Part 5 (1/2)

It astonishes a Mississippi or Missouri traveler to see the captain standing like a train-conductor, with watch in hand, to let off the gang-plank and pull the bell, at the very moment of the advertised schedule.

Southward the river gleams--a snowy sail Now gliding o'er the mirror--now a track Tossing with foam displaying on its course The graceful steamer with its flag of smoke.

_Alfred B. Street._

One of the most humorous incidents of the writer's journeying up and down the Hudson, was the ”John-Gilpin-experience” of a western man who got off at West Point a few years ago. It was at that time the first landing of the steamer after leaving New York.

As he was accustomed to the Mississippi style of waiting at the various towns he thought he would go up and take a look at the ”hill.”

The boat was off and ”so was he”; with wife and children shaking their hands and handkerchiefs in an excited manner from the gang-plank. Some one at the stern of the steamer shouted to him to cross the river and take the train to Poughkeepsie.

Every one was on the lookout for him at the Poughkeepsie landing, and, just as the steamer was leaving the dock, he came das.h.i.+ng down Main street from the railroad station, but too late. Then not only wife and children but the entire boat saluted him and the crowded deck blossomed with handkerchiefs. Some one shouted ”catch us at Rhinebeck.” After leaving Rhinebeck the train appeared, and on pa.s.sing the steamer, a lone handkerchief waved from the rear of the platform.

At Hudson an excited but slightly disorganized gentleman appeared to the great delight of his family, and every one else, for the pa.s.sengers had all taken a lively interest in the chase. ”Well,” he says, ”I declare, the way this boat lands, and gets off again, beats anything I ever see, and I have lived on the Mississippi nigh on to a quarter of a century.”

While drinking in the scene, my mind goes back upon the tide of years, and lo, a vision! On its upward path the ”Half-Moon” glides.

_Alfred B. Street._

=The ”Hendrick Hudson.”= In these centennial days of discovery and invention, a description of the steamers will be of interest, furnished by the Hudson River Day Line. The ”Hendrick Hudson” was built at Newburgh by the Marvel Company, under contract with the W.

& A. Fletcher Company of New York, who built her engines, and under designs from Frank E. Kirby. Her princ.i.p.al dimensions are: length, 400 feet; breadth over all, 82 feet; depth of hold, 14 feet 5 inches, and a draft of 7 feet 6 inches. Her propelling machinery is what is known as the 3-cylinder compound direct acting engine, and her power (6,500-horse) is applied through side wheels with feathering buckets, and steam is supplied from eight boilers.

Steel has been used in her construction to such an extent that her hull, her bulk-heads (7 in all), her engine and boiler enclosures, her kitchen and ventilators, her stanchions, girders, and deck beams, and in fact the whole essential frame work of the boat is like a great steel building. Where wood is used it is hard wood, and in finish probably has no equal in marine work.

Her scheme of decoration, ventilation and sanitation is as artistic and scientific as modern methods can produce, and at the same time her general lay out for practical and comfortable operation is the evolution of the long number of years in which the Day Line has been conducting the pa.s.senger business.

A detailed account of this steamer would be a long story, but some of the salient features are as follows: She carries the largest pa.s.senger license ever issued, namely: for 5,000 people; on her trial trip she made the fastest record through the water of any inland pa.s.senger s.h.i.+p in this country, namely: 23.1 miles per hour. Her shafts are under the main deck. Her mural paintings represent prominent features of the Hudson, which may not be well seen from the steamer. Her equipment far exceeds the requirements of the Government Inspection Laws.

We hear the murmur of the sea,-- A monotone of sadness, But not a whisper of the crowd, Or echo of its madness.

_Charles Mackay._

=The ”New York.”= The hull of the ”New York” was built at Wilmington, Del., by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., in 1887, and is, with the exception of the deck-frame, made of iron throughout. During the winter of 1897 she was lengthened 30 feet, and now measures 341 feet in length, breadth over all 74 feet, with a tonnage of 1975 gross tons. The engine was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co. of New York.

It is a standard American beam engine, with a cylinder 75 inches in diameter and 12 feet stroke of piston, and develops 3,850 horse power.

Steam steering gear is used. One of the most admirable features of this queen of river steamers is her ”feathering” wheels, the use of which not only adds materially to her speed but does away with the jar or tremor common to boats having the ordinary paddle-wheels. The exterior of the ”New York” is, as usual, of pine, painted white and relieved with tints and gold. The interior is finished in hard-wood cabinet work, ash being used forward of the shaft on the main deck, and mahogany aft and in the dining-room. Ash is also used in the grand saloons on the promenade deck. One feature of these saloons especially worthy of note, is the number and size of the windows, which are so numerous as to almost form one continuous window. Seated in one of these elegant saloons as in a floating palace of gla.s.s, the tourist who prefers to remain inside enjoys equally with those outside the unrivalled scenery through which the steamer is pa.s.sing. The private parlors on the ”New York” are provided with bay windows and are very luxuriantly furnished. In the saloons are paintings by Albert Bierstadt, J. F. Cropsey, Walter Satterlee and David Johnson. The dining-room on the ”New York” is located on the main deck, aft; a feature that will commend itself to tourists, since while enjoying their meals they will not be deprived from viewing the n.o.ble scenery through which the steamer is pa.s.sing. While the carrying capacity of the ”New York” is 4,500 pa.s.sengers, license for 2,500 only is applied for, thus guaranteeing ample room for all and the absence from crowding which is so essential to comfort.