CHAPTER 4
Hudson River Steamboats
Famous Old Steamboats
Interesting steamboats made the Hudson River colorful. The old Norwich ran for more than eighty years, having been built in 1836 by Lawrence & Sneden for the New York & Norwich Steamboat Company, then 160 feet length, 25.3 feet beam and 9 feet depth of hold, with a cross-head engine built by Cunningham & Hall, with cylinder 40 inches diameter by 10 feet stroke. Norwich came to the Hudson in the late '1840's and carried passengers from New York to Rondout for a few years, but for the most part was a towboat owned by the Cornell Towing Company. In the days of the Erie Railroad's Piermont terminal Norwich was chartered each winter to the rail road and fought the ice, keeping the railroad's connection open to New York. Although the hull was rebuilt many times, the original model was retained and the original engine continued in service until Norwich was broken up at Port Ewen in 1923.
Perhaps the oldest steamboat presently in passenger service is Robert A. Snyder, running on the Saugerties Line, once Ansonia, and later Ulster, but so rebuilt, enlarged and altered as to bear but slight resemblance to the Long Island Sound boat of 1848 when originally built to run to Derby, Conn. Robert A. Snyder was rebuilt again in 1920 at Hilderbrand's yard, Rondout, and was then able to pass a stiff governmental inspection. Robert A. Snyder ran with Ida, purchased in Baltimore, 190 feet length, and built at Wilmington in 1881, which succeeded Saugerties, formerly Shenandoah, which burned.
Santa Claus, Norwich, Baltic, General McDonald, George Washington, Metamora, Ontario, John Marshall, James Madison, Victory, Westchester, Highlander, Utica, New York, Columbia, Mohegan, C. Vanderbilt, Niagara, America, Alida, Cayuga, Syracuse, Belle and Connecticut were liners which were cut down, deck houses and staterooms removed, to become towboats. Connecticut on one occasion towed 108 barges up river.
Abraham W. Parsell, a famous steamboat engineer who died in 1923 in his 87th year, knew the Hudson in its glorious days. His was a rich experience and he retained a clear memory of the steamboats which ran within the span of his long life. Mr. Parsell was born at Esopus, April 12, 1836, and began steamboating as a fireman aboard James Madison in 1853. James Madison, Captain Harry Barber, carried one boiler on deck and in 1854 Mr. Parsell made the first experiment of burning fine anthracite screenings, or pea coal, discarded as useless before that time. Major Cornell was offered a canal boat load at $1 a ton and Mr. Parsell undertook to fire this fuel. When James Madison returned to Rondout from the first round trip, pea coal became standard fuel for river towboats and the price advanced.
Engineer Parsell remained on James Madison eight years, except for a short period in 1861, which season he finished in Madison County. He went in Frank Carter, part of 1862, and was assistant engineer of Marshall, becoming chief in 1864 and remaining four years. He was severely scalded in 1867 and was blind for four weeks, but went back to Marshall in 1868, next becoming chief engineer of Hudson, owned by Joseph Cornell. He continued with the Cornell lines sixteen years aboard Mohegan, Norwich, Santa Claus and Emerald.
When Joseph Cornell, the Major's half brother, left the Cornell lines in 1868 to buy the Catskill Line from A. F. Beach, Mr. Parsell went with him, remaining until the ownership changed. The Catskill Line 1n 1868 owned Thomas Powell and four barges. Hudson, formerly Westchester, was added in 1869, and that year Joseph Cornell bought the Coxsackie Line from Captain John Smith. New Champion was acquired from the Hartford-New Haven Line, to run to Catskill, and Mr. Parsell became chief engineer. Cornell and Captain Black bought Sunnyside in 1870 and Mr. Parsell was chief during Sunnyside's service out of Coxsackie and Troy and he was chief engineer of City of Troy and Saratoga.
Joseph Cornell purchased the Middletown Steamboat Company, operating Matawan between Keyport and New York, and Mr. Parsell went along as superintendent engineer. Minnie Cornell, built at Athens in 1879, inherited New Champion's engine and was operated to Coney Island in 1880, but went to the Keyport run when Matawan was sold. Wyoming was added next, running between New York and New Brunswick, and the engine was replaced with one of 44. inches cylinder diameter by 8 feet stroke. After one season Wyoming was broken up at Rondout and a new hull built at Athens, becoming New Brunswick, in which Wyoming's engine was installed. Within a few years the Joseph Cornell fleet had increased to nine steamboats, including Henry E. Bishop, formerly Josephine. Joseph Cornell died in 1899, aged 62 years.
Mr. Parsell went back to the Citizens' Line as chief engineer of City of Troy in 1890, and in 1899 went ashore for four years as superintendent and inspector. He left the line when Morse added it to the Hudson Navigation Company and did not take up work again until 1910, when he became superintendent engineer of the Catskill Evening Line, remaining until 1916.
James Madison's engine, when the boat itself had worn out, was removed at Rondout. When the new towboat, George A. Hoyt, was built, the cylinder, cross-head, link and connecting rod from James Madison were used, while the walking beam came from Mohegan, and only the steam chest and front were new. George A. Hoyt's boiler was from the steamboat Underwriter and the safety valve and escape pipe had been in the old Rip Van Winkle.
Captain John Lyon continued in Hudson River steamboat service to his 89th year, long skipper of the Nyack-Tarrytown ferry Rockland. It was related that he cast off his own lines as deck hand, gave the wheel a turn as captain, started the engine as engineer and collected fares as purser. He began steamboating in Francis Skiddy in 1851, running to Albany, and next went in George Washington, making daily trips between Haverstraw and New York. He was steward of Broadway, a day boat to Yonkers and Dobbs Ferry, owned by Isaac P. Smith, when it blew up in the early '1860's. Captain Lyon became skipper of the ferry Tappan Zee in 1880, remaining until it burned in 1887, being replaced by Rockland. Captain Lyon numbered Admiral Farragut, Horace Greeley, Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt among his friends. He died of pneumonia in February, 1923.
Riverside, a chain ferry connecting Rondout and Sleightsburg, built in 1870, continued until a suspension bridge was built across Rondout Creek in 1922 and held the record for longest active ferry operation. The name Riverside was official in the registry but Skillypot, a corruption of an old Dutch name for tortoise, was the local appellation. A previous Skillypot broke from its moorings, drifted downstream and sank below Port Ewen in the freshet of March, 1870. The machinery was recovered and installed in Riverside, built by Morgan Everson at Sleightsburg.
The two chain ferries were mastered by Captain Delamater, David Relyer, William Sleight, James Devoe, Isaac Sleight, succeeded by his son-in-law, Herbert A. Starkey, who died November, 1903, followed by Albert Norris of Esopus, to 1906, and last by Joseph Hasbrouck of Port Ewen.
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