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

CHAPTER 9

Disasters of River Travel

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” Vanderbilts 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. There is little doubt but that she was racing with the Express and Rochester. The reporter of the hudson Rural Repository who, with characteristic enterprise, was on the spot, in his account of the disaster says:

“On Monday evening, April 7th, the steamboat Swallow, Captain A. H. Squires, was on her passage from Albany to New York, and when opposite this city, in the Athens channel, ran upon a little, rocky island, broke in two, and in a few minutes sank. The alarm was immediately spread in Athens, and a large number of citizens soon rallied to the scene of disaster, and happily succeeded in rescuing many lives. Soon after the steamboats Express and Rochester came down and promptly rendered what assistance was in their power, taking many passengers with them to New York. The Swallow had on board a large number of passengers, but the exact loss of life is at present unknown [the number lost proved to be about fifteen]. The night was exceedingly dark, with a heavy gale, snow and rain, and very cold. Our citizens are yet busy about the wreck.”

The place since the eventful wreck has always been called the Swallow Rocks.

The author’s father, Ira Buckman, purchased the old wreck of the Swallow, hauled the material seven miles inland and from it built a fine two-story house at Valatia, N. Y. It is on the old Albany Post Road, is yet standing in a good state of preservation and is still known as the “Swallow House.”

The Victory sank in 1845. She had always belied her name and was a hoodoo from the first: she was built in 1828 and owned largely in Albany. Her engines were too powerful and she was always meeting with accidents. This same company built and put on their line the DeWitt Clinton which finally became a tow barge, hut the enterprise was never a success and many Albanians lost all they put into the scheme.

The Empire was run into by the schooner Noah Brown in Newburgh Bay, May 18, 1849, and twenty-four lives were lost.

The loss of the Henry Clay on July 28, 1852, was one of the notable and fatal disasters of the river. She had almost reached New York on her way from Albany when she was discovered to be on fire. her captain headed her for the shore at Riverdale and ran her hard aground, but unfortunately most of the passengers were at the stern, which was in deep water and imprisoned by the flames. There was a wild panic, the terror stricken men and women fighting for possession of the life preservers and struggling with one another even after landing in the water. Sixty lives were lost, including a number of well-known New Yorkers, among the number being Miss Hawthorne, a sister of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the calamity cast a gloom over the entire city. The shore of the river at the place of the accident was crowded for days with people seeking to recover the bodies of the dead.

The Reindeer, one of the larger and popular boats, which bore Jenny Lind in triumph to Albany when making her successful trip through the country, met with disaster September 4, 1852. The boilers of the boat burst near Bristol, forty miles below Albany. Six persons were killed and twenty-five others died afterwards of their injuries.

These two accidents, following so closely one after the other, resulted in a public agitation that secured the enactment of the Steamboat Inspection Bill of that year. Though the captain of the Clay and the owners insisted there had been no racing, the passengers claimed there had;—the coroner’s jury found she had been racing all the way down the river with the Armenia and the disaster was without doubt the result of the woodwork catching fire from the overheated boilers.

The New World sank off the Stuyvesant shore on July 4, 1861, on her way from New York to Albany. It was in the morning and daylight and fortunately no lives were lost. She was raised and repaired at New York and was used during the Civil War, then in progress, as a hospital ship, being stationed in the vicinity of West Point. Her engines were placed in a new night boat for the People’s Line, called the St. John.

The Oregon was sunk in collision with the City of Boston, at New York, October 22, 1863, and in June, 1864, the Berkshire burned near Hyde Park with loss of life.

The Isaac Newton, on her up-river trip on the night of December 5, 1863, exploded her starboard boiler opposite Fort Washington Point, after which she caught fire and was completely destroyed. Seventeen persons were scalded, nine of whom died.

The Francis Skiddy, one of the four pipers with as many boilers, built for speed in 1851, came to grief on her down trip November 5, 1864. She hit a rock near Staatsburg while trying to avoid a large tow and proved to be so bad a wreck that she was never put again in service. Her engines were taken out and for the most part placed in the Dean Richmond, which was new in 1865, and they are still doing duty in that boat. Though the Skiddy never fulfilled the expectations of her owners as a speeder, she, for a long period, accomplished what none of the present boats are called upon to do: she made a round trip between Albany and New York every twenty-four hours.

The St. John burst one of her boilers October 29, 1865, a few miles below Albany, and fifteen lives were lost, most of them being passengers. She was repaired and ran for twenty years, one of the most popular boats on the river, finally being destroyed by fire while laid up in winter quarters at the foot of Canal street, New York, in February, 1885.

The St. John rammed and sank the Catskill several years ago off West Sixty-fifth street, New York, and the Onteora not long since ran high and dry in a brickyard above Newburgh, but was hauled off without much damage.

One of the latest serious accidents to befall the river boats was on October 13, 1906, when the Troy Line boat Saratoga ran down the Adirondack near Tivoli.

The Saratoga was so badly injured she dropped one of her boilers in the river and it has never been recovered. The Adirondack had much of her forward work carried away, but continued to run for the balance of the season. Each boat lost a man. The Saratoga ended her career on the river then and there.

The City of Troy was discovered to be on fire after leaving Yonkers on the evening of April 5, 1907. She had aboard about one hundred passengers and a valuable cargo of freight. Captain Brüder and his crew made a desperate effort to subdue the fire which originated in the galley in the hold, but without success, so he effected a landing at the Gould Dock at Ardsley. All the panic-stricken passengers were safely landed, but the entire cargo, including several horses, was lost, as the vessel, after setting fire to the dock, burned to the water’s edge and was a total loss. She was built in 1876, but several times reconstructed. She was two hundred and eighty feet long, thirty-eight feet beam, and her engines were 1,600 horse power.

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