets
    Frigates
    Fruit
    Geology
    George-washington-bridge
    George W Murdock
    George W. Murdock
    Ghost-fleet
    Ghosts
    Gradual-manumission-laws
    Grain Race
    Grain-race
    Grants-tomb
    Great-depression
    Greenport
    Half-moon
    Halleys-comet
    Halloween
    Harlem
    Harlem-river
    Harpers-weekly
    Haverstraw
    Hay
    Hay-barge
    Henry-gourdine
    Henry-livingston-jr
    Henry-tucker
    Historic News
    History-of-medicine
    Hoboken
    Holidays
    Holland-tunnel
    Homer-ramsdell-transportation-company
    Hospital-ship
    House-boats
    Hudson
    Hudson-athens-lighthouse
    Hudson-highlands
    Hudson River
    Hudson River Commercial Fishermen
    Hudson River Commercial Fishing
    Hudson River Day Line
    Hudson River Docks
    Hudson Riverescape
    Hudson River Fishermen's Association
    Hudson River Lighthouses
    Hudson River Night Boats
    Hudson River Reserve Fleet
    Hudson River Revitalization
    Hudson Riverscape
    Hudson River School Paintings
    Hudson River Sloop
    Hudson River Steamboat
    Hudson River Steamboats
    Hudson River Steam Yachts
    Hudson River Travel
    Hungarians
    Hyde Park
    Ice
    Ice Age
    Ice Barge
    Ice Barges
    Ice Boats
    Ice Breaker
    Ice Breaking
    Ice Fishing
    Ice Golfing
    Ice Harvesting
    Ice Houses
    Ice Skating
    Immigration
    Indian-point
    Indigenous
    Instruments
    Iona-island
    Iron Shipbuilding
    Island-dock
    Italians
    James-murdock
    Jay-ungar-molly-mason
    Jeffreys-hook-lighthouse
    Jim-malene
    John-a-roosevelt
    John-b-jervis
    Jones-point
    Juneteenth
    Just For Kids
    Kate Walker
    Ketch
    Kidnapping
    Kingston
    Kingston Point Park
    Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge
    Labor
    Labor Day
    Lady-bird-johnson
    Lecture
    Lenape History
    Life Ring
    Lighthouse
    Lighthouse Keepers
    Lighthouses
    Lilacs
    Lincoln Tunnel
    Livestock
    Long Dock Park
    Long Island Sound Steamers
    Lumber Barge
    Malden
    Manumission
    Marine Academies
    Marine Art
    Mariner's Mirror
    Marine Salvage
    Marvel Shipyard
    Matton Shipyard
    Media Monday
    Memorial Day
    Merritt-Chapman & Scott
    Merrygoround
    Mid-Hudson Bridge
    Milk
    MLK Day
    Model Boat
    Motor Boats
    Mountain-houses
    Muddy Paddle Able Seaman
    Muddy Paddle Bateau
    Muddy Paddle On The Erie Canal
    Muddy Paddle's Excellent Adventure
    Music Monday
    Nantucket
    National Maritime Day
    Native American
    New Baltimore
    Newburgh
    Newburgh Beacon Ferry
    Newburgh-Beacon Ferry
    New Jersey
    New Rochelle
    New Year's Eve
    New York
    New York City
    New York Harbor
    New York State
    New York State Barge Canal
    New York State Department Of Environmental Conservation
    Nightboat
    Nightboats
    North River Steamboat
    NY
    Nyack
    Ocean Liners
    Oil Crisis
    On The River
    Operation Sail
    Oral History
    Outboard Motor
    Packet Boats
    Palisades
    Paper Mills
    Parks
    Passenger Boats
    Passenger Steamboats
    Paul Robeson
    PCB Cleanup
    Peekskill
    Peekskill Riots
    People's Evening Line
    People's Line
    Peter Tucker
    Pete Seeger
    Philadelphia
    Photo Contest
    Piermont
    Piermont Pier
    Pilot Log
    Pleasure Barge
    Pleasure Groves
    Podcast
    Poetry
    Pollution
    Port Ewen
    Poughkeepsie
    Poughkeepsie Regatta
    Poughkeepsie Transportation Company
    Poultry
    Produce
    P. T. Barnum
    Race Tracks
    Railroad
    Railroad Travel
    Ray Ruge
    Real Estate
    Rescues
    Revolutionary War
    Rhinecliff
    Riverkeeper
    RiverWise
    RMS Titanic
    Robbins Reef Lighthouse
    Robert Boyle
    Robert Fulton
    Rockland Lake
    Rockland Lake Lighthouse
    Romer & Tremper Line
    Rondout
    Rondout Creek
    Rondout Lighthouse
    Rondout Suspension Bridge
    Rosendale Cement
    Rowing
    Safety Barge
    Sail
    Sail Freight
    Sail Freighter
    Sail Freighter Friday
    Sailing
    Sailing Vessel Biographies
    Samuel Ward Stanton
    Saugerties
    Saugerties And New York Steamboat Company
    Saugerties Evening Line
    Saugerties Lighthouse
    Saugerties Steamboat Company
    Scenic Hudson
    Schooner
    Schooner Vanda
    Schooner Wyoming
    Schuyler Steam Tow Boat Line
    Scow
    Sea Shanty
    Shad Fishing
    Shandakan
    Sheet Music
    Shipbuilder Thomas Collyer
    Shipbuilding
    Shipping
    Shipwrecks
    Shipyard
    Silent Film
    Sing Sing Prison
    Skiing
    Skillypot
    Slavery
    Slaves
    Slavic
    Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse
    Sleightsburgh
    Sloops
    Small Steamboats
    Snow
    Snowshoeing
    Solar Boat
    Souvenir
    Spalding's Winter Sports (1917)
    Sports
    Stagecoaches
    Statue Of Liberty
    Steamboat Bill
    Steamboat Biographies
    Steamboat Clermont
    Steamboat Crew
    Steamboat General Slocum
    Steamboat Hendrick Hudson
    Steamboat Mary Powell
    Steamboat Onteora
    Steamboat Rensselaer
    Steamboats
    Steamboat Santa Claus
    Steamboat Swallow
    Steamboat Thomas Cornell
    Steamboat Ulster
    Steamboat Whistles
    Steam Derrick
    Steam Engine
    Steamer Albany
    Steamer Alexander Hamilton
    Steamer Benjamin B. Odell
    Steamer Berkshire
    Steamer Chauncey Vibbard
    Steamer City Of Kingston
    Steamer City Of Troy
    Steamer-concord
    Steamer Constitution
    Steamer Crystal Stream
    Steamer C.W. Morse
    Steamer Hendrick Hudson
    Steamer Homer Ramsdell
    Steamer Iron Witch
    Steamer Isaac Newton
    Steamer Jacob H. Tremper
    Steamer James W. Baldwin
    Steamer Mary Powell
    Steamer Naugatuck
    Steamer Onteora
    Steamer-plymouth
    Steamer Point Comfort
    Steamer Poughkeepsie
    Steamer River Queen
    Steamer Saratoga
    Steamer "Sleepy Hollow"
    Steamer State Of New York
    Steamer Sunnyside
    Steamer "Sunnyside"
    Steamer Thomas Collyer
    Steamer Washington Irving
    Steamer "Water Witch"
    Stony Point Lighthouse
    Storm King
    Strikes
    Sturgeon
    Stuyvesant Lighthouse
    Submarine
    Sunday News
    Sunflower Dock
    Tappan Zee
    Tappan Zee Bridge
    Tarrytown
    Thomas Cornell Steamboat Company
    Tivoli
    Toboggan
    Tourism
    Towboat A. B. Valentine
    Towboats
    Travel
    Tug Bear
    Tugboat Osceola
    Tugboats
    Tugboat Thomas E. Moran
    Tug Cornell
    Tug Cornell No. 20
    Tug Cornell No. 21
    Tug Cornell No. 41
    Tug Edwin Terry
    Tug Eli B. Conine
    Tug George W. Washburn
    Tug Hercules
    Tug J.G. Rose
    Tug John D. Schoonmaker
    Tug Jumbo
    Tug Lion
    Tug Osceola
    Tug Perseverance
    Tug Peter Callanan
    Tug Pocahontas
    Tug R.G. Townsend
    Tug Rob
    Tug S.L. Crosby
    Tug William S. Earl
    Ulster Park
    U.S. Coast Guard
    U.S. Lighthouse Board
    US Merchant Marine
    Valentine's Day
    Van Wie's Point
    Washington State
    Water
    Weather
    Westchester County
    West Point
    Whaling
    Wharf
    Wildlife
    Winter
    Winter Festivals
    Winter Sports
    Women
    Women Lighthouse Keepers
    Women's History
    Women's History Month
    Women's Sports
    Wooden Ships
    Wood Pulp
    World War I
    World War II
    Yellow Fever

    RSS Feed

Hudson River Maritime Museum
50 Rondout Landing
Kingston, NY 12401

​845-338-0071
fax: 845-338-0583
info@hrmm.org

​The Hudson River Maritime Museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the maritime history of the Hudson River, its tributaries, and related industries. ​

Members Matter!

Become a member and receive benefits like unlimited free museum admission, discounts on classes, programs, and in the museum store, plus invitations to members-only events.
Join Us!

Support Education

The Hudson River Maritime Museum receives no federal, state, or municipal funding except through competitive, project-based grants. Your donation helps support our mission of education and preservation.
Donate Today
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
    • About
    • Board >
      • Join Our Board
    • News
    • Newsletter
    • Work With Us
  • Contact Us
  • Join Our Mailing List
  • Visit
    • Hours And Directions
    • Parking
    • Museum Store >
      • Museum Online Store
    • Docking
    • Book A Charter
    • Rondout Lighthouse
    • Facility Rentals
    • Area Attractions
  • Museum
    • Lighthouse Film
    • RiverWise >
      • Documentary Films
    • Museum at Home
    • Exhibits >
      • New Age of Sail
      • Warning Signs
      • Mary Powell
      • Rescuing the River
      • Online Exhibits
      • Walking Tours
    • Lecture Series
    • Speaking Engagements
    • School Programs
  • Boat Tours
    • All Boat Tours
    • Meet Solaris
    • Lighthouse Tours
    • History Tours
    • Tasting History
    • Special Guest Tours
    • Ecology Tours
    • Evening Cruises
    • Private Charters >
      • Visiting Vessels >
        • Maiden
        • Eleanor
        • John J Harvey
        • Kalmar Nyckel
        • Impossible Dream
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Lecture Series
    • Pilot Gala
    • Celebration of Woodworking >
      • Kingston Boat Builders Challenge
      • Sponsor
    • RiverWise
    • Riverport Women's Sailing Conference
    • NE Grain Race
    • Sail Freight Conference
  • Boat School
    • Wooden Boat, Sailing, & Rowing Blog
    • Youth Classes
    • Adult Classes
    • Instructors
    • Maritime Training
    • RWBS Library
    • Restoration
  • Sailing
    • Sailing School
    • Adult Sailing
    • Youth Sailing Program
    • Student Resources
    • Sea Scouts
    • Sailing Instructors
  • Rowing
    • Learn to Row
    • Rowing Instructors
  • Research
    • Research Requests
    • Research Library Catalog
    • Collections >
      • Digital Collections
    • History Blog
    • RiverWise
    • Submerged Resources Project
    • Pilot Log
    • Hudson River History >
      • Henry Hudson
      • The Hudson River
      • Sloops of the Hudson River
      • Robert Fulton
      • Hudson River Steamboats
      • New York Canals
  • Support
    • Member Login
    • Become A Member
    • Donate
    • Memorial Donation
    • Donate Items
    • Artifact Donations
    • Wish List
    • Boat Donations
    • Planned Giving
    • Volunteer
    • Museum Store
    • Library Membership
    • Business Supporters
    • Green Museum
    • Our Sponsors