HUDSON RIVER MARITIME MUSEUM
  • Visit
    • About
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Guided Tours
    • Events Calendar
    • Rondout Lighthouse
    • Docking
    • Visiting Vessels
  • Learn
    • Lecture Series
    • Youth Programs
    • School Programs
    • Exhibits on View >
      • Working Waterfronts
      • New Age of Sail
      • Warning Signs
      • Mary Powell
      • Rescuing the River
    • Online Exhibits
    • Speaking Engagements
  • Solaris Cruises
    • Cruise Schedule
    • Meet Our Boat
    • Book A Charter
  • Wooden Boat School
    • Boat School
    • Youth Classes
    • Adult Classes
    • Boat Building Classes
    • Boats For Sale
  • Sailing
    • Sailing School
    • Adult Sailing
    • Youth Sailing
    • Riverport Women's Sailing Conference
    • Sea Scouts
  • Join & Support
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Volunteer
    • Ways to Give
    • Our Supporters
  • Online Store

History Blog

Turning Around in Rondout Creek

8/4/2021

2 Comments

 
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 volunteer Carl Mayer. See more of Captain Benson’s articles here. This article was originally published May 7, 1972.
Picture
Cornell Steamboat Company Steamer "City of Kingston" turning in Rondout Creek near the tip of Island Dock (right). Donald C. Ringwald Collection, Hudson River Maritime Museum.
Within a few years after the introduction of steamboating on the Hudson River, Rondout Creek soon developed into the leading port between New York and Albany. This was due principally to the fact that it was the eastern terminus of the D. & H. Canal. Shipments of Ulster County blue stone. Rosendale cement, lime, the concentration of  brickyards along the river north of Kingston, and the natural ice industry also all played major parts in the growth of Rondout harbor. As activity along the creek grew, so did the size of the steamboats serving Rondout.

Any steamboat serving Rondout, obviously had to be able to turn around in the creek. The width of the creek, as a result, had some bearing on the design of the steamboat, particularly its length. I suppose this factor also had a direct bearing on the location of the steamboat docks as well as the early growth of Rondout itself. The creek is at its navigable widest just south of where the Freeman Building is now located and this was where the steamboat wharves and docks were located — between the foot of Broadway east to the foot of Hasbrouck Avenue.
 
Steamboats in regular service out of Rondout almost always turned around as soon as they entered the creek, prior to the unloading of passengers and freight. This fact is borne out by old time photographs of steamers berthed at Rondout. Of the many photographs have seen, all but one show the steamboats facing downstream. The sole exception is a photo of the “Mary Powell”, and in this one photograph only she lies head up.  
Picture
Steamboat "Mary Powell" docked on the north side of Rondout Creek, at Ponckhockie, bow facing east, toward the Hudson. Al Marquart Collection, Hudson River Maritime Museum.
Rondout’s Largest
For years, the largest steamboat sailing out of Rondout Creek was the “Thomas Cornell,” built in 1863 and 310 feet long. Other larger steamboats out of Rondout were the famous “Mary Powell” at 288 feet, the “James W. Baldwin” at 275, and the “Benjamin B. Odell” at 264. The longest one of all to sail regularly out of Rondout was the Day Liner “Albany,” 326 feet long, which replaced the “Mary Powell” on the Rondout to New York run during the season of 1914 through 1917. I, have been told the “Albany,” on occasion, used to use the steam yacht “C. A. Schults” — that once ran between Rondout and Eddyville — to help pull her bow around. All of the, others turned unassisted.
 
For many years, Ben Johnston owned a drug store on East Strand. Johnston told me when the “Benjamin B. Odell” turned around in the creek, at times the vibrations set up by her turning propeller would shake bottles off the shelves in his drug store. This was due to the fact that all the land along the Strand was filled-in land.
Picture
Steamer "Benjamin B. Odell" on her first voyage, 1911. Photo by Ralph P. Young, Marlborough, NY. Neil Keyser Collection, Hudson River Maritime Museum.
​It is my understanding that the area all along the Strand was once a dandy beach — and the old sloop and schooner captains would beach, or strand, their vessels on this beach at high tide.  Then, when the tide went out, they would make bottom repairs or caulk under-water leaking seams on their boats exposed by the drop in tide.  When the tide came back in, they would float their sloops and schooners.  I have been told this act of stranding their vessels on this beach is what gave the Strand its name when the area was filled in and the beach was developed into a street.
Picture
Steamer "Benjamin B. Odell" docked at Rondout, NY, 1911. Steamer "Mary Powell" in background. Saulpaugh Collection, Hudson River Maritime Museum.
An old boatman also once told me about an incident that took place when the “Benjamin B. Odell” was turning around off her Rondout wharf. Normally, she would come along-side the dock, can her bow out from the dock and put a stern line from the port quarter out to a bollard on the dock. Then, she would go ahead slow and swing around like a slowly moving giant pendulum. Captain George Greenwood would be up on the bridge and the mate down on the main deck in charge of the deckhands tending the lines.
 
On this particular day, just as the “Odell” got broadside in the creek, the stern line snapped. The mate had a police whistle and blew a series of toots on it to let the captain know the line had snapped. Before the mate could get another line out, the “Odell” started to move across the creek.
 
Except for stopping the engine, Captain Greenwood gave no indication anything was wrong. The mate in the excitement didn’t notice the engine had stopped and continued to blow his police whistle. After several series of excited toots and getting no response from the captain, the mate bounded up the companionways at the stern of the “Odell” to the top deck. There, Captain Greenwood stood calmly on the bridge watching the slowly approaching south shore of the creek.
 
Captain Greenwood let the “Odell’s” bow slowly drift right onto the creek’s south shore and the incoming tide carry her stern up stream. When the angle was right, Captain Greenwood backed down, put the “Odell’s” port quarter close to the Rondout dock, got out a spring line, went slowly ahead and brought his steamer alongside the dock so perfectly he wouldn’t have broken an egg had one been between the steamboat and the dock.
 
The old time captains, like Captain Greenwood, were superb ship handlers. They knew exactly what their steamboats would do in any combination of wind and tide. They were true masters of their trade, made the difficult look easy, and rarely got the recognition they deserved. It seems the only time anyone took notice of them was in the rare event something went wrong. And, then, it was often due to something over which they had little control, such as a mechanical failure, rarely an error in judgment.

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. ​


​If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!​
Donate Now
Join Today
2 Comments
Eugenia Seaman Marks
8/11/2021 07:40:20 am

Thank you. I have a photo of my great-grandfather George B. Greenwood's ship the B. B. Odell in the Hudson. Family lore has it that he sailed on Thomas Lipton's America's Cup ship. Later, moving from Brooklyn to Glen Cove, where he ran a ferry service to Manhattan, and later to Mattawan where he ran the Beacon to Newburgh ferry, he was the father of my grandmother, Edith Greenwood Seaman, R.N., St. Luke's, Newburgh, wife of B. F. Seaman, M. D., (Cornell Downstate) of Fishkill. He was also father to Raymond Greenwood and another son, killed in WWI.

Reply
JONATHAN M Kruk link
9/5/2021 02:08:16 pm

The tale of the "ODell's" break away is well told! I especially appreciate the note on how Captain Greenwood "wouldn’t have broken an egg had one been between the steamboat and the dock." Now that's smooth steamin'!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

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

    Archives

    July 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All
    Agriculture
    Amusement Parks
    Barges
    Black History
    Bridges
    Canals
    Captain William O. Benson Articles
    Catskill Mountains
    Environmental History
    Featured Artifact
    Ferries
    Fireboats
    George W. Murdock Articles
    Halloween
    House Boats
    Hudson River Commercial Fishing
    Iceboats
    Ice Harvesting
    Immigration
    Indian Point
    Indigenous Peoples
    Industrial History
    Labor
    Lighthouses
    Marine Art
    Military
    Muddy Paddle Series
    Photo Contest
    Railroad
    RMS Titanic
    Rowing
    Sail
    Sail Freight
    Schooners
    Shipbuilding
    Shipyard
    Sloops
    Sports
    Steamboats
    Towboats And Tugboats
    Whaling
    Winter
    Women's History
    Wrecks And Mishaps

    RSS Feed

GET IN TOUCH
Hudson River Maritime Museum
50 Rondout Landing
Kingston, NY 12401

​845-338-0071
[email protected]
​

Contact Us
​

RFP

Boat Shed Solar System RFP
HVAC System​

GET INVOLVED

Join & Support
​​Donate
Membership
Volunteer

Work with Us
​
RESEARCH
History Blog
Collections
Research Resources

stay connected

Join Our Email List
ABOUT
News
Publications
​Docking
Museum Store
Facility Rentals
Board
​
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Visit
    • About
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Guided Tours
    • Events Calendar
    • Rondout Lighthouse
    • Docking
    • Visiting Vessels
  • Learn
    • Lecture Series
    • Youth Programs
    • School Programs
    • Exhibits on View >
      • Working Waterfronts
      • New Age of Sail
      • Warning Signs
      • Mary Powell
      • Rescuing the River
    • Online Exhibits
    • Speaking Engagements
  • Solaris Cruises
    • Cruise Schedule
    • Meet Our Boat
    • Book A Charter
  • Wooden Boat School
    • Boat School
    • Youth Classes
    • Adult Classes
    • Boat Building Classes
    • Boats For Sale
  • Sailing
    • Sailing School
    • Adult Sailing
    • Youth Sailing
    • Riverport Women's Sailing Conference
    • Sea Scouts
  • Join & Support
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Volunteer
    • Ways to Give
    • Our Supporters
  • Online Store