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

CHAPTER 12

Steamboats of Today

The principal steamboat companies operating on the river at present are the People’s Line night boats to Albany, the Day Line to Albany, the Citizens’ Line to Troy, the Catskill Night Line, the Hudson Night Line, the Newburgh Night Line and the Central Hudson Company’s Lines to several of the cities on the river south of Albany.

Passengers on the boats travel in comfort and safety, for the days of steamboat racing are past and the cheap rate competition, which overcrowded the boats, exists no longer. To-day the journey up and down the river is made on modern boats, the passengers entertained with delightful music from stringed orchestras and at night with searchlight exhibitions. These are indeed beautiful, the cultivated hillsides, handsome villas of the wealthy and rugged grandeur of the rocky Highlands being brought out in a series of wonderful pictures as the boats, twinkling with a thousand electric lights of their own, move slowly along the river. It is not only the passengers that enjoy these nightly illuminations of unusual beauty. The dwellers on the river banks know just when to expect them and almost set their clocks, say their prayers and go to bed after the night boat has passed.

Some of the newer boats now in service on the river are the Homer Ramsdell, the Newburgh, the Onteora, the Albany, New York and Hendrick Hudson, of the Day Line, the Adirondack and C. W. Morse, of the Night Line to Albany.

Of these the Hudson and Morse are the newest and are of a type so distinctly in advance of the others, an extended note of them will be of interest.

The Hendrick Hudson is the second steamer of that name that has plied the river. They were probably named Hendrick instead of Henry because of some confusion arising from the English discoverer of the river having come to this country in a Dutch vessel and under the Dutch flag. From whatever cause it arises, it is the fact that half of the time Hudson is referred to as Hendrick and it no doubt is a more picturesque rendering of the name.

The Hendrick Hudson was built on the banks of the Hudson at Newburgh and launched March 31, 1906. She is three hundred and ninety feet long, forty-three feet beam and eighty-two feet over the guards. She draws but eight feet of water. Her hull is of steel divided into seven water-tight compartments, with two collision bulkheads. She has five decks, three of which are for the exclusive use of passengers, of which she can carry five thousand, no space being reserved for freight. The engine is of the three cylinder compound variety of five thousand five hundred horse power with a seven foot stroke. The paddle wheels are twenty-four feet in diameter, of the feathering type, on a shaft twenty-two inches in diameter, of open hearth carbon steel. One of the new features of this boat is the fact that the crank shaft is below the main deck line, made possible by the small diameter of the paddle wheels, but adding greatly to the comfort and convenience of the passengers. No sacrifice of speed has been made by this improvement as the Hudson can make twenty-three miles an hour easily.

The boat is magnificently furnished in hard woods and handsomely decorated. The dining room on the main deck aft and surrounded with large plate glass windows, is finished in mahogany, as are the saloons on the upper decks.

A grand staircase leads to a large observation room on the upper deck, over which is a handsome stained glass dome. In the forward saloon is a suspended band stand and so situated that it is estimated the concerts given by the orchestra, which are a great feature on the boats of this line, can be heard by at least three thousand seated passengers. There are a number of private drawing rooms furnished in Louis XVI, Japanese, French-Empire, Dutch and Colonial styles and a large writing room in polished teakwood. Everywhere throughout the boat arc large plate glass windows, affording passengers an opportunity to view the beautiful scenery of the river. She is steered by steam, has her own electric light equipment and in short an attempt has been made to supply every comfort and convenience that the most exacting passengers could desire.

A new Day Line boat, companion to the Hudson, is about to be laid down on the ways in Marvel’s Yards, at Newburgh, and is to be finished in time for the summer traffic in 1909. She will be named the Robert Fulton. The boat will be 415 feet long, 85 feet beam, 62 feet from her keel to the top of the pilot house. The engines will be 6,500 horse power and the boat will be licensed to carry 6,000 passengers.

The C. W. Morse is one of the longest side wheel steamers afloat. She is four hundred and twenty-seven feet over all, fifty feet six inches beam, but ninety feet over guards. The load draft is but nine feet. The hull is of steel, divided in eight water-tight compartments with collision bulkheads. She has four steel masts. On the lower deck are accommodations for fireman and deckhands and a saloon with berths for passengers, besides room for the boilers and dynamos for supplying two thousand five hundred electric lights all through the boat and the thirty-six inch search light on the pilot house. The kitchens, barrooms and pantries are also on this deck.

The main deck forward is reserved for freight, but aft, the entire room is a handsomely fitted up lobby and magnificently appointed dining room, in richly carved mahogany woodwork and lighted with two hundred and twenty-five electric lights, held in green bronze fixtures. This room will seat three hundred comfortably. The main staircase leads from the lobby to the grand saloon, which is twenty-eight feet high with a domed ceiling in white and gold and surrounded with two galleries having highly ornamented guard rails of mahogany and bronze. Staterooms with brass bedsteads and parlors deluxe with bath rooms and toilets can be entered from the saloon direct or communicating corridors, richly carpeted. There is also a passenger elevator on the boat. In all there are four hundred and fifty of these sleeping apartments furnished in varying degrees of elegance. She is licensed to carry two thousand passengers.

The boat is four stories, or decks, high and the floor of the pilot house is forty feet above water level. She is steered by steam and every movement of the vessel can be directed from the pilot house. The engines, which are of the vertical type, are four thousand five hundred horse power, cylinder eighty-one inches in diameter, twelve foot stroke, and the boilers are four in number and are thirty-three feet long, nine feet six inches in diameter and there are two smokestacks. The paddle wheels are of the feathering type variety, thirty feet in diameter, and the paddle wheel shaft is twenty-four inches in diameter. It was a clever piece of marine engineering to produce so huge a steamer, when the draught of the boat was restricted to nine feet loaded on account of the shallow water near Albany, but the designer appears to have wrestled most successfully with the difficult problem with which he had to contend.

Another type of modern steamboat, differing entirely from those described, is the Asbury Park. She is of the propeller type. Though not designed especially for the Hudson, she leaves daily from the North River side of the city of New York for Sandy Hook and is frequently seen by the travelers on the river. The Sandy Hook route is operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey and is for the special benefit of the patrons of the shore resorts on the Jersey coast. All of the boats of this line, the Monmouth and Sandy Hook, are propellers and very speedy.

The latest addition to the fleet, the Asbury Park, built by the Cramps and put on in 1903, is the fastest on the line. She is three hundred and seven feet long, forty-two feet beam and fifty-one feet over her guards. The hull is steel with six water-tight compartments, and forward and aft there are collision bulkheads. She draws but eleven feet of water on account of the shoals inside the Hook. Her appointments for the accommodation of passengers—she is licensed to carry two thousand one hundred and fifty-nine—are of the most complete character. Her grand saloon, one hundred and ninety-five feet long, is finished in quartered oak, and large plate glass windows afford the traveler most delightful views of the shipping in river and fay. There are nineteen staterooms and four drawing rooms are also provided. She has two engines of the four cylinder, triple type, of six thousand horse power and the boat has developed a speed of twenty and five one-hundredths knots. This means she can make the run to the Atlantic Highlands at Sandy Hook, a distance of eighteen miles, in one hour and five minutes with the regularity of a railroad time-table. Indeed she runs in close connection with railroad trains that carry the passengers from the landing point to Sea Girt, Long Branch, Ocean Grove and other popular resorts.

Two new boats, one for the People’s Line and the other for the Citizen’s Line to be built on the general lines of the Morse, have been contracted for, both of which will be ready for the summer season of 1908. They will have steel hulls, and the larger one of the two, will be four hundred and forty feet long having over five hundred staterooms and accommodations for two thousand passengers. Every convenience will be provided and they are expected to be the most luxurious river craft afloat.

The name of the new People’s Line boat will be the Princeton and the Citizen’s Line new boat will be named the Knickerbocker repeating the name of a popular steamer in the passenger service on the river in 1844—5.

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