Story from a "Boat Kid"- A Tugboat Girlhood

Editor's Note:  A bumboat is a small boat used to ferry supplies to larger boats off shore. As Mrs. Wilson relates, bumboats acted as small stores as they travelled alongside the long tows going down the Hudson River and provided goodies like ice cream. Once the long tows got underway, they didn't stop until the final destination was reached.

Towing steamer "A.B. Valentine" towing with helper tug at tow and bumboat on the left side of the photo. Donald C. Ringwald collection, Hudson River Maritime Museum

1987 conversation with Pearl Kilmer Wilson and family - her youth on Erie Canal and Hudson River tugboats
Pearl Kilmer Wilson:  Was on the canal (referring to her father William). He was a captain and he run these boats for the Dunbar Association in Tonawanda, he was on the canal 5 or 6 years.

Oh, yes, I went to New York. I went to school down there, but not when Daddy was on the boat but then my grandfather went down one year and he got a lovely job down there; and he was captain of New York Central Barge and we stayed right in New York. Our home port was 6th Pier, New York. The Piers where you tied were all numbered and number 6 was our home.

You know how I went to school? They come and got me every morning on a tug. The tug is the one that draws the other boats around the harbor. When you went to school the other kids in New York they called us the Boat Kids. The Boat Kids, but we went. Then, when it was time, there was a teacher walked us down to the Pier and the boat would be there waiting to take us back home.

And they have an aquarium down there where they had great big vats of fish in them. They have one there and there was one on a wall there half as big as this house, had a whale in it. Live, they're live fish in these tanks.

When they got to Cohoes, that's this side of Albany, there were 16 locks and every lock you couldn't steer your own boat thru there, you had to have an expert to take the boats thru those 16 locks. They'd go in like this and then when you come out you were on a different level. When you got to the end, you know where you was? In the Hudson River. There would be 20, 30 boats or so, all tied up waiting for the tow. 

And then the Red Star, that was one of the biggest boats there was, they even go across the ocean and they'd come and they'd tied them together themselves with a hawser, a big rope is called a hawser, and that's what they tied it together with; and that's what you went down the Hudson with. And when you got about half way down the Hudson there would be a bum boat come out, and he'd have ice cream and he'd have milk and he'd have bread and he'd have fish. Oh, I never ate so many fish, and I loved them. It was beautiful, they'd be fresh caught in a tub of ice; and everybody bought from the bum boat when they come out. They'd come out and they'd be 3 or 4 days supplying that big tall boat. 
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​And it was beautiful going down along the Hudson River in the night, you know the big Red Star, it was bigger than this house, Oh yes, two of them. It had a flashlight a revolving light, he'd do that up along the side and it's woodsy down through there, and oh was it beautiful. They had their horses in the boats too, they were in the bow in the stable and that's what they done, was eat and take care of their horses. A lot of them didn't go to bed at night, they'd sit out and see that beautiful scenery. It was just beautiful going in the tow, beautiful. I've been a lot of places in my life.

Storyteller Pearl Kilmer Wilson. Photo provided by Mrs. Wilson's family.

Author

Pearl Kilmer Wilson (1894-1993) had the distinct honor of being called a "boat kid" by city students while living at Pier 6 with her grandfather George Kilmer (1841-1911).  Attending school was no easy feat, as it required a tug to pick her up in the harbor and transport her to another dock where a teacher awaited her arrival to be escorted to class.  Pearl's excitement is palpable as she describes seeing her first aquarium and what it was like being towed by a tug down the Hudson. 
 
As an adult, Pearl raised a family with her husband Oliver B Wilson (1891-1970) at Port Byron, NY.  In 1932, she graduated as a practical nurse from the Woman's Educational and Industrial Union at Auburn, NY.  She provided in home private nursing care overnight while her husband Oliver worked the day shift as a section foreman for the NY Central Railroad; a life-style ahead of their era. 
 
At the age of 62, Pearl was homebound from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.  Her love of reading enabled her to "travel the world in a book" using a government program called "Mail It" that provided special postage rates for the elderly and physically impaired.  In 1985, she campaigned to save the "Mail-It" program from budget cuts so she and others like her could continue reading.
 
Pearl had a deep respect for education and was very giving to her family.  Canal work was hard on the feet, which undoubtably contributed to her quirky fascination over footwear.  She often said that you could tell allot about a person by how they took care of their shoes.
 
Her story was captured by her granddaughter Donna Roe in 1987, at which time Pearl was 93 years young.  Although eighty years had passed, her keen memories leaves the listener longing to hear more.  Donna's sister, Dawn provided the digital editing to bring Pearl's story back to life. - Dawn Roe

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