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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FLIERS OF THE OLD DAYS: FAMOUS RACES ON THE HUDSON RIVER COURSE.
HOW THE SWALLOW BEAT THE ROCHESTER — COMMODORE VANDERBILT'S COSTLY BLUNDER — LIQUOR, OIL, AND FURNITURE USED AS FUEL.
With what emotions of interest some of the old steamboat Captains of the Hudson River would come out of their graves to observe the forthcoming race between those modern marvels of speed, the steam yachts Vamoose and Norwood, can easily be guessed. In the old days, when the Hudson River was practically the only highway between New-York and Canada and the West, it was the scene of many a race as exciting as any that ever occurred on the Mississippi. While the Mississippi Captain would boldly venture to take a short cut across the grass if there had been a heavy dew that morning, the Hudson River Captain would not hesitate to flash through rocky channels, and no risk was too great with victory at stake. 

The first of the great races of bygone days on the Hudson was that between the Swallow and the Rochester. The former was designed by Anthony N. Hoffman, and was the type of all modern boats of her class — that is to say, of all boats that are sharp both fore and aft. She was built in 1836 at the yard of Copes & Burtis, on Wallabout Bay, Williamsburg.

There were at this time two great rival New-York and Albany steamboat organizations on the Hudson, the one known as the Hudson River Steamboat Association, controlled by Mr. Hoffman, and the other, known then as now as the People’s Line, controlled by Daniel Drew. The Hudson River Steamboat Association was composed of several steamboat owners whose interests were combined for mutual profit. The steamers which belonged to the association in the order in which they were built, down to the time of the creation of the famous Swallow, were as follows:
The North America, which had a double engine and one walking-beam on either aide. She was under the command of Capt. Lathrop and was controlled by Robert L. Stevens.

The Albany, also owned by Robert L. Stevens, and commanded by Capt. Joseph E. Jenkins.

The De Witt Clinton, owned by Robert Dunlap of Albany.

The Empire, owned and controlled by Le Grand B. Cannon the elder, Richard P. Hart, and others.

The Troy, owned by the same persons.

The Swallow, designed and owned by Anthony N. Hoffman, and launched in July, 1836. She made a trial trip to Albany, but was found to be a trifle too short. The boat did not “stand up well" in the water, and Copes & Burtis added twenty-five feet to her length.

The Swallow was the first clipper steamboat ever built. When her model was first exhibited at the office of Mr. Hoffman, it aroused no small degree of ridicule, and the general prophecy was to the effect that such a shape would never produce a high rate of speed under any circumstances, no matter what the engine power might be. After the Swallow had been lengthened, it was put on the regular route between New-York and Albany, and was thereafter, and until the appearance of the Rochester, the undisputed crack of the river, and was the wonder of the age, its speed being regarded as phenomenal.

Anthony N. Hoffman, designer of the Swallow, then had his office at 71 Dey Street, corner of Washington Street, this city. Mr. Hoffman was born in 1780, at Upper Red Hook Landing, Tivoli-on-the Hudson, and became connected with Robert Fulton through his association with Edward P. Livingston of Clermont, the neighboring town. Fulton had married Livingston’s daughter, and it was through her that he obtained the money that enabled him to pursue his experiments in applying steam to navigation that finally led him to success and enduring fame. Hoffman became Fulton’s secretary at the request of the latter, and was closely connected with him during his association with the Hudson River Steamboat Association, and assumed the business after his death, which occurred in 1815. Besides the Swallow, Hoffman controlled the Independence, the Constitution, the Constellation, and the Ohio. The Independence was afterward withdrawn from the Hudson, and was run from New-York to Amboy, N. J. It was sunk at Jersey City in 1822. All of these boats had cross-head engines, and the Ohio boasted of two smoke-stacks.

Daniel Drew did not relish the idea of holding second place in Hudson River steamboat navigation. He wanted to own the fastest boat on the river and enjoy the prestige and patronage incident thereto. Wallabout Bay was lined with private shipyards in those days, and thither Drew repaired in search of a firm that could build a faster boat than the Swallow. The old man had plenty of money, and he promised a liberal share of it for a boat that could beat the Swallow. Smith & Dimon undertook the task, and in 1837 the Rochester, built on the Swallow’s lines, was launched and added to the People’s Line, the boats of which started from the foot of Liberty Street. The Captain of the Swallow was Alexander McLean and that of the Rochester was A. P. St. John.

From the appearance of the Rochester, the hot rivalry between it and the Swallow began, and was constantly kept up. They raced regularity. The Swallow always enjoyed a slight advantage by reason of the fact that its pier was one block above that of the Rochester, thus enabling it to get out into the current first. Both boats started for Albany every other day at 5 o'clock P. M. This was before the introduction of coal as fuel, and wood alone was burned. The water front was not so valuable or as thickly settled then as now, and for twenty to thirty blocks along West Street the docks were piled high with cord wood, which was carried on board the steamers without being sawed or split and there piled on deck. The Swallow carried the United States mails, and, as this privilege went to the fastest boat, it furnished another incentive for racing.

The first race, between the Swallow and the Rochester, excited much interest. There was a great crowd at the docks. The pilots of the boats watched each other with the eyes of a hawk to discover the first signal given to the engineers to start, and there were men on deck to yell to the engineers at the least move of the walking beams, so that it was impossible for the Rochester to get out ahead of the Swallow and thus make an advantageous start. The boats started together, amid cheers from the crowd on shore. The regular stops on the way to Albany for both boats were Cornwall, West Point, Newburg, Poughkeepsie, Rhinebeck, Hudson, Coxsackie, and Kinderhook. Up the river went the Swallow and the Rochester side by side, the people running along the shore in a vain effort to keep up, and as soon as the boats got fairly under way, gangs of men appeared on deck and began to saw and cut wood.

But cut as fast as they could, the gang on the Rochester could not feed the furnace enough to send their boat ahead of the Swallow, and they went side by side to Caldwell’s Landing, a distance of forty miles, and at that bend in the river the Swallow slowly took the lead. Then was there excitement on the Rochester, and barrels of sperm oil were rolled out and the oil drawn out into five-gallon cans, which were thrown into the furnace. On board the Swallow the same thing was done, and one five gallon package after another was converted into speed, with the result of voluminous clouds of dense smoke from the funnels, which obscured everything in the wake of the racers.

The Swallow gradually increased her lead, and was two miles in advance at Newburg, having covered the distance, sixty-four miles, in 3 hours and 5 minutes. This was at the rate of over twenty miles per hour, and that time has never been much improved on, even at the end of half a century of progress in fast steam navigation.

A favorite point for observing the races between the Swallow and the Rochester was what was then Burnham’s Mansion House, on the Hudson, near the foot of the present Seventy-fifth Street. There it was no uncommon thing for thousands to congregate. At every landing on the river, also, there were crowds, and often cannon[s] were fired, bells rung, and colored lights sent up. Each boat carried hundreds of passengers on every trip, and many were the distinguished citizens of that generation who thus participated in those exciting races. The steamers were shoved out from the docks in New-York and from every landing with long poles, and as soon as the Swallow got ahead of the Rochester, the crew of the former would wrap the ends of the poles in hemp, soak the hemp in sperm oil, set the oil and hemp on fire, and push the flaming poles out through the windows of the engine room on each side of the boat to “light the way” for the Rochester. Although Daniel Drew was often on the Rochester, Hoffman never went up or down the river on the Swallow, but always patronized the day boat from Upper Red Hook.

His standing orders to the Captain of the Swallow were to keep ahead of the Rochester if he got to Albany with nothing left on board but the boiler and the hull, and to go past the landings if necessary. Frequently the mails were not landed at one or another town along the way until the down trip, but the Government fine of $50 for each failure to land mails was usually remitted. The Rochester never beat the Swallow, which was sold to Daniel Drew in 1844, who withdrew her from the Albany Line. On April 7, 1845, at 8 P. M., while running at full speed, in a blinding snowstorm, the Swallow ran on a rock near Athens. Although the boat sank only to the after gangway, 23 passengers out of 200 lost their lives by jumping into the water. The boat was raised and subsequently turned into a barge, and may still be in existence. The engines were taken to Troy, where they can now be seen dally, operating the machinery of the Burden Iron Works, apparently as good as ever.

On the sale of the Swallow, Mr. Hoffman withdrew from the New-York and Albany service. From that time to this, the People’s Line has run the following steamboats between New York and Albany, naming them in their order: The Westchester, the Emerald, the Rochester, the Utica, the (new) North America, the South America, the Knickerbocker, the Hendrick Hudson, the Isaac Newton, the Dean Richmond, the St. John, and the Drew. Of these, only the Dean Richmond and the Drew are now [1891] in active service.

The next great race on the Hudson was between Le Grand B. Cannon's Empire of the Hudson River Steamboat Association and the South America of Drew's People’s Line, after the introduction of coal for fuel. This occurred in July, 1847. The boats started from their perspective piers at 6:40 A. M., having no passengers on board, nor anything that would add weight to the boats and hamper their speed.

On the signal, both boats moved off together, to the cheers of a vast crowd, and ran side by side twenty-five miles, when the Empire forged ahead, and at Kinderhook, eighty miles above New-York, was nine minutes in advance. As the Empire neared Hudson, Engineer Lighthall approached Capt. Stephen R. Roe and said that it would be necessary to put in there to get coal, the supply having almost run out. Now Roe’s orders were to beat the South America or to burn the inside of the boat up, and to put in at Hudson for coal meant sure defeat, so he told the engineer to go ahead. "We are now in shallow water," he said, "the South America can't pass us, and all we've got to do is to keep the old thing going.”

They kept the old thing going. When the last pound of coal was in the furnace, they threw the fenders in after it, and then they burned the chairs and the tables, then they stripped the boat of all the light woodwork and burned that, too. A search was instituted, and a lot of demijohns and champagne baskets was found and sacrificed, and when the Empire reached the Lydius Street wharf in Albany there was literally nothing of her left, but the hull and solid woodwork. The race was so close that, as the Empire turned into her pier, the South America was abreast of the bulkhead. One of those on board the Empire visited the South America and found not a pound of coal in the bunkers or a chair or settee in the cabin. The Captain of the South America was L. W. Brainerd.

The third and last of the great ante-bellum races was that between the C. Vanderbilt and the Oregon, in July, 1860. The C. Vanderbilt was owned by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and the Oregon by George Law, father of the present Sixth and Eighth Avenue surface railroad magnate. The stake was $10,000. The start was from a stakeboat off the Battery, and the course was to and around a stakeboat off Sing Sing and return. No passengers or guests were allowed on either boat. The umpire on board the C. Vanderbilt was George Law and the umpire on the Oregon was Capt. Jacob H. Vanderbilt of Staten Island, brother of the Commodore. The Commodore was in the pilot house of the C. Vanderbilt from start to finish, and thus lost his $10,000, as the sequel will tell.

The start was made at 10 A. M., and the C. Vanderbilt got the lead at the outset, and kept it until the stakeboat off Sing Sing was reached. In turning the stakeboat the Commodore, in a fit of excitement and fancying that the boat was not swinging around fast enough, pulled what he thought was the signal for the engineer to increase speed. But he pulled the wrong bell, and, to his horror and to the rage of the pilot, the boat stopped, and the Oregon gracefully swung around and into the lead. The Commodore could swear fluently on all occasions, but the volubility of his profanity on that occasion beat his record.

The C. Vanderbilt was built in 1859 by Sneden at the foot of Tenth Street, East River. The Oregon afterward ran on the Stonington Line through Long Island Sound, and was impaled on a rook at Hell Gate at 2:30 o’clock one morning. [editor's note: around 3:30 and 3:45 a.m., April 18, 1846.] No lives were lost. The boat was got off the rock, but so many heavy keelsons were required in strengthening the frame that the boat never afterward developed great speed.

An appalling casualty marked one of the old-time races on the Hudson. This was the race between the Henry Clay and the Armenia, both boats of the smaller class, in 1850. The Armenia belonged to the People's Line, but is now one of the fleet of the Day Line, which consists of the New-York, the Albany, the C. Vibbard, and the Armenia. Of these, only the New-York and the Albany are in active service. The Henry Clay and the Armenia were racing from Albany, with a full complement of passengers and freight, and the Henry Clay was several miles in advance, when it took fire near the boiler. The boat was headed for the east shore of the river and was beached two miles below Sing Sing at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The passengers congregated aft, but many of them were driven into the water by the flames, which were swept backward by the wind, and about fifty persons were either burned to death or drowned. Among the lost was Stephen Allen, a prominent citizen of New-York and one of the Croton Aqueduct Commissioners. The Armenia was too far in the rear to render assistance.

The opening of the New-York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1851 completed the demoralization of the steamboat traffic on the Hudson, begun by the sale of the Swallow and the retirement of Mr. Hoffman. The decline of this branch of travel and transportation is shown by the great decrease in the number of Albany steam boats.

The Dean Richmond sank off Rondout in 1868. Several months and elaborate efforts were required to raise the boat, and this and the repairs cost over $100,000. The St. John was burned at the foot of Canal Street several years ago.

Of the modern Hudson River steamboats, the fastest are said to be the Mary Powell and the New-York. There are many who consider the New-York to be faster than the Mary Powell, but the two boats have never raced. Indeed, although the Mary Powell has long held the name of being the swiftest steamboat afloat — has enjoyed the reputation, indeed, since 1862 — it is asserted by steamboat men that she has never been in an actual race with another steamboat in her long career. In connection with some of the tales of high speed by the Mary Powell and other boats, it should not be forgotten that the tide in the Hudson, in places, runs at the rate of nine miles an hour.

The Utica, one of the old-time racers of the People’s Line, figured incidentally in 1840 in one of the biggest thefts on record. At that time there was no Adams Express, and the business of that kind was controlled by Pomeroy & Co., which firm had its head offices in Wall Street. The firm used black trunks for the transportation of its valuables, and the black trunk was the well-known sign of the business. Models of it were nailed to the tops of wooden posts all over town and all over the country. Most of the money passing between the bank of New-York and those of the West was forwarded by Pomeroy & Co.

In the year in question the Utica reached her pier from Albany at 4:30 o'clock one Monday with a black trunk for Pomeroy & Co., containing $600,000 in gold and notes. On the arrival of the steamer at the dock, a man went on board with a push cart and calmly walked off with the black trunk, which was in front of the Captain's office. When the agent for Pomeroy & Co. went for the trunk at 7 A. M., it was gone, and the whole city was in a hubbub in a few hours. There was no trace of the thief, as no one had paid any attention to him.

A man named Banks, proprietor of Rathbun's Hotel, Buffalo, and Philo N. Rust, proprietor of the Syracuse House, Syracuse, N. Y., and several others, all friends, came to town on the Utica, and the party bought a two-thousand-five-hundred-dollar team of horses, and spent money freely for champagne, and literally ‘‘painted things red.” James Watson Webb, then editor of the New-York Courier and Enquirer, received information that Banks and his friends had stolen the trunk, and he published a long story accusing them of the crime. The information was furnished by a clairvoyant, a woman who knew Rust. They were put under police surveillance for a long time, but were not arrested.

One day a man took a five-hundred-dollar note of the old Merchants’ Bank into that bank for payment, and Teller Felter at once recognized the note by a private mark as one of those in the missing black trunk. The man was detained, and he confessed to getting the note from a man in Baxter Street. This person, who proved to have been the man with the push cart, was arrested forthwith, on the very eve of his departure for the West, and the trunk was recovered, together with all of the $600,000, except $1,500, which had been invested by the thief in Western land warrants at $1.25 per acre. He was convicted and sent to prison. The thief did not know what was in the trunk when he took it.

1832-03-17 Evening Post (NY);
[Editor's Note: There were two lighthouses near Stuyvesant: The northern one, which this article deals with, about 1.5 miles north of Stuyvesant Landing on the east side of the river, and a southern one, on the northern tip of the island on the west side of the river, opposite Stuyvesant Landing.]
To the Editor of the Sentinel --
Sir, — I am about to record one of the most afflicting and singular providences I ever witnessed. The Hudson river had been rising for more than 24 hours, when the ice began to give way. It was thought that the light-house standing about one mile above the landing, was in danger of being injured by the large bodies of ice which were floating down the river. About two o’clock to-day, two gentlemen [one named Charles M. Beecher, the other's name unfortunately unknown], with great difficulty, made the light house in a small boat, as it was now standing in and entirely surrounded by water. They advised Mr. Witbeck, the occupant of the house, to leave it, together with his family, immediately. They accordingly made preparations to do so, by removing their furniture into the upper story, and making a comfortable disposition of their cows and other stock. When nearly ready to leave their threatened home, suddenly and with terrible violence the ice came rushing upon the house — they were startled by one awful and tremendous crash, and in less than a minute the whole two story stone edifice was a mingled heap of ruins. The family, consisting of ten persons, with the exception of one, were in the building when it fell. — Four of them disappeared, and were either buried beneath the ruins, or swept off by the impetuous flood. Two daughters of Mr. Witbeck — one aged 15 and the other 13, and two of his grandsons, one 14 and the other 8 months old — were the unfortunate victims of this dire catastrophe. By the timely assistance afforded by the two gentlemen above alluded to, who were near in a boat, six persons out of ten, were saved. The survivors were badly bruised, and on reaching the shore, so chilled and exhausted, that they were unable to walk. They were taken to a house near by, and made as comfortable as circumstances would admit.

I am informed that it is not expected Mrs. Witbeck will recover, and that the recovery of the other members of the family is considered very doubtful. This family is now left in a destitute condition to share the lot of the suffering and of the poor.
Yours, JOHN ALLEY.
 
From the (Coxsackie) Greene Co Advertiser of Wednesday.
Damage by the Ice.—The freshet in the river broke the ice at this place yesterday. In the morning footmen passed over; at 1 o’clock the ice began to move and in three hours it had nearly all disappeared.  At Coeymans they have sustained heavy loss. The store house on the dock of N. Stepens is nearly destroyed, together with a considerable quantity of grain; about one half of the store is carried away, and a schooner was driven into and nearly through the part left standing, where she remains.  Another store house, with a quantity of hay in bundles, was swept off, and two or three vessels sunk.

We have sustained no damage at this place, except that part of the new pier, which is to connect this with the Lower Landing, is carried away.

1832-03-21 Independence Newspaper (Poughkeepsie)
"MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE -- On Tuesday last, about 12 o'clock, M., the ice in the Hudson River at Stuyvesant Landing, began to give way. The river had at that time risen to an unusual height, the water being twelve feet above low-water mark, covering the docks to the depth of four feet, and making an entrance into most of the storehouses on the wharfs. Serious and well-grounded apprehensions were entertained that every building along the margin of the river would be swept away, but happily those fears were not realized, the buildings having sustained only a trifling damage. The ice continued to move about, and apparently in one solid mass several miles in extent. During this interval, a most distressing scene was witnessed at the site of the upper lighthouse, situated a mile and a half above the Landing. This was a stone building, 20 feet by 34, and two stories high, with a mole surrounding it 4 feet in height. The water had risen to the top of the mole before the ice began to move, which rendered the situation of the inmates truly alarming. Soon the immense field of ice above was seen to swing from its moorings, and coming down with irresistible force[,] struck the lighthouse, which in a moment was a heap of ruins.
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There were at the time ten individuals in the building, four of whom, melancholy to relate, were buried under its crumbling walls. Mr. Volkert Whitbeck, the keeper of the lighthouse, his wife, their daughter, Mrs. Van Hoesen, and three other individuals escaped from the falling edifice, barely in time to save their lives. Those who perished were: two daughters of Mr. Whitbeck, aged 15 and 13 years, and a son of Mrs. Van Hoesen, aged 12, and her infant child. All must inevitably have found a premature death, but for the intrepid exertions of Mr. Charles M. Beecher, to whose praiseworthy efforts the rescue of the survivors is mainly attributed. Mr. Beecher put off in a small boat from the shore to relieve Mr. Whitbeck and his family from their perilous situation, but owing to some delay in arranging the furniture &ct., they were not prepared to leave the building until it began to fall -- and then too late for some of the unfortunate inmates. --- Kinderhook Sentinel." 

1832-03-21 Poughkeepsie-Journal
The Kinderhook Sentinel gives the following account of the destruction of the Light-House there:
"The Light House was a stone building, 20 by 34, and two stories high, with a mole surrounding it, four feet in height. The water had risen to the top of the mole before the ice began to move, which rendered the situation of the inmates truly alarming. Soon the immense field of ice above was seen to swing from its moorings and come down with irresistible force, struck the Light House, which in a moment was made a heap of ruins. There were at the time ten Individuals in the building, four of whom. melancholy to relate, were buried under the crumbling walls. Mr. Volkert Witbeck, the keeper of the Light House, his wife, the daughter Mrs. Van Hoesen, and three other individuals, escaped from the falling edifice, barely in time to save their lives. Those who perished, were two daughters of Mr. Witbeck, aged 15 and  13 years, and a son of Mrs. Van Hoesen, aged 14, and her infant child. All must inevitably have found a premature death, but for the intrepid exertions of Mr. Charles M. Beecher, to whose praiseworthy efforts the rescue of the survivors is mainly attributed. Mr. Beecher put off in a small boat from the shore to relieve Mr. Witbeck and his family from their perilous situation, but owing to some delay in arranging the furniture, &c., they were not prepared to leave the building until it began to fall — and then too late for some of the unfortunate intimates [inmates]. 

TERRIBLE DISASTER!!
Steamer BERKSHIRE Burned. Many Lives Lost. Intrepidity of of the Pilot. Incidents of the Conflagration. Full Particulars. (BY OUR OWN REPORTER.)
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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:
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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. 

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. 
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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. 
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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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1878-12-12 Sun (NY) - GREAT DAMAGE BY FLOODS.
Railroad Bridges Swept Away, Passenger Trains Wrecked, Mill Property Destroyed, and Villages Inundated—The Highest Flood Known for Many Years in the Delaware.

Kingston, N. Y., Dec. 11.--The rainstorms of Monday and Tuesday [Dec. 9 and 10, 1878] have terribly affected Ulster County. The heavy mountain snow melted, and the result has been a freshet that has worked frightful damage. Bridges have been swept away on the Wallkill Valley and on the Ulster and Delaware Railroads. The roadbed of the latter is damaged to an extent that cannot be remedied for several days. At 3 o'clock this morning the canal barges on the Rondout broke adrift and went crushing one against the other downstream. Several of them, loaded with coal, were sunk. Nearly all of them had crew aboard, and some of them had entire families. Whether loss of life resulted is yet uncertain. The loss of property along the Rondout Creek will approximate $75,000, $10,000 of which is the value of cement barrelled [sic] and ready for delivery to New York markets. At Saugerties, on the Esopus Creek, the loss is not less than $50,000. Six boats of the steamer MARINA were carried away, and the MARINA left high on the flats. The bulkhead of the dam on the creek was carried away, and much coal, lumber, and wood were lost. From the back country come reports of loss of life. Several wrecked residences have passed down the Esopus. The white lead factory at Glen Erie [sic, Glenerie?] suffered to the extent of $10,000. The loss at Wilbur exceeds $3,000. The mouth of the Rondout was crowded this morning by a confused mass of boats and vessels of every kind, the majority of which were total wrecks.

A rumor was rife this morning that there had been great loss of life at Eddyville, a small village on Rondout Creek, in this county. THE SUN's representative visited that place to investigate. The route was difficult. The wagon wheels were hub deep in mud and water for half the distance. Within three feet of the roadway the current seethed and rushed with a terrible velocity. The creek was fairly crowded with household goods and wrecked buildings from up the stream. Within half a mile of the village the road was washed away. The bridge across the turbulent waters was standing, but the approach to it was cut off by a gulch fifty feet deep. There was but one way to reach Eddyville, and that was by crossing the rushing creek through the débris. It was with difficulty that a boatman was procured willing to risk such  a venture. The streets of Eddyville were still flooded. Not less than twenty houses have been swept away. The guard lock burst last night, and the village has since been at the mercy of the flood. The foundations of every building in the place have been weakened and there is scarcely an outbuilding remaining. The canal stables were flooded, and toward of 100 horses and mules were drowned. One large tenement house was washed from its foundations and carried some distance to the main road, where it is wrecked. The entire place is flooded below the hill. The stables, outhouses, &c. on the “fly" were carried down the creek with the current. The débris is strewn all the way from the lighthouse to Eddyville. The house of Hiram Davis was floated to the upper end of the Island pier, and there lodged, when the furniture drifted away. The barn belonging to Mr. Black was floated to the south dike, with a horse in it. The horse was saved. Stables with pigs, cows, and geese in them went down the creek and were lost. The stores are flooded and the goods damaged. The lumber for Lambert's new ice house was carried away. The steamers MARTIN and EAGLE, of the Newburgh and Albany line, could not enter the creek. After the guard lock broke[,] a boat went over the dam, loaded with upward of 1,000 barrels of cement. The boat parted in the middle, and her cargo went to the bottom. The crew were saved, though one young man is severely bruised. The report of lives lost was unfounded. One boat, however, went down the stream in which was the family of a canal boatman. They are missing. It is possible that they escaped drowning.

Rondout, Dec. 11.—The schooners KATE and MARY and the sloops JAMES GRANT, BEN AIKIN and CHARLES LYNCH, McCausland’s sectional docks. the barges C. R. WORDENDYKE, ScCHUYLER HONESDALE, MARVIN KING, and a large number of canal boats, laden and light, are either piled on the north and south dykes or sunk. The steamers W. B. CRANE, PITTSTON, and A. B. VALENTINE are damaged. The JAMES W. BALDWIN and WILLIAM COOK are uninjured, but cannot leave, owing to the freshet. The extent of the damage is not yet known and cannot be estimated. All the wharves are submerged and everything not secured has floated off.
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Newburgh, Dec. 11.—Some small buildings have been swept away. The tide last night was the highest ever known, the river covering nearly every wharf in this city. The buildings in the lower streets were filled with water, and several serious washouts occurred on the short cut branches of the Erie Railroad. No trains have passed over it since noon yesterday, the trains to and from New York going by way of Newburgh branch. At Cornwall, yesterday, many houses near the river were flooded, and the people rowed over the wharves in boats. One or two small barns were carried away at Highland Falls. Sixty cords of wood floated off the wharf at Fort Montgomery. At Fishkill Landing the Duchess Hat Works were partially inundated. Brundage & Place's storehouse was flooded by the high tide, 300 barrels of lime slaked, and the building narrowly escaped destruction by fire. Loss, $500.
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ALBANY, Dec, 11.—Many cellars and basements on the river front are full of water, and much damage has been done. Among other sufferers are Mr. McCabe, who loses $1,000 worth of lime; Robert Geer, who loses $800 worth of tobacco; Mr. Rork, who had a large amount of lumber swept away; and Messrs. Durant & Elmore, who lose a car load of flour.

1878-12-12 Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY) TORRENTS' TERRORS
Rondout, Dee. 11.—The freshet is the most damaging one in Rondout and Esopus creeks ever known. The schooners KATE, MARY and CANAL, with the sloops JAMES GRANT, BEN AKIN and CHARLES LYNCH, McCausland's sectional docks, the barges C. R. WORDENDIKES, SCHUYLER, HONESDALE, MARVIN, KING OF THE NORTH, and a large number of canal boats laden and light are either piled on the north or south side or sunk. The steamers W. B CRANE, PITTSTON, and A. B. VALENTINE are damaged. Some lives are supposed to be lost on the sunken boats. Tugs cannot assist the vessels on the dikes by reason of the strong current. Six boats and the steamer MARINA were carried away. The MARINA is high on the flats. The bulkhead of the dam on the creek was carried away. Much coal, lumber and wood have been lost. There are fears that there is loss of life on the boats carried out of Saugerties creek. The entire damage in Kingston, Wilbur, Eddyville, Rondout is roughly is estimated at half a million.

​At Eddyville, the water damaged the guard lock on the Delaware and Hudson canal. The water ran over and through it and has flooded what is known as the fly on which there were buildings, five of which are destroyed and many others damaged. One large tenement was washed from the foundations and carried a long distance to the main road, where it is wrecked. The entire place is flooded below the hill. The stables, outhouses, etc., on the fly were carried down the creek with the current. The debris was strewn all the way from the lighthouse to Eddyville. The house of Hiram Davis was floated to the upper end of the island dock and lodged, when the furniture drifted away. The barn of Mr. Black floated to the South Dike with a horse therein. The horse was saved. The stables with pigs, cows and geese therein went down the creek and were lost.  Stores were flooded and goods damaged. The lumber for Lambert’s new ice house was carried away. The steamers MARTIN and EAGLE of the Newburgh and Albany line could not enter the creek. The canal at Eddyville was much damaged.