Sloops of the Hudson Chapter Two

Sloops of the Hudson

An Historical sketch of the Packet and Market
Sloops of the last century, with a record
Of their names; together with personal
Reminiscences of certain
Of the notable North River
Sailing masters.

By William E. Verplanck
And
Moses W. Collyer

Illustrated
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London

The Knickerbocker Press

1908


 This book is available through the public library system. Transcribed by Arlene Goodwin


Part 2

The Sail in Competition with Steam 
Written by Moses W. Collyer

This part is a compilation of my experience and recollections of what I have seen and heard as cabin-boy, master, and owner of Hudson River sloops, schooners, and steam vessels, embracing a period of nearly half a century; beginning in the sixties, first as cabin-boy, then cook, after that, cook and hand before the mast, then as mate, and finally as captain, master, and owner.  It is also a record of old North River sloops and schooners, their names, some of their captains, owners, and builders; the trade they were in, and their home ports.

These vessels have all passed away, as well as most of their masters and owners and builders. There is no work for this class of vessel to-day on the Hudson, where in my younger days there were hundreds owned and employed.

I was born on the banks of the Hudson River in the town of Red Hook. My father, John L. Collyer, was known in the thirties as a North River sloop boatman, having run from upper Red Hook Landing, now called Tivoli, to New York, as a captain and owner of a North River packet sloop, which was engaged in carrying farmers’ produce and passengers to New York, and general merchandise on this return trip.  He was one of a family of eight brothers, who had been brought up in their younger days around the docks at Sing Sing, now called Ossining. My father was the oldest, and his brothers were, William, Stephen, Ferris, Thomas, George, Samuel and Charles S., all of whom, at this time, were connected with the building and running of Hudson River sloops and steamboats.

Thomas Collyer was the leading member of this family as a shipbuilder. He went to work as an apprentice to Captain Moses Stanton and worked in his shipyard four years. He then  went to work for a Mr. Bergh, the father of Henry Bergh of New York City, who was a shipbuilder.  The first sloop that he built was the First Effort* (With the help of his brother William then 14 years old.)  at Sing Sing; then the Katrina Van Tassell, launched in 1838, and which sailed the river until 1883, when she was laid on the beach under the Palisades to die.  The first steamboat he built was the Trojan at West Troy, and from there he went up to Lake Champlain and built steamers.  This was in 1844. Then he went to New York and opened a yard with his brother William, at the foot of 12th Street, East River, New York City.  There he built the steamers  Santa Claus, Kingston, and Niagara.  This partnership was dissolved in 1847, and Thomas Collyer started a yard of his own at the foot of 21st Street, East River, New York City.  Here he built the steamers Armenia, George Law, and Reindeer to run between New York and Albany. He also built the Daniel Drew and the steamer Henry Clay which was built in 1850, and was burned at Riverdale on July 28, 1852, in which seventy passengers perished.  He also built the steamer Thomas Collyer, which was the last boat he built before his death.  This steamer was later furbished up and sold to John H. Starin, and is now called the Sam Sloan, running in the harbor of New York. His records show that he built three sloops, twenty-six barges, four propellers, twelve schooners, three barques, two sailing ships, five steamships, thirty-seven steamboats, and two yachts.

These North River sloops were a great industry on the Hudson River in those days, there being hundred of them running from the different towns to New York, and from Albany to eastern ports. From Red Hook landing, my father ran the sloops First Effort and Perseverance as packet sloops, also the sloop, Belle, built by William Collyer at Green Point for this trade.

The regular sailing time of these sloops was a trip every two weeks from Red Hook to New York and return. These North River sloop boatmen, as they were called in those days, were prominent men, and were the business men of the Hudson valley.  They not only had to know how to sail and manage their sloops in all kinds of weather, but also to know the depth of water all along the Hudson, as in those days most of these sloops were keel boats and drew from ten to twelve feet of water. *(The lights and buoys now numerous, were formerly few and far between.—W. E.V.) Their captains also had to know good harbors and anchorages, and where the wind from different quarters would be dangerous to navigation of these small vessels.  And I might here say, a North River sloop would only carry from fifty to two hundred tons. Their captains, also, had to be good business men, for the captain of a packet sloop took charge of all the farmers’ produce, sold the cargo, collected the money, and made the cash return to the farmer when he got home each trip. This was the business of a North River sloop captain, where to-day there is not one to be found on the Hudson in this trade.  The principal traffic of the Hudson valley is now being done by steamers towing large scows, barges, and carrying from four hundred to one thousand tons, and by steamboats and railroads carrying the passengers, produce, and general merchandise of the Hudson River towns.

After the Hudson River railroad came through Red Hook, and about 1850 my father sold his storehouse and landing to that company as the line went directly through his property and took away the dock facilities for the  freighting business. Then he engaged in running a small market sloop named the Rival, going to Albany and buying his cargo of flour, feed, grain, and different things that would sell in their season to the brickyards and merchants along the Hudson. This was carried on for a number of years with the little sloop Rival that could carry but fifty tons, but at this time it was a good business.

As the different lines of steamers progressed on the Hudson, and the market for grain got farther west, this business gave out for sloops and schooners, and the Rival was sold in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War.

In the spring of 1865 he again started the sloop business by going to Poughkeepsie and buying the old sloop Benjamin Franklin, which was built at Huntington, L. I., in the year 1836. She was owned in Poughkeepsie by a Captain John Van Keuren, and ran from Poughkeepsie to Rondout, carrying coal from Rondout. This sloop could carry eighty-five tons, so you see what a sloop of that size could do to-day in supplying the city of Poughkeepsie with coal.  This was my first experience in joining a North River sloop. I went to Poughkeepsie on board the sloop Benjamin Franklin as a cabin boy in the spring of 1865. Our first job that went with this sloop was to carry crockery and earthenware goods from Foster’s dock at Poughkeepsie for the firm of Reiding & Caire, who manufactured these goods at this time at 146 Main Street, Poughkeepsie, from what was called potters’ clay. I might here say that this clay was all freighted by sloops from Woodbridge and Cheese Creek, New Jersey, to Poughkeepsie, and then made into this kind of ware, which was distributed along the Hudson. For many years we made these trips both spring and fall, and between these times we ran principally to Albany and river and Sound ports in the lumber trade. 

In those days it was not the custom to have your cargo engaged before going to Albany, but to go up with your sloop and have the lumber merchant come and look you up to take a load of lumber for him.  I have seen these small vessels lay three and four abreast at the docks in the lumber district at Albany waiting their turn to get to the dock so as to be able to load, and the rate of freight was from $2.00 to $3.50 per thousand, to different Sound ports, where now there is no trade of this kind for any vessel.  Another industry for our sloop was to carry coal from Rondout to the different residences located along the Hudson, such as the Livingstons, DePeysters, and Clarksons who lived above Tivoli. They always got their coal in by the cargo for themselves and their help whom they employed. This kept us busy for several months each summer.  Another industry for the North River sloop was to carry wood to the brickyards. And brick, flag-stone, lime, cement, and pig-iron were the principal cargoes coming down the Hudson to keep these vessels employed. Gathering ice is also a great industry of the Hudson but it has always been carried in barges.

Thus with my brothers, Frank and Robert, we sailed the sloop Ben Franklin until 1877, when I left her to join the schooner Iron Age and later to be captain of the schooner  Henry B. Fidderman in the spring of 1878. My father sailed the sloop  Ben Franklin until the time of his death in 1889, when the sloop was sold to do service as a lighter in New York Harbor.

My father’s old sloop the First Effort already mentioned, met with a singular disaster after he parted with her. While lying at anchor on a dark night near Marlborough, the steamboat, James W. Baldwin, mistaking the sloop’s lights for those on the wharf where the steamer was to land, came alongside and struck the sloop with such a violent impact that she sank in fifty feet of water.  All on board were saved, but the sloop was never raised. The Baldwin bore a bad reputation for collisions with sailing craft.  She is still on the river but under another name.

I found this statement and account of the first steamboat on the Hudson River among the manuscript papers of Colonel Nathan Beckwith of Red Hood in Dutchess County. He died on the 4th of March, 1865, in the eighty-seventh year of his age.

The first trip of the steamer Clermont started from the East River and went to Jersey City. She was constructed under the personal supervision of Robert Fulton in 1807. She was one hundred feet long, twelve feet wide, and seven feet deep. This steamboat made two or three trips to Albany, and was hauled out at Red Hook, near where Herman Hoffman’s store stood, which was destroyed by the British in the Revolutionary War.  The property is now owned by Mr. DeKoven. In the winter of 1807 said boat was lengthened to one hundred and fifty feet and widened to eighteen feet, the name was changed to North River. The hull was built by David Brown of New York, and the engine by Watt and Bolton of England.  The following advertisement appeared in the Albany Gazette, September 1, 1807: “The steamboat North River will leave Paulus Hook, Jersey City, on Friday, September 4th, at nine o’clock A. M. and arrive at Albany on Saturday at nine o’clock P. M.  Good berths and accommodations are provided. The charge to each passenger is as follows:--To Newburgh, $3.00, time fourteen hours; to Poughkeepsie, $4.00, time seventeen hours; to Esopus $5.00, time twenty hours; to Hudson $5.50, time thirty hours; to Albany $7.00, time, thirty-six hours.” A notice in the same paper of October 5, 1807 announces that Mr. Fulton’s new steamboat  left New York at ten o’clock A. M., also a violent gale from the north; it made headway beyond the most sanguine expectations and without being wrecked by the water, heavy sea and gale.”

Reminiscences of Accidents to Sloops

On June 12, 1869, the schooner Orbit  coming down the river with the wind northwest, loaded with brick, when off Little Stony Point,* (In the Highlands, near Coldspring. — W.E.V.)  was struck by a heavy flaw, and before she could come out of it and shake, she ran under, filled and sank. She belonged to Captain Lewis Sheldon and brother, of Fort Montgomery. No one was lost.

On November 20, 1869, there was a terrific gale, east and southeast. Five or six vessels sank at the wharves at Newburgh. The sloop Quackenbush, belonging to Capt. E. Kearney of Ulster County, was sunk. She lay at Bigelow’s dock, loaded with flagstones. The tug John Fuller pumped her out, and she was raised.

One March 26th and 27th, 1870, there was a severe east northeast gale.  In Haverstraw bay the effect of the storm was very destructive.  Brickyard docks and vessels suffered, there being such a high tide. Ten sloops and schooners were sunk between Haverstraw and Grassy Point. The schooner Brook, Captain George Hawkins, loaded with lumber from Newburgh, went ashore above Grassy Point and sank in the same storm.

April 25, 1870, the schooner Cabinet of Newport, having loaded coal at Newburgh, while on her way down the river ran on the flats just below Constitutions Island.  The captain started to run an anchor, not considering the extreme depth of the water in the channel, it being from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet deep. They took their large anchor and chain in the small boat, and the anchor, chain, boat and men all went to the bottom.

In the year 1877, the new terminal of the Newburgh and Fishkill ferry to the N. Y. Central Depot was completed, and in October the ferry commenced to run at this landing.

On June 8, 1878, the sloop Milan of Rondout, was beating down, loaded with flagging-stones. The wind was blowing heavily from the south and east, and when off Pollipel’s Island, in Newburgh bay, the captain had gone about on the west shore and was standing to the eastward, when there came a heavy puff down from the mountains, striking her dead full, and following the vessel around; the cargo shifted and the vessel filled and sank. She was afterwards raised and rigged into a schooner and called the George Hurst.

On July 2, 1878, the sloop Illinois, then having been altered into a schooner for two years, owned and commanded by Captain James Wilson of Newburgh, while laying at anchor in Long Island Sound in a fog off Captain’s Island, was run into by the Stonington Line steamer Massachusetts, and sunk. The Illinois had left Saybrook the day before the accident, and by the morning of the second, before daylight, got up as far as Captain’s Island, wind all died out, ebb-tide made, so they anchored. At three or four o’clock in the morning it set in foggy. At a little after four o’clock, the steamer Massachusetts came along and struck the schooner on the starboard quarter a glancing blow, taking the whole side of the vessel out, and she sank.  The wreckers went to work and in about thirty hours the vessel was on the ways at City Island. The Illinois was originally a packet sloop, running from Newburgh, and was built there at the foot of South Street in 1818. She could carry about one hundred and fifty tons.

On July 8, 1879, the schooner Isaac Sherwood, then belonging to Captain William Bacon of Haverstraw, loaded with brick, had just come off the flats with a nice breeze from the north, and when a little below Grassy Point, met the propeller John L. Hasbrouck, of the Poughkeepsie Transportation Company with the Newburgh barge Charles Spear alongside in tow. The night was not dark, and the moon was shining. They took a course for each other, the steamer not sheering, nor did the schooner alter her course. The steamer stopped and backed, but too late, for as soon as she commenced to back she struck the schooner just forward of the fore-rigging, cutting in for four feet. The schooner filled immediately and went down in about thirty feet of water. The crew of five men just had time to get into a yawl. The mast and rigging, as she heeled over when she went down, did considerable damage to the propeller’s rail.

On August 22, 1879, the sloop Mary Warner, belonging to Captain Hiram Meeks, of Fort Montgomery, and carrying brick form Benjamin Walsh’s yard at New Windsor, was beating down with a nice breeze and standing to the eastward, when the steam yacht Nooya, bound up under a full head of steam, ran into the sloop, striking her one the starboard side, forward of the mast.  The yacht being sharp and built of steel, cut half way through the sloop, and she sank immediately.  The crew were saved by their yawl. The yacht was very badly damaged and had just time to run ashore at Verplanck’s Point, where  she filled and settled to the bottom.

_________

From Captain John Pinckney of Low Point, now Chelsea, formerly captain of the schooner Iron Age, running from the Manhattan Iron Works at New York for a number of years, I get the following information:

The first centerboard used on the Hudson River was introduced by Cornelius Carman, who was a builder of sail and steam vessels at Low Point, and was put by him in the sloop Freedom.

The first jib-traveller for sloops was invented by David Hunt of Low Point, who was a sloop-boatman from that place and at one time sailed on the packer sloop Matteawan, running from there.

The red and green side-lights for sail and steam vessels were first used on the river in 1862, and were introduced by General Benjamin Butler who was interested in a factory that made these lights. They were sold for $25.00 a set.

The first railway for hauling out sloops on the Hudson was put down at Nyack in 1845. Before that time, vessels would go to Cow Bay, Long Island, and other beaches to caulk and paint their bottoms, at the end of the season.

A list of Some of the Old Sloops of the Hudson River Compiled by Capt. M. W. Collyer*(The style of the names shows a progression through the sentimental, the                  patriotic and the political, then to the prosaic, and finally, in the successors to the sloops and schooners, we reach the mere numerical in the big scow-barges which now carry upwards of five hundred tons of brick or crushed stone.—W.E.V.)

Ambassador, of Rondout
Albert Lewis, built in 1861 at Nyack
Asa Bigelow, of Malden
Abraham Cosgrove, of Croton
Anna Van Cortlandt, of Croton
Anna Maria, of Newburgh
Anna V. Willis, of Nyack
Andes
Annie M. Tower, built in 1871 at Poughkeepsie
Adaline Townsend, built in 1854 at Poughkeepsie
Ann Amelia, built in 1827 at Southold, N. J.
Anna Maria,  built at Greenport
American System
Anaconda
Addison, built in 1819 at Coxsackie
Abram Jones
Argus
American Eagle* of Haverstraw (Built by John I. Woolsey, and was the fastest sloop sailed in Haverstraw Bay.—M.E.V.)
Anna Maria No. 2
Ariel
Advocate
Abraham Lincoln, built in 1861 at Haverstraw
American Star, built in 1853 at Nyack
Annie E. Leet, built at Greenport, L. I.
Belle, built by Wm. Collyer at Sing Sing, N. Y.
Bucktail *( this was the name applied to the Tammany wing of the Democratic party. The faction was opposed to DeWitt Clinton. A satirical poem called Bucktail Bards, aimed at Clinton, was written and published by the late Gulian C. Verplanck in 1819.—M.W.C.)
Billow
Benj. Stagg, built in 1839 at Newburgh
Bridgeport, of Poughkeepsie
Benj. Aiken, built in 1836 at Greenbush, N. Y.
Benj. Franklin *(Benjamin Franklin Transportation Co. of Yonkers take its name from this sloop; she was a packer from Yonkers in 1839. Captain Joseph Peene, her master, was the father of the Peene brothers now operating this line form Yonkers.—M.W.C.) No. 2, built in 1831 at Yonkers.
Bolivar, of New Baltimore, N. Y.
Betsey  & Ann
Benj. Franklin, built in 1836 at Huntington
Bride, of Cornwall on Hudson
Banner, built in 1859 at Staten Island
Benj. Brandeth, built in 1839 at Sing Sing, by Sniffin
Bronk,  built in 1832.
Charles Lynch, of Rondout
Canal, of Rondout
Charles Hadden,  built in 1853 at Coxsackie
Carrie Gurnee, formerly First Effort, built in 1869 at Rondout, N. Y.
Controller
Contrivance (scow)* (She was owned by Daniel Tompkins who brought her from Newark, N. J., to Stony Point on the Hudson, and used by him in the brick trade, which he established in the neighborhood. The Contrivance, though a flat-bottom and scow-model sloop, was a fast sailer. She held the river until 1904, when she was sunk in collision with a steamer James W. Baldwin, and her captain, Calvin Delanoy, of Glasco, was drowned.—M.W.C.)  built in 1818 at Jersey City.
Congress, of Rondout
Comet, of Spuyten Duyvil
Cadet (periauger rig 2), of West Point
Centurion, of Hastings
Capitol, of Saugerties
Commodore Jones, of Fishkill
Clarissa Ann,  of Rondout
Ceres,  of Rondout
Comanche
Carver,  of Rondout
Charles D. Belding, of Rondout
Clerity,  built in 1836 at Nyack
Councilor
Chatham
Convoy, of Nyack
Caroline,  of Fishkill owned by J. P. De Wint.
China
Canaan
Congress, built in 1826 at Coxsackie
Clinton, of Glasco
Catskill, of Catskill
Climax
David Belknap, of Newburgh
David Sands,* (While anchored in New York harbor was run into and sunk by a steamship at night. No one saved but her captain, William Coleman.—M.W.C.) of Newburgh.
Diamond State, of Poughkeepsie
Delaware,  of Fishkill
David Munn, of Haverstraw
Dart, * (A very smart sloop, owned by Captain Vergil Coleman of Fishkill,--M.W.C.)
Daring, built in 1862 at Poughkeepsie
Exchange, *(owned by Isaac Quick; lost by George Miller at Manhattanville, N. Y.—M.W.C.)
Eliza Ann, (written in margin Piermont)
Esmeralda, of Croton
Exlipse
Exertion, of Haverstraw
Ellen Eliza, of Haverstraw
Emeline *(Emeline, a packet from Yonkers in 1825—Captain Isaac Ruton.—M.W.C.)
Emma
Ella Jane, of Harlem
Entice
First Effort, built at Sing Sing
Frances Ann
Flash (periauger rig)
Franklin,  of Poughkeepsie
Florence
Favorite
Frances Jane
Fame
General Putnam
General Ward, of New Hamburgh
Globe
Grand Council
Green County Tanner, of Catskill
George Law,* (carried the stone for High Bridge Aqueduct, New York.—M.W.C.) of
Cornwall
General Van Cortlandt, of Croton
Garrett I. Demarest, of Nyack
George M. Dallas, built at Peekskill
General Livingston
General Scott, of Cold Spring
General Greene
Glide,  of New York
Gideon Lee,  of Malden
General Montgomery
Gloucester
Henry Edwards, of Newburgh
Hendrickson, of Tarrytown
Hunter (scow-sloop), of Athens
Henry Soudder
Huntress
Henry Barclay, of Poughkeepsie
Hannah Ann, of Glasco
Harriet P. Odgen, of Hudson
Henry Gage
Intrepid, of Highland Falls
Illinois, of Newburgh
Iowa, of Rondout
Independence,*(Captain, John Garrison of Yonkers, who ran her as a packet. Built in 1825. –M.W.C.)
Intelligence
Index
Isabella
James Coats, of New Hamburgh
Joseph Hammond,  of Cornwall
John Jay, * ( Later of Newburgh. Captain Isaac Wood was her master.—M.W.C.)
James Pollock, of Newburgh
John Marsh, of Wilbur
Jane Grant,  of Newburgh
Jewell
John Henry
Julia, of Poughkeepsie
John Jones, of Cold Spring
Joseph Moran
John D. Noyells,  of Haverstraw
John T. Beveridge, of Newburgh
John L. Richards,  of Saugerties
Judge
Jack Downing
James R. Sawyer, of Haverstraw
John I. Woolsey, of Nyack
Kemble, built in 1825 at Poughkeepsie
Kamana
Katrina Van Cortlandt,  of Croton
Kentucky
Kinderhook
Little Martha, built in 1867 at New Hamburgh
Lafayette
Luzerne
Lucy Hopkins
Linnet
Mohican *(Her “bones” lie off my residence at Chelsea and serve as a breakwater.---M.W.C.) built in 1837 at Poughkeepsie
Mary Dallas, of New Hamburgh
Meridian
Michigan
Martin Wynkoop, of Rondout
Mary Warner, of Fort Montgomery
Minnierley,  of Rondout
Mary Willis,  of Haverstraw
Margaret, built in 1835 at Sing Sing
Mary Kemble
Mad Anthony
Matteawan, of Low Point
Mary Emma (scow), of Cold Spring
Milan,of Rondout
Marshall
Martin Van Buren, of Croton
Mechanic
Martin Hines, of Yonkers
Miracle, of Haverstraw
North America  (a scow), of Cornwall
Newburgh, of Newburgh
Nancy
Noah Brown
Ney
Nassau, of Saugerties
New Jersey, of Fishkill
Napoleon
Neptune, of Newburgh
Oregon, of New Windsor
Orbit
Orange Packet, of Newburgh
Oregon, No. 3, of Malden
Othello
Ophelia, of Cornwall
Oregon  No. 2
Peter R. Valleau, of Poughkeepsie, built in 1829 at Nyack
Progress
Perry Van Cortlandt, of Croton
Pell C. Vought
Pearl
Pilot
Pennsylvania, of Malden
Pelie
Perseverance, of Red Hook
Phoebe Jane Minnerley, of Rondout
Quackenbush
Revenge
Rebecca Ford
Reindeer, of Athens
Ralph Van Houghton
Rising Sun
Revenue, of Athens
Rival, of Tivoli
Richard Davis, of Poughkeepsie
Ransom, of Rondout
Robert North
Superior
Star
Samuel A. Cunningham
Samsondale, *(Captain George Davis Woolsey, of Newburgh, was master of this sloop.—W.E.V.)
Sophia Ann
Swift
Sarah Frances
Samuel Marsh, (scow-sloop)
Stephen G. Beekman, built at Nyack
Surprise, of Poughkeepsie
Specia
Spy
Sarah Elizabeth
Speaker
Stamford
Saginaw
Superb
Thomas S. Marvel, of Newburgh
Thomas Webb,  of Cold Spring
Temperance
Tremper
Trouble,*(She turned out to be slow and was often in collision. –W.E.V.), of Haverstraw
Telegraph
Thomas Adams, of Rondout
Tautemio, of New Hamburgh
Twilight
Utica,  of Athens
Unity
Vought
Victorine ,of Cold Spring
Victory,  of Athens
Victoria
William W. Reynolds, of Poughkeepsie
William Johnston
Wonder
William Robbins
Walter F. Brewster, *(She ran into the Nyack ferry losing her mast and sail which fell over the walking beam. Capt. Geo. D. Woolsey was her master.—M.W.C.), of Newburgh
William Bridger of Rondout
William Nelson, of Croton
Westchester
William H. Hawkins, of Newburgh
Warren
Walter, Klotts, of Rondout  *(Was burned at Merchants’ Stores, Brooklyn, in 1900.—M.W.C.)
Westerlo,  of Rondout
Young America
  Zenobia

Schooners *(Some of these were converted from sloops.—M.W.C.) of the Hudson on 1865 and Later as Recalled by Capt. M. W. Collyer.

A. J. Williams, 1868, Staten Island
A.O. Zabriskie,  1840, Piermont
Adelaide, Cornwall
Albert G. Lawson, 1868, Newburgh
Allen Gurnee, Rondout
Amos Briggs, 1868, Cornwall
Ann M.,  Verplanck’s Point
Annie, 1864, Glenwood
Annie E. Webb
Armada, Hudson
Athalia,  1884, Newark
Beniah Watson, Cornwall
Buckeye, 1864, Poughkeepsie
C.D. Empson
C. P. Schultze, 1863, of Poughkeepsie
Capital, Malden
Carrie McLane, Fishkill
Catharine Du Bois,  Hyler’s Landing, 1851
Charles Atkinson, 1862, Haverstraw
Charles Kruder, 1873, Haverstraw
Clara Post, Rondout
Clayton
Columbia, Rondout
Daniel Tompkins,  Stony Point
Dutchess,  Athens
Edward Ivans Fishkill
Elizabeth Washburn, Haverstraw
Elma City, Owned at one time by Homer Ramsdell of Newburgh.—M.W.C.) , Newburgh
Emma,  Cornwall
Emma I. Southard, Croton
Evelina Ross
Fancy, Low Point
Flying Cloud,  Lewisburgh
Francis Corwin, Cornwell
Fred Snow, *(Joseph Tate, Captain.—M.W.C.), Piermont
General Torbett, Croton
George A. Brandreth, 1847, Sing Sing
George Hurst, Rondout
George Knapp, Haverstraw
George S. Allison, Stony Point
George S. Wood, Haverstraw
Glide, 1838, Nyack
Green County Tanner, *(She was originally a sloop.—M.W.C.) 1832, Catskill
Hannah E. Brown, *(Built in 1871 at Newburgh; still running on the river.—M.W.C.)
Henrietta Collyer, of Low Point
Henry B. Fidderman, *(The first of which Moses W. Collyer became master. She was about 90 tons’ capacity.—M.E.V.)
Henry Clay,1838
Henry Remsen, 1851, Red Bank
Henry Wardell, 1862, Haverstraw
Hester, Poughkeepsie
Honora Butler, Haverstraw
Iris, New Hamburgh
Iron Age, Low Point
Isaac W. Sherwood, Haverstraw
Isles of Pine, Rondout
James Bolton
Jane N. Ayers, Fishkill
Jane Grant, Rondout
John Brill,  Fishkill
John Forsythe, Rondout
John Gould, West Camp
John Jay
John Jones,  Cold Spring
John R. Britt,  Newburgh
Joseph Hammond, Cornwall
Josie Crowley
Juliette Terry, Kingston
Justus C. Earl, Rondout
Kate & Mary, Rondout
Lewis R. Mackey, *(Was a very fast sailer.—M.W.C.)
Libbie Worthley, Low Point
Lizzie A. Tolles
Lottie & Annie, Haverstraw
Lucian,  Newburgh
Lucy Gurnee, Rondout
Lydia White,  Low Point
Mad Anthony, Haverstraw, built 1816
Manchester & Hudson, Rondout
Marcus L. Ward
Maria,  Haverstraw
Maria Hearn, Fishkill *(Was sunk at West Point by steamer Alicia Washburn, in the deepest water of the Hudson, which is 225 ft. Her captain was John Paye of Fishkill.—M.W.C.)
Marion  (scow-schooner), Cold Spring
Matthew B. Vassar, Poughkeepsie, built 1855
Minerva, Hudson
Minnie C. Post, Rondout
Missouri, Cold Spring
Nellie Bloomfield,  Newburgh
Nicholas Meyerhoff, Croton
Noah Brown
Norma, Cold Spring
Oliver H. Booth,  1856, of Poughkeepsie
Oregon No. 2
Potter & Hooper, Haverstraw
Rebecca & Eliza,  Newburgh
Richard Washburn, Haverstraw
Richmond, of Poughkeepsie
Robert A. Forsythe,*(Built in 1866 at Newburgh, and ran from there to Albany, carrying lumber and merchandise.  Her captain and owner was Ambrose Bradley, who had the record of owning a greater variety of vessels than any other many on the river. His brother was John Bradley of Low Point.—M.W.C.), Newburgh
Robert Blair, Havestraw
Robert Knapp, Haverstraw
Sally M. Adkins
Sarah Jane Gurnee, Rondout
Sarah Quinn
Seabird, Sing Sing
Shamrock, Haverstraw
Sharpshooter
T. W. Spencer, Cornwall
The Florence, Haverstraw
Thomas I. Southard
Thomas J. Owen, Verplanck’s Point
Thomas J. Jefferson, Fishfill
Timothy Wood, Rondout
Trimmer, Malden
Uriah F. Washburn, *(Built in 1866 at Tompkins cove by Jake Woolsey. –M.W.C.), Haverstraw.
Warren, Verplanck’s Point
William A. Ripley, Low Point
William E. Peck, Haverstraw
William H. Barnes, Haverstraw
William H. Camp, *(Captain Hank Wilson,--M.W.C.)  Newburgh
William H. Harrison
William M. Evarts, West Camp
William Mayo, Mayo
Wm. Voorhis 

The Hudson river Builders of some of these sloops and schooners were:

Timothy Wood, Milton
John I. Woolsey *(Built also the Victorine, Wanderer, American Eagle, all very fast sloops.—M.W.C.)
Jacob Woolsey, Tompkins Cove
Thomas S. Marvel, Newburgh and Cornwall
George Polk, Poughkeepsie
Henry Rodiman, Cornwall
James P. Voorhis, Nyack
Thomas Collyer, Sing Sing
William Collyer, Sing Sing
John Felter, Nyack
John G. Perry, Nyack
Bulman & Brown, Newburgh
David Sands, Milton
Cornelius Carman, *(Inventor of the centerboard.)
William Dickey, Nyack
Jefferson McCausland, Rondout
Morgan Everson, Rondout
Nicholas Clair, Malden
Deacon Dorwin, New Windsor


 Home            Table of Contents           Transportation Home Page