Old Steamboat Days on The Hudson River
By: David Lear Buckman, The Grafton Press, 1907

CHAPTER 4

Rival Lines on the River

Not only was the monopoly to steam navigation of the river attacked and the State law defied, a law which was plainly unconstitutional, but the validity of Fulton’s patents was even questioned. Expensive litigation followed and the battle between the Fulton and opposing interests went on with varying success for several years. Chancellor Livingston, who had much influence at Albany, secured supplementary legislative enactments, but the monopoly to the river was never long maintained.

One of the earliest rivals for the passenger trade was a boat built by Fulton for service on Long Island Sound between New York and New Haven, called the Fulton. The following announcement of the reason of her appearance on the Hudson River has a suggestive reference to the feeling of insecurity that possessed the public as to the navigation of the Sound following the second war with Great Britain in 1812:

“The public are respectfully informed that the subscriber has commenced running the steamboat Fulton between the cities of New York and Albany for the accommodation of passengers. The boat was built for the purpose of plying between New York and New Haven, but will be employed on the Hudson River until the cessation of hostilities enables the proprietors to put her on her destined route.

“The Fulton has good accommodations and is a very swift boat. The complement of passengers is limited to 60 and the price of passage is therefore necessarily raised to ten dollars.

“She will start from Albany every Monday morning at 9 o’clock and from New York every Friday evening at the same hour.

“For passage apply on board at Steam Boat dock.

“Albany, May 16, 1814. Elihu F. Bunker.”

With an increase in the number of boats built on other plans than Fulton’s and owned by other interests, there came into existence rival lines competing for the passenger and freight business of the river. From 1830 to 1860 there were lively times among the steamboat men.

The fight over the river monopoly was on in earnest when a young man who had been running a sailboat ferry between Staten Island and New York, began to oppose the Fulton-Livingston interests. The young man was Cornelius Vanderbilt, afterward the “Commodore” and founder of the family of railroad millionaires of that name. His sail-ferryboats had been exchanged for steamboats and he had made considerable money. He entered into the Hudson River competition with the announcement that his service would furnish better boats and lower rates. This was what the people were looking for, and the established lines had to meet the conditions forced upon them.

There was a great strife to secure patrons. The town was placarded with bills more gaudy and enticing than the pictures of a side show at a circus. “Runners for the rival steamboat lines made the waterfront a lively place. A man or a woman with a “carpet bag” became the legitimate. subject of capture for the runner’s “ line. Sometimes the man went by one line and his satchel by another. Every inducement was offered and nervous old ladies who were fearful of bursting boilers, were even assured by these “runners that their steamboats had no boilers. The arts resorted to by the “runners” and the amount of lung power expended would have put to blush the efforts of the “barkers” at the Battery at a later day for the rival steamboat lines running to Coney Island.

The high rates went down to one dollar for the trip, and eventually to ten cents; subsequently in a later competition for passengers, one could go to Albany or Troy without paying any fare, but it is said passengers had to pay well for their meals and sleeping accommodations.

“Commodore” Vanderbilt carried on his competition for Hudson River travel for nearly twenty years. He owned and operated nearly fifty steamboats in that period and would probably have continued in it, had not the discovery of gold in California in 1848—49 induced him to seek what promised to be a more profitable field in Atlantic and Pacific Ocean navigation, by way of the Isthmus of Panama.

There was a great tide of travel and merchandise moving toward California in those days and “Commodore” Vanderbilt was among those to reap the profit. He also established a transatlantic line and made money in that. Having amassed a fortune of many millions he turned his attention to the Hudson River Railroad which he gradually acquired and again began to threaten the interests of the steamboat men, who had adjusted the business among themselves on a more profitable basis after “Commodore” Vanderbilt’s retirement from the competition. For nearly fifty years this remarkable man was actively engaged in building and operating steamboats. He supplemented his experience on the river by building eleven ocean vessels and owning ten others and about the time of his retirement from the field of deep-water navigation gave the use of his best steamship, the Vanderbilt, to the United States, in 1861, as the Civil War was then in progress and the Government was sadly in need of vessels.

There were other periods of rife and bitter competition on the river. Following the opening of the Harlem and the Hudson River Railroads, rates were again cut and one could travel from New York to Albany or Troy by either boat or train for less than it cost to reach midway points on either system.

To meet the competition of the railroad in March, 1850, the Hendrik Hudson and Manhattan announced a fifty-cent rate to New York from Albany, the Buffalo a twenty-five-cent rate and a passage on the Kosciusko could be had for six and one-quarter cents.

Again, about 1860, the rival lines on the river opened a ruinous warfare of rates and one could travel from New York to Albany for a dime or without paying anything.

In 1826 there were sixteen steamboats on the Hudson and the number had increased to about one hundred by 1840, when steamboating reached the height of its glory and usefulness.

Some of the old companies operating at that period were the Union Line, the North River Line, the Connecticut Line, the North River Association Line, Troy Line, 0. & D. Transportation Co. and the Steam Navigation Co., and later the Old Line, People’s Line, Night Line, Eagle Line and the Day Line were the principal companies engaged in river transportation.

Some idea of what was doing in those days may be gathered from the fact that at times no less than seven steamboats left Albany for New York on a single day. The New World, described as a “gigantic specimen of steamboat architecture” when she appeared, held the record for passengers, having taken up the river one thousand, in August, 1857.

The large boats were coining money, even at one dollar per trip. It was estimated that with four hundred and fifty passengers the returns would show for tickets $450, berths and staterooms $320, from freight $393, a total of $1,163 from which $200, the estimated expense of a trip, if deducted, would show a clear profit of $963. It was profit like this that stimulated investment in steamboat enterprises and eventuated in ruinous competition.

There was much traveling, more on account of business than pleasure. There was neither telegraph nor telephone to overcome distances in a second’s time and even the railroads had not yet made any appreciable inroads on the river traffic. Passengers traveled by steamboat, but much of the freight was still handled by sloops. Great industrial trusts had not been formed limiting the supply; the country was prosperous and competition in every line of business activity contributed to make these the good old days recalled by many, who view with concern the many complex problems of the industrial life of the nation that are now pressing for solution.

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