Old Steamboat Days On The Hudson River by David Lear Buckman

Author:David Lear Buckman [Buckman, David Lear]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geschichte
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2019-05-19T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER IX. DISASTERS OF RIVER TRAVEL

ACCIDENTS have attended the navigation of the river. Since the introduction of steam, boats have sunk, burned and been in collision on many occasions. Frequently there was an attendant loss of life. Never, however, has there been such a disaster as that of the burning of the General Slocum, on the East River in broad daylight, June 15, 1904, when nine hundred and fifty-eight lives were lost and one hundred and seventy-five injured, or the more recent catastrophe of the Joy Liner Larchmont, on the Sound off Block Island, February 11, 1907. Then nearly two hundred souls perished in the icy waters, as the result of the collision between the steamer and the schooner Henry Knowlton.

Possibly the nearness of the shores on either side of the river, the more careful supervision of the boats by the operating lines, the watchfulness of the captains or indeed sailor's luck may account for the comparatively small loss that has attended the navigation of the Hudson. From whatever cause the fact arises, it certainly is a matter of satisfaction to note the toll of the dead is comparatively small, when the years and number of passengers transported are taken into consideration.

Still the Hudson is a treacherous river to navigate in a fog and at all times there are shoals and rocks for the pilots to avoid. It requires an expert at the wheel to take a boat through the apparently landlocked turns and reaches at the Highlands. Much has been accomplished in later years by the Federal and State Governments erecting range marks on the shores, building lighthouses on the most dangerous points and deepening the channel by dykes above New Baltimore. Many a boat has gone aground on the bar below Albany and remained a prisoner there for hours, an experience to which the river traveler of to-day is seldom subjected.

The Clermont alone of the three earlier boats on the river, was continued long enough in the service as the North River to receive an honorable discharge by being "broken up." Both the Car of Neptune and the Paragon sank, the latter in 1825.

The General Jackson on a trip from Peekskill to New York exploded her boilers near Grassy Point and several passengers were killed. "Commodore" Vanderbilt's brother Jacob was her captain at the time.

The North America became a wreck when moored to her dock in Albany in the spring of 1839. She was carried down by the breaking up of the ice in the Island Creek. No lives were lost.

The steamboat Swallow, one of the most popular and speedy boats of her time, on her way down the river, in a snow squall, from Albany, on Monday evening, April 7, 1845, met with disaster. She was under command of Captain Squires and was known as a night boat. She left Albany in the evening and reached New York the next morning. When near Athens, which is nearly opposite from the city of Hudson, she struck a rock, took fire, broke in two and rapidly sank.

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