The 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 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Shipping
Publisher: Port Washington, N.Y., I. J. Friedman
Published: 1968-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

SLOOP " BENJAMIN FRANKLIN," WITH CAPTAIN JOHN L. COLLYER ON THE DECK From a photograph taken at Seabring's dock, Low Point, z88x

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carry crockery and earthenware goods from Foster's dock at Poughkeepsie for the firm of Reidinger & 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

84 Sloops of the Hudson

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 stimmer. Another industry for the North River sloop was to carry wood to the brickyards. And brick, flagstone, 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. Fiddennan in the spring of 1878. My

father sailed the sloop Ben Franklin untfl 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 big 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 tmder another name.

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