Christmas on the Hudson in Times Past

Editor’s Note: The following text is a verbatim transcription of an article featuring stories by Captain William O. Benson (1911-1986). Beginning in 1971, Benson, a retired tugboat captain, reminisced about his 40 years on the Hudson River in a regular column for the Kingston (NY) Freeman’s Sunday Tempo magazine. Captain Benson's articles were compiled and transcribed by HRMM Contributing Scholar Carl Mayer. This article was originally published December 24, 1972. 

Of all the holidays, Christmas is the one that seems to be most closely related to thoughts of home and hearth.  If it is at all possible to do so, almost everyone would like to spend the holiday at home.  Boatmen are no exception. 

Many, many years ago, navigation on the Hudson River would virtually cease when the river would freeze over, generally in mid or late December.  Then, since most of the boats had wooden hulls and the ice would cause damage to the wooden hulls, the river steamboats and tugboats would lay up until the river ice went out in March.  Most of the boatmen would be layed off.  Some who had saved part of their summer earnings looked forward to this period at home, while many others would gain winter employment harvesting the annual crop of ice at the many ice houses along the upper Hudson. 
As time went on, the steamboat companies began to feel the increasing competition from the motor trucks using the new roads being built along the Hudson's shores.  In order to keep their vital freight business, some of the steamboat lines tried to run all winter.  One of these in the late 1920's was the old Central Hudson Line, running to Newburgh, Poughkeepsie and Kingston.

Two in Operation
During the winters of 1927-28 and 1928-29, the Central Hudson Line operated their steamers “Poughkeepsie” and “Newburgh” between Kingston and New York.  Just before Christmas of those two winters, the crews — knowing they would have to work on Christmas — decorated their boats with Christmas trees.  On each vessel a Christmas tree was installed on the bow, another on the flag staff in back of the pilot house, and a third one on the after mast. 

As they came in or left Rondout Creek during the Christmas season, how nice they looked! This was especially so at dusk when their red and green side lights and white lights around the cabins and decks would sparkle in the clear winter air. 

I particularly remember the old “Newburgh” on one occasion.  It was at the twilight hour and a light snow was falling.  She had on her after deck a sky light with colored glass over the passenger cabin.  The lights from her cabin, through the colored glass of the sky light, showed up very bright through the falling snow.  This, together with her port and starboard running lights, white deck lights and the snow settling on her Christmas trees, made for a near perfect Christmas card setting.  Somehow, Rondout Creek never looked nicer.  All that now belongs to the long, long ago. 

Her Last Trip
During the same period, Christmas Day 1928, the tugboat “J. C. Hartt” of the Cornell Steamboat Company was bound north with a tow for Clinton Point through drift ice and a snow storm.  It was her last trip of the season and after landing her tow, she was to proceed on to Rondout and lay up for the winter. 

On another Christmas several years later, I was talking to Barney McGooy, the pilot of the “Hartt” on the long ago Christmas day. 

He said that when they were opposite Buttermilk Falls, south of Highland Falls, they sat down to eat their Christmas dinner. 

Barney said to me, “What do you suppose we had for Christmas dinner?” I answered, “Turkey." “No,” he said, “we had stew!”

Wanted Regular Dinner
Barney said to the cook, “It’s bad enough we have to work on Christmas.  I think the least you could have done would be to have a regular Christmas dinner.”

The cook, however, said nothing.  The captain also said nothing.  Both the captain and the cook were getting on in years and had been together for many long seasons on the Catskill Evening Line steamers “Walter Brett,” “City of Catskill," “Kaaterskill” and “Onteora." Because of their long association together and having known each other since childhood, I suppose the captain said to himself, “Let it slide, it's Christmas.”
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Today, this is all changed.  There are no more steamboats.  The tugboats all have steel hulls and high powered diesel engines.  Because of the demand for fuel oil and gasoline and since construction projects no longer cease due to cold weather, the tugs run all winter long pushing the oil and cement barges through the ice.  The one unchanging factor is the boatman’s desire to be home for Christmas.  Most companies recognize this and rarely are boats in operation on the Holy Days.  

Author

Captain William Odell Benson was a life-long resident of Sleightsburgh, N.Y., where he was born on March 17, 1911, the son of the late Albert and Ida Olson Benson. He served as captain of Callanan Company tugs including Peter Callanan, and Callanan No. 1 and was an early member of the Hudson River Maritime Museum. He retained, and shared, lifelong memories of incidents and anecdotes along the Hudson River. ​

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