A History of the Growth of the Steam-EngineThurston, Robert Henry
History
A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine
Thurston, Robert Henry
Steam-engines -- History
The success of the Clermont on the trial-trip was such that Fulton
soon after advertised the vessel as a regular passenger-boat between
New York and Albany.[80]
[80] A newspaper-slip in the scrap-book of the author has the
following:
"The traveler of today, as he goes on board the great steamboats St.
John or Drew, can scarcely imagine the difference between such
floating palaces and the wee-bit punts on which our fathers were
wafted 60 years ago. We may, however, get some idea of the sort of
thing then in use by a perusal of the steamboat announcements of
that time, two of which are as follows:
["_Copy of an Advertisement taken from the Albany Gazette, dated
September, 1807._]
"The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler's Hook Ferry [now
Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning,
and arrive at Albany on Saturday, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions,
good berths, and accommodations are provided.
"The charge to each passenger is as follows:
"To Newburg dols. 3, time 14 hours.
" Poughkeepsie " 4, " 17 "
" Esopus " 5, " 20 "
" Hudson " 5-1/2, " 30 "
" Albany " 7, " 36 "
"For places, apply to William Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtlandt Street,
on the corner of Greenwich Street.
"_September 2, 1807._
["_Extract from the New York Evening Post, dated October 2, 1807._]
"Mr. Fulton's new-invented _Steamboat_, which is fitted up in a neat
style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany
as a Packet, left here this morning with 90 passengers, against a
strong head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved
through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour."
During the next winter the Clermont was repaired and enlarged, and in
the summer of 1808 was again on the route to Albany; and, meantime,
two new steamboats--the Raritan and the Car of Neptune--had been built
by Fulton. In the year 1811 he built the Paragon. Both of the two
vessels last named were of nearly double the size of the Clermont. A
steam ferry-boat was built to ply between New York and Jersey City in
1812, and the next year two others, to connect the metropolis with
Brooklyn. These were "twin-boats," the two parallel hulls being
connected by a "bridge" or deck common to both. The Jersey ferry was
crossed in fifteen minutes, the distance being a mile and a half.
To-day, the time occupied at the same ferry is about ten minutes.
Fulton's ferry-boat carried, at one load, 8 carriages, and about 30
horses, and still had room for 300 or 400 foot-passengers. Fulton also
designed steam-vessels for use on the Western rivers, and, in 1815,
some of his boats were started as "packets" on the line between New
York and Providence, R. I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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