Rowing & Ice Yachting on the Hudson River, a Year-round Sport: A DCHS Yearbook Encore Edition

Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Encore Edition Writings from past issues

Rowing & Ice Yachting: the Hudson River & Year-round Sport

The Dutchess County Historical Society was formed in the spring of 1914 at the Pleasant Valley (NY) Free Library.

Early founders included Franklin D. Roosevelt who sustained a lifetime interest as a member, researcher and contributor.

Radical for 1914, DCHS membership and leadership included women. The team of Helen Wilkinson Reynolds for research and writing, and Margaret DeMott Brown for photography, set an early and high standard for publishing.

When FDR published his first book through DCHS in 1928 he said in the forward that he hoped to set an example and inspire others to publish. DCHS is a 501c3 non-profit organization that relies on member and donor support. You can support DCHS’s work at www.DCHSNY.org.

The Dutchess County Historical Society PO Box 88 Poughkeepsie, NY 12602 www.DCHSNY.org In any republication, please cite The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Encore Edition, 2022

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Front cover, from DCHS Collections clockwise from top: Photo of the Regatta Room at the Nelson House in the 1950s. Ice boat on the Hudson River, unamed individual. August 14, 1880 winners of the Poughkeepsie Regatta.

Eunice Hat led Smith, Poughkeepsie Regatta, DCHS Image Collection

Table of Contents

Ice Yachting on the Hudson River; The Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association, Part I

By Harry T. Briggs, 1951.

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Ice Yachting on the Hudson River; The Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association, Part II

By Harry T. Briggs, 1952.

26

As I Remember.

By Frank V. Mylod, 1967.

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Poughkeepsie Yacht Club: Working Men Build a Club

By Arthur E. Scott, 1989.

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Rowing on the Hudson

By John Mylod, 2009.

73

ICE YACHTING ON THE HUDSON RIVER THE PouGHKEEPSIE IcE BoAT AssocIATION-PART

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As a boy I was fascinated with the exhilarating sport of ice yacht­ ing. When only twelve years of age I coaxed my parents to allow me to stay out of school in order that I could escort my two cousins, Walter and Edgar Briggs, to witness the race for the Poughkeepsie Challenge Pennant, February 1, 1887.

We skated from Hyde Park to Poughkeepsie. It was very cold, with a strong, keen north wind, and all went well on our way down, as the crack at Crum Elbow was closed. However, when we returned the tide had changed and the crack was so wide that we did not dare an attempt to jump it. We had to find a place where we could go ashore on the west side. Then, removing our skates, we picked our way to land and walked along the railroad tracks to the north side of the crack and back onto the ice. This was dangerous as the broken pieces of ice along the shore were lia!ble to give way under our feet.

When we were back on the ice we replaced our skates and continued our trip to the ·Hyde Park dock. We walked up the river hill road to my home and arrived with very good appetites.

This was the first race between the yachts of the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association and the new Hudson River Ice Yacht Club (known for a short time as the Corinthian Ice Yacht Club). The new club had been formed when some of the members of the Pough­ keepsie club were dissatisfied over a decision made by the regatta committee relative to a race held February 14, 1885. The race which my cousins and I had seen was won by the new yacht Reindeer, owned by George Bech, over a 24-mile course, in 1 hour, 5 minutes and 40 seconds, representing the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club. The Reindeer was later owned by Robert P. Huntington of Staatsburgh.

Poughkeepsie was unquestiona!b ly the birthplace of the American ice yacht. There is a difference of opinion as to who built the first ice boat in_ this neighborhood. The late George Buckhout said that Willet Southwick had built an ice boat in 1790; the late Wellington C. Lans­ ing stated that it was Zadock Southwick in 1807. In a number of

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articles on ice yachting the statement is made that the :first ice boat in America was built by Oliver Booth at Poughkeepsie in 1790. This was probably copied from the article, otherwise � very good historical and concise description of the sport, printed in the Encyclopaedia Britannica which states that ice yachting appears to have originated in the Netherlands and the Baltic Sea region of Europe, where various types of runner-mounted craft were used for pleasure and transporta­ tion by the middle of the eighteenth century and that the earliest design thus far discovered is that published by Fredrik Hendrik Chap­ man in his Architectura Nava/is Mercatoria in 1768. This article continues: " ... In North America the earliest ice boat on record was a three-runner wooden box with a single sprit sail, built by Oliver Booth at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 1790." Unfortunately, for this record, it must be stated that Oliver H.Booth was born in 1823. He was the son of George Booth who came to this country from England and, according to his diary, landed in the United States on October 22, 1798. Oliver H. Booth was an ardent sportsman, long interested in rowing and ice boating in this neighborhood. He was an enthusiastic ice yachtsman, one of the organizers of the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association and for years its Com·modore.

In the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, January 10, 1867, two cor­ respondents took exception to -a statement made in an article in the New York Tribune, which had given the date of the :first ice boat built at Poughkeepsie as 1833, and Edward Southwick as the builder.

One of these correspondents said that the maker was Henry Southwick, that the date was 1812 and that Henry Southwick was still living, at the age of 76 years, in Ulster County. The other correspondent gave the date as 1813 or 1814, and told that he had sailed many times with Henry Southwick and had gone sprawling along on the ice when thrown from the boat. He added that when Henry Southwick left Poughkeepsie the ice boat came into the possession of Edward South­ wick, who sailed it for �enty years and that, in 1867, it was still in existence. He described the boat as a rudely-built box affair, but strongly constructed and with a heavy sail, and with an imitation of skate irons, with gutters, for runners.

Until recent years, the Southwicks owned and lived in the house

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lvhich Zadock Southwick had purchased from the Winans estate in 1808. It is located at the foot of Pine Street and near the landing which has long • been known as Southwick's dock. According to the 1800 census of Dutchess County, Zadock Southwick was living in the town of Clinton at that time and Henry Southwick was the only head of a family by that name listed in Poughkeepsie.

In 1880 the date of the first ice boat was again discussed in the newspapers. The following excerpts from letters written to the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle did not settle the controversy, but are of interest: Under date of January 24, 1880:

I observed an article in the News ... which stated that the first ice boat the writer had any knowledge of was built in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., by Henry Southwick over 70 years ago and that he sailed in her over 60 years ago.

He must be mistaken. The first ice boat, so Edw. Southwick told me, was built by him in 1833. The runners used were ordinary skates and the boat was constructed of boards and joist; the next one was built in 1845 by Sutton Wheeler and afterward Foss Brothers made one which went to Rondout (now Kingston) and back in one hour.

Accuracy.

Another letter, dated January 28, 1880, said:

... Henry Southwick was born in 1791 and when about 16 years old would sail on the river ice on a hand sled, but could sail only one way, before the wind. He then had three large skates made something after the plan of ice boats of the present day.

I was living at the Lower Landing some time before 1820 and sailed on said boat many times.

If any one has any doubts that she is not old I should advise them to go to the Tannery of Southwick & Co., and see the beauty. In case there should be good ice bring on your crack boats and give the old VETERAN a show.

Wm. C. S.

A third letter, dated January 29, 1880, said:

...Allow the writer to say that ... Edward Southwick could not have made the mistake attributed to him, that the. first ice boat was built by him in 1833.

I am now in my 71st year and. in my childhood my father was a neighbor of Zadock Southwick, the father of Willet and Edw1ard. I very distinctly remember seeing an ice boat under full sail on the Hudson, not later than the winter of 1816-17. In the Spring my father moved into the country.

Vincent Palen, U. S. Army Chaplain

The early ice boats were difficult to handle and in a fairly strong wind became unmanageable. As a boy I built one and used skates

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for runners. It would sail all - r�ght, but · only in the direction of the wind. • It could· not be steered.:·· lr;i the early days of the sport an ice boat was· an inexpensive article. One of the correspondents- stated that the materials in the first boat cost about .$5.00, but in later years with the development .of the modern ice yacht, the outlay was con­ siderable, running into large sums.

It was a very uncertain sport, depending upon the weather. First, it had to be cold enough to freeze the ice; thawing temperatures made the ice soft. Snow of much depth spoiled the ice and when the ice vvas good there had to be some wind, but not a gale. The yachting season was short, not over six weeks at the most, and during some ·winters some of the yachts were never placed on the ice.

In the early period the Poughkeepsie yachtsmen seem to have used the office of the Vassar brewery, loc�ted on the river front, as a place to thaw out and later as a club house. This was a center where all river boatmen gathered to discuss their theories as how to build the best and fastest, as well as the most -comfortable, ic� yacht. Here they sailed and re-sailed all of the races. During the time the river was closed to navigation the boatmen were idle and many of them, instead of playing dominoes, turned to ice yachting.

Out of this came much experimenting, with steel runners, heavy and light backbones, adjustment of the runner plank, where to step the mast, the size and the cut of the sail, or sails, and many other adjustments. George Polk and the Buckhout brothers, Jacob and Wil­ liam, were the pioneers in many of these tryouts. Jacob Buckhout was the builder of many fast yachts and he devoted most of his time to the construction of ice yachts, along with John A. Roosevelt and Colonel Archibald Rogers. These three men did the most to perfect the Hudson River ice yacht which, until recently, was the best and fastest type in the world. Until the perfection of the airplane, ice yachts were the fastest conveyances ever built by man.

For many years Poughkeepsie was the center of ice yachting and for a long time the races of the local club were held in ·front· of t·he city. However, with the advent of the· more powerful ferry boats, keeping the track open most of the winter, the races were removed to Roosevelt Point, three miles north.

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it took some forty years of experimenting in the . building of ice yachts before they became managable with any certainty and for years after that they often got out of hand and the passengers were injured. In the Daily Eagle of February 7, -1861, report was made that "an accident occurred on the river yesterday afternoon, caused by a collision of the ice boats belonging to John Davies and Oliver H. Booth, resulting in injuries to John Vassar, Ji;., and John Davies and Major Pultz, all of whom were on Mr. Davies boat." With Mr. Booth, on his yacht, were Joseph Cornell of Rondout, John Reynolds and the owner:, none of whom were injured. The newspaper ex­ piained that there was a very fres4 wind at the ti�_e and not enou-gh weight on the boats to make them �a_r:iageable. They were going at a rate of fifty miles an hour �hen they c�me together, "which re­ duced both boats to a- perfect· �reek." Many times when -the wind was .strong the owners placed - pe_rsoris on- • the - runner .plank to help keep the boat runne·;s down _on the ice.. , .

I have been unable to find the exa�t date, that_ .th.e. J>oughlceepsie I.ce Boat Association was organii.�d. The 13:te We.llingtoil Lansir1g gave the year as _1861. The ne.vyspape�s continm.1.lly II!entioned the great interest in this sport hut g�ve no notice of a)or�al _ organization _ of the association.

Mention 'Y"as made in, the newspaper. of Dec�mber 27, 1860,, that several ice boats were skimming over the . .ice, amol).g them the Una and the Vesper. The next day, the _Eagle published the following list of i�e yachts and their owners: Una, Aaron Innis; Sylvia; D. B. Over­ ton; Vesper, Edward Innis; Courier, E. and N .. Chkhester; Arctic, John G. Vassar, Jr�; Whisper, W. Collingwood; Restless, Oliver H. Booth; Icicle, John A. Roosevelt; Old Abe, D. H. Turner; Express, Jacob Buckhout; Tip Up, W. Snyder._ Three other boats, owned by

John. Davies, H. L. Cronk and J. H. Hawkins, were mentioned but the names of the boats were not given. Mention was also made of ;1 boat belonging to Louis Buckhout which had run into an air hole on the other side of the river and which had two ladies as passengers, ·who "escaped with only a good ducking."

• The season for ice boating usually began after the first of . the year. In 1861 and 1862 there were occasional items in the- news-

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papers about the condition of the ice. On January 13, 1862, it was reported that a large number of ice boats, all rigged out, were flitting up and down the river. "They were flying around like great birds, turning and occasionally lifting a runner off the ice, when catching _too strong a gust of wind." • On March 23, of that year, it was re­ ported that the ice was breaking up and the river was open for transportation of steamboat�.

On January 9, 1863, it was r:ioted that the river was closed and it was expected that the ice boat squadron would get under way the next day. However, it probaibly became warmer for the river was re­ :ported open and the ferry running until the 27th, wheri there was ·a severe col� wave and a heavy' snowstorm. On February 5, the tem­ perature was eight degrees below zero an·d :the river was closing fast: On the 17th there ·were four ice boats on· the river above the. Whale 1 Dock, merrily sailirig about. for the first tim� that· season. The next day the··ice broke loose so·uth of Crum Elbow arid James Martin. went into the water when he was assisting one of the yachtsmen in getting • his boat off the river. On· 'the 22d a severe· ·"nor'easter" set in and by next morning eight'een inches·. of snow had fallen. Soon the river was open and the steamboats left for• New York and 'there was· no more ice .,,boa.ting that spri_n g.

• . • Early in the season the. next year plans were· made for: an ice yacht carnival but, due· to snow and the moving out of- the ice, there was no racing: that season.

The following year, on January 12, 1865, announcement was made that there were some ice yachts sailing about on the river and that there would soon be held a "grand regatta," with the added comment that the money "ihvested in this kind of amusement here­ abouts already amounts to $5,000 or $6,000, the boats owned being superior to anything of the kind in the United States." During the following six weeks ·there were heavy snow storms and no ice boating until February 28. On this date announcement was made that four ice yachts had sailed to Newburgh, which brought • fo�th comment' in the Newburgh newspaper, and quoted in the local. paper, that it was an unusual sight to see four ice yachts on the· river in front of their city, as they were "unaccustomed to seeing these strange boats." Some days

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later, March 17, 'it was reported that the ice was broken up m front, of· Poughkeepsie and· ·the 'up-river boats were expected. • And 'there was no regatta that season.

All of the racing up to this time seems to have been match brushes between individual yachtsmen, similar to horsemen trotting their horses while out for a pleasure ride. They had "ice yacht carnivals" and "grand regattas," but no scheduled racing under the auspices of the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association.

At some time in the early 1860's the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat As­ sociation had been organized with some of Poughkeepsie's foremost citizens as charter_ members: Oliver H. Booth, Aaron Innis, John A. Roosevelt, William C. Arnold, Hudson Taylor, Jacolb E. Buckhout, Theodore V. Johnston, Harvey G. Eastman, Walter Van Kleeck1 Theodore Van Kleeck, John R. Stuyvesant, Henry S. Frost, Louis D. Buckhout, Edward H. Innis, George Davids, John G. Vassar, Jr., John W. Davies, William A. Collingwood, Thomas Parish, Reichard Knight, Charles S. Wilkinson and . others. Most of the m�n who formed the ice yacht club were interested in rowing, which had been a popular recreation at Poughkeepsie for many years.

In 1866 the season began early in January. The newspaper of January 7 reported that several ice boats were out, flitting about like great white birds. On January 11, it was reported that the ice boats were out and that at least 2,000 people were skating on the river.

On the 15th there were visiting ice yachts from Athens and from New Hamjburgh. The IcicleJ with her owner aboard, sailed too near the ferry_ track and went in with one runner and turned ·on her side, but was soon pulled out. The Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association had a scrub race over an 8-mile course, which was won by the Minnehaha, sailed by T. V. Johnston.

A challenge was issued on January 23, 1866: The "Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association" do ·hereby challenge any ice boat on the Hudson River to a r�ce o� ten or twenty miles on the Hudson and return, for pleasure or for any sum from on·e hundred to one thousand dollars.

By order of the Co_mmodore.

The -local club had been subjected to some bantering on ·the part

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of members and friends. of the ice.. boat, club at. Athens, indicating that the Poughkeepsians were afraid to race their yachts. against_ the other club. A race was not arranged immediately..

In the meantime members of the Poughkeepsie �lub planned a cruise to Albany. _The Daily Etfgle, February 19, 1866,· devoted' �ore than a column to a report on the trip: "A Novel Fleet; An Ice Boat Expedition to Albany."

The Commodore, Oliver H. Booth, gave • the order to hoist sails and the yachts, Haze, owned by Aaron Innis, Minnehaha, owned by T. V: Johnston, and Snow Flake, owned by Thomas Par'ish, obeyed the ord·er. All carried invited guests, the Commodore -sailing with Thomas Parish. Everything was irJ. readiness and when_ the order to get under way was given the Minnehaha was away,· leading the fleet.

T.hey had orders to m;ake stops at Rhinebeck, Tivoli, Athens and Hudson. The w�ather was perfect, the ice, except in a few places, was smooth and the wind fairly steady. After making their two first stops they proceeded to Athens, arriving in the_ afternoon. From Athens they sent a telegram to George W. Davids, an enthu�iastic member of. the club and editor of the Eagle. They spent the night at t·he Hotel Worth at Hudson and started for Albany the following morning. On the way the Snow Flake broke through t. he ice and the Haze injured her rudder. These mishaps were corrected and the vessels proceeded to Albany, the Minnehaha a,rriving first. They . were met by the officers of the Beaverwyck club, President Humphrey and Secretary Weed, and were royally welcomed and entertained.

At three o'clock in the afternoon they started for home. The Haze had a spar carried away by the wind and, when near Stuyvesant, the Minnehaha broke her running board. The Snow Flake towed the other boats to the dock at Stuyvesant where they were left for repairs and. the party came to Poughkeepsie by train.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper of March 17, 1866, pub­ lished an article, "Ice-Boat Expedition from Poughkeepsie to Albany," and commented that there were over -one hundred ice boats on the Hudson at the time, that most of them: were roughly-built uncouth-

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looking crafts, but that at Phughkeepsie could be seen ice-boats par·

excellence ...over $10,000 having already been· spent on· these vessels

in endeavoring to bring them to perfection.

The Hudson Republican com:mented, "An ice boat fleet from Poughkeepsie, went up to Albany on Saturday. Why don't they give the Athens boys a cha�ce to contest the honors with them?" The next

day the same newspaper reported: "Yesterday afternoon the Htize stopped at Hudson at 12 :45 p. m. and as their party was assembling to proceed horn�, they observed the bantering actions of some of the Athens yachtsmen; so. they. raise.cl sail _and. se_t forth and. gave . th�n1 a race right there and then, and sailed aibout three miles to their one, which should hold them for a while."

After a few more days the ice moved out and there was no more sport that season. •.

A regular meeting of the Poughkeepsie Ice. Boat Association �as held on January 6, 18 67, and after some. debate they decided to hold a race the next day for the_ Association trophy a�d the Tiffany silver plate. The following yachts we�e qualified to start: Jcicle, owned

by John A. Roosevelt; Arctic and Restless, owned by Oli"."er H.Booth; Una and Haze,_owned by Aaron Innis; Vesper, owned by Edward Innis; Dixi e, _owned by Floy Johnston; Jl.1i nnehaha, owned by T. V. Johnston; Snow Flake, owned by Thomas Parish -and the Flying Cloud, owned by Irving Grinnell, ·who was also a member of the New Ham: burgh Ice Yacht Club. The Ida, owned by W. A. Collingwood, and Flash, owned by Theodore Van- Kleeck, were later added to the list.

However, it- snowed during the night and the race was postponed.

The next day report was made that eight ice boats were on the river, including the new yacht, Flying Dutchman, belonging to Theodore Van Kleeck.

On January 16, the Eagle reported that a race was run between the Snow Flake, with Thomas Parish, Floy Johnston and David Harris aboard, and the Haze, with Aaron Innis, T. V. Johnston and Richard Knight as her crew. The race was to Newburgh and although the Snow Flake got away last, she overtook the Haze and won the ra.�e. As she came about after the race, she was struck by a heavy

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puff of wind ·which broke her mast and- swept everything away while she was going at a high rate of speed. No one was hurt and the boat was towed to Newburgh by the Haze and was brought to Poughkeepsie by horses.

Some days later another effort was made· to race for the silver plate made by Tiffany. Another snow storm postponed the race and the ice ·moved out of the river arid ended the yachting season on February ] 6. • (Record was miade in the newspaper that in 1842 the river was open· on February 4, the earliest date since· 1830. The next year, April 13, 1843, was the latest date· on record.)

About thi� time, A. S. Dodd, the owner of Dodd's Ex:press, New York City, constructed a steam ice boat in New York. It was bro1:1ght to Fishkill, according to the newspaper of February 5, 1867, ·and placed on the ice. · It was called the Minnie E. Dodd and was reported to -have cost between six and seven thousand dollars to build. It weighed ten tons and was thirty feet long. Its height was about twelve or fifteen feet above the ground.· Although it did not equal in size, it was said to resemble the dummy engine which hauled, in New York City, the freight cars down town from the Hudson River Railroad depot at 34th street. It was said that the steam ice boat would hold thirty or forty persons and that it would travel at the rate of seventy miles an hour on smooth ice. • On February 8, a number of the mem­ bers of the local club went to Fishkill Landing to inspect the strange craft. They found that it had broken through the ice. It was hauled out with much. difficulty but no trial was made that day. The ice moved out.of the river on the 16th and the ferry was running at Pough­ keepsie, so there was no opportunity to give the steam yacht a race that season.

The following year,· 1868, there was no racmg at Poughkeepsie although the ice boats were· out on some occasions. From the news­ paper accounts it would appear that there was continuous skating at Eastrn,an park and at Winnikee park through January and February.

In January an effort was made to start the steam ice yacht, which lay all summer and fall at the dock near Fishkill Landing. Mr. Dodd came up from New-York and the boat was put on the ice and steam was got up and the boat moved, but not as rapidly as had been hoped.

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It ·was ·announced that a mishap to the machinery, which would need to be repaired in New York, prevented the anticipated visit to Pough­ keepsie. On January 25, the newspaper reported that the ice boat had passed the city during the previous afternoon,-on a platform car.

It was proposed to take her off the car at Hudson and substitute a 12-:-horse power engine for the six-horse power engine with which she was equipped. During the next month several attempts were made to run the boat and on one occasion it ran about a half-mile. The local news­ paper commented that M-r. Dodd was "certainly one of the most plucky and persevering men of the •age and deserves to rank with Fulton, Morse and other progressive men ahead of their time." The river was soon opened for navigation and no more was heard of either the steam ice boat or the boats equipped with sails.

The next winter the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association met on December 30, 1868, and discussed plans and possibilities of holding a race for the Tiffany silver plate. There was dissatisfaction expressed by som·e of the members in the many delays in arranging for such a contest. The silver plate had been purchased three years before and each time arrangements for a race had been made either a thaw or mow would prevent any racing on the river. The race was set for the next day and it snowed most of the night.

On January 11, 1869, the Eagle· criticized the associat10n because the offi-cers did not have. the authority to set a date for a regatta at short notice when the conditions were right for racing. The result was that the date of January 17 was set for the race for the Tiffany­ made silver plate. This plate was about eight or ten inches in di­ ameter. Directly in the centre was "a miniature ice boat, magnificently engraved with all sails set and rigging truthfully portrayed." Space was left in a half circle about the boat, where inscriptions could be engraved after the regatta, leaving room for one or more inscriptions, should the prize be won from the first winner in future regattas. It was the first prize to be contested for by the members of the local association.

On the seventeenth a large crowd of spectators gathered to witness the race. The course was to be from Poughkeepsie to New Hamburgh and return, eighteen miles, and W. C. Arnold and Thomas Parish

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were named as judges. The yachts all started at once at the signal ar;d finished as follows : Positions drawn 1 Flying Cloud 2 Icicle 3 Snow Squall 4 Una 5 Haze 6 Restless 7 Snow Flake 8 Viola 9 Newsboy

owners Irving Grinnell John A. Roosevelt Theodore V. Johnston Aaron Innis Aaron Innis Com. 0. H. Booth Floy Johnston C. Wilkinson

first leg 4 3 6 7 1 9 2 5 8

finish 5 2 4 7 1 8

3 6 9

The ice was smooth and the wind was north, but light and variable, and much pushing was needed. Having waited so long for the race, the association decided to sail it any way. In the account of the race in the newspaper no ti'me was given for any of the boats.

The Haze came in one minute ahead of any of the others and was declared the winner.

The next day Commodore Grinnell, of the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club, protested the race and called it a "push race," demanding that it be re-sailed. It was not repeated.

A match race was held the next day between the Una and the Icicle, on the Poughkeepsie-Blue Point course, four miles. The Una was off first and the boats turned the buoy together and the Icicle arrived at the finish 30 seconds ahead.

On February 24 a scruib race was held from Poughkeepsie to Milton and return. The yachts competing included Haze, Icicle, Una, Snow Flake, Snow Squall and Newsboy. The Haze won all the way by over three minutes; Una came in second and Icicle, third; and that was the last race of the season.

The ·winter of 1869-70 was one of many snow storms and little, if any, ice for ice boating. The Eagle of February 22 commented, under the heading "Ice Boating Extraordinary:" It may seem extraordinary, but nevertheless, yesterday morning the ice on the opposite side of the river for a distance of half a mile closed and in a short time .thereafter the ice boat Zoua<ve, owned by the Buckhout brothers, was observed skimming over the surface. At five o'clock in the afternoon the ice on the spot had broken away and the river w.as perfectly clear . . .

Though the boats had been out on occasions, there was no racing this season.

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An article in the local newspaper, January 7, 1871, stated that the Poughkeepsie association had the finest ice .boats in the world and mentioned the following: Restless, owned by 0. H. Booth, commodore of the local dub; Icicle, John A. Roosevelt; Haze and Una, Aaron Innis; Snow Squall and EUa, Theodore V. Johnston; Newsboy, Charles Wilkinson; Flying· Dutchman, Theodore Van Kleeck, and Snow Flake, Thomas Parish. A week later an artist and photographer from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper were in the city, taking pictures of the ice boats here. And, at this same time, Harper's P/7eekly published an article on the local sport.

On several occasions the newspapers had reported that the ice boats had raced with the trains on the east side of the river for short distances. The Eagle of January 23, 1871, gave an account of such a race, describing the excitement on the train and stated that Mr. Roosevelt, with his Jcicle, and l Buckhout, with his Zephyr, had raced with an express train, overhauled it speeding north, passed it and then had to turn back because of rough ice. In an article in the Rncycl,opaedia Britannica, the statement is made that . . . ever since the early Hudson river ice yachts successfully outspeeded the Empire State Express, the speed of ice yachts has been grossly exaggerated in sensational publicity articles. Nevertheless, it is true that . . . the Flying Dutchman sailed at 124 m.p.h. on isolated dashes. Th� clue to these speeds lies in the fact that the ice yacht, enjoying almost complete lack of resistance, travels so fast that its own speed and direction materially shift the magnitude and direc­ tion of the air flow striking its sails from the air flow striking a stationary object. It can build up a 10-mile breeze into a 30-mile wind by adding its own speed to that of the breeze, and in the hands of a good sailor, can travel from three to four times as fast as the wind that may be blowing at the time."

Mention was made about this time that the Hattie, the Viola and the Zouave, belonging to members of the Louisiburgh club, were visiting the local club and that Wild Goose was also on the ice.

A month later, after heavy snow and then rain, it turned cold and there was good· ice for boating again. Arrangements were made for a race for a silver pitcher, fifteen inches high and twenty-one inches in circumference, made by Tiffany and Company and valued at $200.

The course selected was tJf! Poughkeepsie-New Hamburgh, sixteen miles, and the judges were Harvey G.-•Eastinan and- Hudson Taylor, with W. C. Arnold as referee. One or two of the yachts had sailed

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over the course at daybreak. The competitors assembled in the office of M. Vassar & Company to draw for positions. The line-up and the finish were as follows : 1 2 3 4 5 6

Ella Newsboy Icicle Zephyr Snow Flake Haze

T. V. Johnston C. Wilkinson John A. Roosevelt Jacob Buckhout 0. H. Booth Aaron Innis

23 minutes, 10 seconds " " 37 2 42 26 " 33 31

I 5

The Ella was the winner. She led out to the turning stake boat with the Icicle at her heels and came rushing home. The Icicle missed the stake boat and sailed for the New Hamburgh buoy and, discovering her mistake, turned and finished second. The Zephyr had broken a runner when she ran in a •Crack and had withdrawn. The river opened on March 5.

Shortly after the new -year, 1872, started the ice boats were out s�retching their sails, preparatory for racing. The yachts Haze and Hail had a scrub race to Milton and return; the Hail turned the out buoy in the lead, but in an exciting :finish it was a dead heat, with no de­ os1on. Hudson Taylor went to New Hamburgh as a passenger on the Icicle and had an exhilarating ride; the wind was fresh and the boat was up . on two runners three times. Mr. Tayior came back to town on the train. On the same day Commodore George W. Kidd, of the Brooklyn Yacht Club, was a guest of the Poughkeepsie club and was given a banquet at the club roomls on Garden street. The newspaper reported that the ice boat fever had broken out again at West Troy, that the old _B areas was sailing at lightning speed and suggested that she be given a trial against the local boats.

On January 11, 1872, the regatta committee, Hudson Taylor, Walter Van Kleeck and George Davids, arranged for a race. for the silver cup. The course was the Milton-Poughkeepsie course, eight miles. Five boats �tarted and Colonel Henry Tallmadge was the time_ keepe�. The .finish was as follows : 1

Haze Icicle Hail Snow Flake Restless

owned by Aaron Innis John A. Roosevelt Richard Knight .

Charles Wilkinson .Oliver H. Booth

As the Haze, sailed by

J.

38 minutes 39 " 30 seconds 42 46 " 51

Buckhout, came to the finish line the bells

14

of the city rang, the whistles blew and the people cheered.

About this time Commodore George W. Kidd, of the Brooklyn Yacht Club, presented to the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association two beautiful silk pennants, fifteen feet long. One of them was to be known as the "Challenge Pennant of the Hudson River," and the other ( to be sailed for 1by members of the Poughkeepsie clu1b only), as the "Ladies' Pennant."

The Poughkeepsie club was challenged by the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club for the Championship Pennant of the Hudson River. The Poughkeepsie-Milton course was selected. Each club was to be rep.­ resented by at least nine boats. The date was set for January 12, 1872, but the race was postponed for lack of wind. However, Charles Gallup and his Alert raced Charles Wilkinson's Newsboy for a turkey and Gallup won the turkey. There was also a match race between the Haze, belonging to Aaron Innis, and T. V. Johnston's Ella. The Haze won by two minutes. A race called for the next day, for the 0. H. Booth silver cup, was postponed because of light wind.

On January 16, the regatta committee, Captain William S. Johnson, Andrew King and Hudson Taylor, airranged two races.

Both were over the Poughkeepsie-Milton course, eight miles. The fi·rst race for the 0. H. Booth silver cup, was won by the Haze in 25 minutes, 30 seconds; the Icicle was second, 26 minutes; Zig Zag, 29 minutes; Hail, 30 minutes; Ella, 31 minutes. The second race was for the Ladies' Pennant and was won by the Haze in 27 minutes. Zig Zag was second, 29 minutes; and Ella third, 29 minutes, 30 seconds. The Ella was leading at the out buoy. The Icicle fouled the Restless on the first leg and both withdrew.

The next day a match race, between the Ella and the Zig Zag, v.ras held on the Poughkeepsie-Milton course. The Ella led all the v-vay to the outer buoy and "they came back side by side and crossed the line together. No decision co�ld be made. A very exciting race, the best contested one on record."

William C. Arnold, Augustus Doughty and George Davids, as regatta committee, arranged for a race between the Poughkeepsie and

15

the New Hamburgh clubs for ·the Challenge Pennant of the Hudson River. It was held on the Poughkeepsie-Milton .course, ten m\iles, on January 17, and the ice was in good condition. The yachts were sent away ten seconds apart, starting 12 :35 p. m.: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Flying Cloud Phantom Zig Zag Ella Quick Step Haze Icicle

31 minutes, 20 seconds, finished third " " 31 22 • finished fourth 32 42 " finished seventh 31 53 finished fifth 32 15 finished sixth 30 16 " " finished second 28 55 finished first

The Poughkeepsie organization retained the pennant. It was a very exciting race as the first five yachts finished less than three minutes apart. After the race John A. Roosevelt sold the Zig Zag to Mr. Leroy of the New Harnburgh club..

The next week a committee, Hudson Taylor, Henry Frost, Hudson Taylor, Jr., and George Davids, arranged an eight-mile race on the Poughkeepsie-Milton course for the John A. Roosevelt prize of a fur coat, valued at $100. There were fifteen entries. They were all decorated with flags and presented a beautiful and novel appearance as they whisked about on the ice previous to the race. They started ten seconds apart, the first at 12 :34 p. m.

Position 1 A cti'Ve 2 Whiff 3 Magic 4 Haze 5 Ella 6 Restless 7 Quick Step 8 Puff 9 Snow Flake 10 Flying Cloud 11 Icicle 12 A retie 13 Phantom 14 Zig Zag 15 flail

club

N. H.

"

Pok.

N. H. Pok.

N. H. Pok.

N. H. Pok.

finish 12:57:43 1:03:30 1:06 :12 12:57 :25 12:58 12:58:15 12:58:55 1:06 :27 1:04:20 12:59 :12 1:04 1:01:27 1:03:05 1:04:05 1:08:30

The Active led at the out buoy. was almost unmanageable at times.

The

place 5 12 14 1 2 3 6 13 11 4 10 7 8 9 15 Icicle

handled badly and

On the same day and on the same course, the L adies' Pennant vvas won by the Haze. The Icicle was second. Others in the race

16

'\,Vere Ella, A retie, Restless, Zig Zag and Snow Flake.

The newspaper reported that on January 30, 1872, up the river, a match race between the Dreadnaught of the Athens club and the Fearless of the Hudson club, was won by the Dreadnaught. Another race for a prize of $100.00 was won by the Clara of Hudson.

The heaviest snowstorm of the season fell on February 4 and the sportsmen turned their attention to horseracing. Under the headline, "Houp La," the Daily Eagle devoted a full column to an account of the fine and fast horses and mentioned Elisha Vail behind "Black Beauty"; Peter Hayt; Abe Vanderburgh; T. V. Johnston; Dave Olm­ sted with "Young Wilkes" (having a record of 2 :37); Hudson Taylor; A. B. Lewis; John P. Adriance; John A. Roosevelt behind his mare by "Volunteer"; James Roosevelt, driving his team of Hambletonians; Aaron Innis; Reed Stuyvesant; W. A. Fanning, whose steed of much endurance had recently been driven fifty miles in one day and then came from Washington Hollow, a distance of twelve miles, in fifty minutes; George Clark, with his fine colt; Mayor H. G. Eastman; Ex-Congress­ man Baker; Ex-Mayor Innis; Cyrenus Dorland; Robert Cornell and many others.

On January 25, the Eagle told the story of an "abduction of the news reporter." The reporter had probably declined an invitation to sail on one of the ice yachts. When he was at the dock he· had not noticed the peculiar behavior of Aaron Innis, Hudson Taylor, Theodore V. Johnston, Richard Knight, James Smith and others. He told them from the landing that he was going uptown but he was persuaded to come down on the ice "to see the New Hamburgh boys off." When he arrived where the men were grouped he was picked up· bodily and thrown into the cockpit of the Ella, where he was held fast while Dick Knight swung the tiller artd they were off, a mile a minute, first up on two runners and then down with a bang. They finally brought him back. He described it as "a sudden and rattling ride and was in every way unexpected, but it certainly was the coldest joke of the • season."

The wind was at times blowing a gale and the Hail, with three men aboard, sailed to lv1ilton in four minutes and on the way led the

17

Chicago express. One ice yacht dashed into the dock �t Milton, staving _in her bowsprit; her spar and rigging were swept away. The season's ice yachting had been an all time high, after a tardy and unsatisfactory beginning.

The newspaper of February 28 sta,ted that the association was planning a festival to be held on the ice, near t�e west shore. They expected to sail over and form a hollow square with their yachts. The members of the New Harn!burgh Ice Yacht Cluh were to be invited as guests, tables "to be loaded with all good things" were to be placed within the square and there would be speakers, toasts and music. There was no further mention of the festival and it is presumed that the breaking up of the ice prevented the plans from being carried out.

By the middle of January, in 1873, the ice houses along the Hudson were being filled. Three new ice boats had been built for the meIIl(bers of the Athens club �nd the New Hamhurgh yachtsmen were angling for the purchase of Mr. Innis's yacht Haze. The Poughkeepsie boats were on the river, stretching their sails and getting ready for the rac­ ing season. Several members of the New Hamburgh club were plan­ ning to contend in the races to be held at Capitaline Lake under the auspices of the Brooklyn Yacht Club.

A heavy snow storm toward the end of January and severely cold weather postponed any local racing. On January 30, the coldest day in forty years, the thermometer registered 33 degrees below zero in the city and 35 degrees below at Vassar College and at the Dutchess Turnpike toll gate. The cold spell was followed by more snow and it was not until March 24 that the ice boats were on the river. John A. Roosevelt was out with his remodeled Icicle, which was nearly twice as large as any ice boat on the river. It was said to be the largest in the world, with a sail area of 1,070 square feet and an over-all length of 68 feet, 10 inches. The length of her frame ·was 29 feet, 3 inches, and the width between her runners, 25 feet, 7 inches. (Some years later Mr. Roosevelt rebuilt the Icicle, installing a butternut backbone, doing away with the old method of side rails. He reduced the sail area to 735 feet and shortened the length of the boat to 47 feet, 4 inches.

This is the yacht in the museum of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

18

r;,t Hyde Park.)

Members of the New Hamburgh club called on the local club, but they returned home shortly after noon because the ice was getting soft. During the next few days the boats were on the river and on one occasion, when the wind was blowing a gale from the northwest, T. V. Johnston'.s yacht ran away. Captain James Wheeler had her ready for a sail. He and another man were in the cockpit and he had placed a 200-pound man on the runner plank when they started out. They had traveled a short distance when all three men were tumbled out.

No one was seriously injured but the yacht landed on her beam end, her mast gone, and she was a general wreck. The next day the river ice began to break dnd the first steamboat from New York arrived in a few days.

During the next season there was no ice boat racing at Pough­ keepsie. Early in February, 1874, it was reported that there was good ice boating on the bay above Staatsburgh and that the new ice yacht Cyclone had been timed one mile in 32 seconds. On February 18, the local newspaper stated that the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association which had been organized with so much enthusiasm was "practically defunct." One of the leading members, Aaron Innis, had resigned and no meetings had been held that season. Mr. Booth had been out with his Restless and Mr. Innis had made trips to New Hamburgh <ind to Milton in his Hail. The New Ham1burgh club had thirteen boats on the ice and ready for racing, although the ice was poor. The Phantom J when coming back from Fishkill Landing, broke through the ice off Low Point and "ducked all of its crew into the river."

In 1875 the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association was re-organized.

John A. Roosevelt was elected Commodore. Hudson Taylor, William A. Arnold and Henry S. Frost composed the new regatta comm'ittee and were given ample power to act at all times. The association had selected a scarlet burgee, pointed, without device, as the club insignia.

The following boats were on the ice and ready for the coming regatta: Restless and Snow Flake, owned by Oliver H. ;Booth; Hail and ]fazeJ owned by Aaron Innis; Ella by Theodore V. Johnston and the Icicle and Gracie by John A. Roosevelt. However, no regatta was held,

19

'\ 20

I I

,/

\\

\

,/'

The Icicle, owned by John A. Roosevelt, won the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America in 1888, 1889, 1892 and 1899.

Her fastest time, over a 20-mile course (10 miles to windward and return), was 1 hour, 9 minutes, 37 seconds.

This yacht is now in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, N. Y., together with the original pennant.

21

due mainly to heavy snowstorms,· and the ice moved out fr.om south of the furnace dock on April 7.

The next winter the newspaper reported that Commodore Grin­ nell, of the New Hamburgh club, had his ice yacht on the river December 21, 1875, "she being the first ice boat of the season here­ abouts and early in the day she did some tall sailing." On the 29th it was reported .that H. R. Howard of the Buckeye works had had his ice boat f'Vild Goose on the river the day before, that Mr. Roosevelt had had his boat out, north of the ferry track, and that T. V. Johnston was planning to launch his boat that same day. Two da:ys later it was. reported that the Catskill ferry had resumed her trips, that the river was clear of ice at Poughkeepsie and that the ice was fast wasting away in the upper Hudson. On January 4, 1876, the Eagle stated that the "oldest boatman does not recollect the time in the winter season when such extraordinary mild weather prevailed along the Hudson as now."

Just at that time the ice harvesters were not greatly concerned about the warm weather, prophesying that by the first of February there would be a splendid crop and that it could be gathered in ten days by putting on double gangs. The newspaper stated that "thousands of men are waiting anxiously for the work and the longer the delay the more suffering. Wages for the ice men will rate from $1.25 to $1.75 per day.''

However, the month of January passed. with no ice gathered and for a few days in February large gangs of men were put at work in an effort to gather sufficient ice to fill the houses. They were cutting ice at Barrytown 10 to 11 inches thick. On February 14 the news­ papers commented on the extraordinary, mild weather, that the river was free of ice and two days later there were torrents of rain in the Hudson valley.

Late in February there was a cold wave with snow and a sleighing carnivaI was held, but there was no ice boating. Some ice was gathered early in March at Copake Lake and at Round Lake and brought to the river to help fill the ice houses. On the 7th, it was reported that navigation was open and the Daniel S. Miller and the John L. Has-

22

sail area owner 386 sq. feet.

Avalanche E. Harrison Sanford " Advance ( cat) 119¼ " 365 . Norseman " f/iking 493¼ " " f/iva 493¼ " " " 218 Fairy " " Cyclone Henry Bergh, Jr. 417¼ " ,, " " " 444¼ Snow Bird " " Ella 439 Theo.dore V. Johnston " • Ec!to 245 George Collingwood Flying Dutchman 412 William H. Roe Jessie 213 " Grade 493¼ ·,, John A. Roosevelt " " " 1070 Icicle (wt. 2360 lbs.) " Gypsie 248 James N. Winslow Haze 715 Aaron Innis Hail 464 " "" Restless 457 Oliver H. Booth Snow Flake Charles R. Forrest 182 Zip • Thomas H. Ransom 145 " . 475½. " Sappho A. E. Whiting (The last named was ·also a member of the Athens Ice Yacht ·club).

The local newspaper reprinted an article from the New York Times of January 9, 1879: The Shrewsbury Rive-r ·ice boats are by no means the elegant affairs of the Upper Hudson,. nor do they make such wonderful records of speed; but they are comfortable home made affairs, with deep boxes that are generally well filled with hay, and they carry plenty of canvas. What they lack in speed is made up in the daring recklessness of the men who sail them and who will hold on to every stitch of canvass until the last moment in a blow.

and the local paper added, "One of Poughkeepsie's handsome ice yachts ought to be put on the Shrewsbury river just for a sensation. How the eyes of those clam fishermen would stick out!"

A race was held on February 13, for the Ladies' Pennant, ten miles on the Poughkeepsie-Blue Point course. The Hail led the field, followed by Echo, Haze, Icicle, Ella and Snow Flake, in that order.

The Hail turned the home buoy on the first leg only 35 seconds ahead of the Icicle and the last time home they were very close.- It was a great race, the Hail won by fifteen seconds.

The next day, February 14, 1879, the race for the Poughkeepsie Challenge Pennant was held for the first time since 1872. The ·Pough­ keepsie-Blue Point course, ten miles, was selected. Mr. Henry Van Wyck and Mr. Satterthwaite, of the New Ham:burgh Ice Yacht Club,

23

brouck had arrived.--- The whistles ·at the Buckeye and many other places saluted the arrival of the steamboats.

The �e�spaper stated on March 13 that the Hudson River ice crop was over one million tons short, that the capacity of the ice houses was 572,000 tons iu{d ·only 406,000 tons had been housed; 29,800 tons 0 had been stacked, but _�ould 'ha.v� to be ·u:sed early in the season. There had been no ice of any consequenc;e cut south of Barrytown.

Early in - Januar-y of .1877, .the Poughkeepsie club challenged the · New Hamburgh club for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of-America, but there was· no opportunity that season to sail the race. The ice boats were ·out ·on some occasions. On January 24 the ice was rough and the wind was a gale. Charles Gallup's· Alert-was struck by a heavy gust and stood on her beam end and the Skirmisher was sailing around in all kinds- of antics. "like a runaway horse." Most of the -yachtsmen stood about waiting for-the-·wind to subside. The next day. there was no wirtd, and no racing.

On ·March _27, the local dub _staged a race for the Ladies' Pennarit on the ·Poughkeeps1e-:- Milto·n �ourse. The Ella was firs·t away w·ith a fine l�ad, but wa� overhauled by the Hail and _Gracie. The Hail was _ leadin_g by four_ minutes at the halfway stake and was the only yacht which did not have to push around the stake. However, she lost the wind coming· home . and the Restless won by five seconds. It was a very unsatisfactory race, the last race of the season.

The next season ·was an "open winter" and there was little ice qoating. On January 9, the club held four races. One race was between the Avalanche, Gracie, Snow Flake and Gypsie and they finished in that order. There was no report on the other races.

Ori January 1, 1879, the Eagle listed the .officers of the local duh as: Commodore, John A. Roosevelt; vice-commlOdore, Theodore V. Johnston; secretary, Thomas Ransom; treasurer, Guy C. Bayley; and the regatta committee, Hudson Taylor, Henry S. Frost and William C. Arnold. At this time there were twenty-seven members of the club and they owned twenty-one yachts:

24

assisted the local regatta committee. In addition to eleven Pough-· keepsie boats there were the Zig Zag, Zero, Quickstep, Flying Cloud, Phantom, Zephyr and Magic, of the New Hamburgh club and Sappho of the Athens Club.

The Quickstep 'led the boats away and held the lead for most of the race. She was followed by the Snow Bird and Zephyr and, in this order, turned the out buoy. On the way back the Icicle overtook all of th�m at Barnegat. Then the wind died out and it was a pushing race most of the time, a very unsatisfactory contest. Mr. Leroy, of the Quickstep, protested of unfair pushing on the part of the Snow Bird's crew. The protest was not allowed and the Snow Bird was declared the winner. The Gracie, sailed by John Thompson, broke her runner plank and the Icicle had one of her sta11board shrouds carried away.

On the following day a twelve-mile race on the Poughkeepsie­ Blue Point course, for the fifteen-foot Winslow silk pennant (gold stars on a blue field) was held. Thomas Foster and Floy Johnston were the judges. It was a pretty race, the most exciting of the season, although the wind had gradually died out and some of the yachts lost it at times. The Haze had the misfortune to hit a sled which had been left on the ice; .she was heading for the finish and fouled one of her runners and could not free herself. She lost the rac_e to the_ Gracie by five seconds. Other boats which st�rted in this race were the Viking, Snow Flake and Jcicle, and came in third, fourth and fifth. The Viva and the Hail did not place and the new Buckhout boat, which had just been named Comet, was becalmed on the way to the finish.

HARRY T. -BRIGGS EDITOR'S NOTE: Part II, _of. the article on "The Po1,1ghkeepsie Ice Boat Association," by Harry T. Briggs, will be published in the ·1952 issue of the year book. Other articles on ice yachting on the Hudson River are in course of preparation.

25

ICE YlACHTING ON THE HUD SON RIVER THE PouGHKEEPSIE IcE BoAT AssocIATION-PART

II

There was no ice 1boating during the season of 1879-80, a very mild, open winter.

The following year the ice boats were early on the river. The Eagle of January 20, 1881, stated that the yachtsmen had already had twenty-one days of sailing. A match race had been held on De­ cember 27, between the Gypsie and the Fairy, an exciting race, won by a few lengths, by the Fairy. On January 13, the Snow Flake won a three-heat race with the Avalanche. On the 15th, the Gypsie won the Ladies' Pennant in an eight-mile race against the Fairy and Zip. A few days later the Avalanche won, by a narrow margin in a whirl­ wind finish, a match race with the Gracie.

The newspaper said that the Poughkeepsie association was com­ posed of gentlemen of means and did not race for money, stating, "this club is not a sporting club in the American sense of the word." At this time the club had a mem1bership of thirty and they owned twenty­ three yachts.

During the whole season the ice was unprecedentedly good for yachting. On some occasions races scheduled were called off for lack of wind. The Icicle won the Ladies' Pennant on February 16, in a race against the Gracie, Snow Flake, Avalanche, Haze, Aeolus, Fairy, Hail, Restless, Ella, Echo and Virginia. The rigging was ripped loose from the Virginia and she capsized, throwing out her sailing master, who, fortunately, was not injured. This race was on a new course, from a flag opposite the Vassar Brewery, to another flag one mile south, to a flag five miles north, near Crum Elbow.

Several visitors from New York who had enjoyed the hospitality of the local yachtsmen had presented a silver tiller as a trophy. It was won first by the Aeolus on February 16, competing with ten of tlte other local boats. The next day another race was held for the tiller, and was won by the Icicle. On the following day the third heat for the tiller was held. The Aeolus led the yachts away, followed by the Icicle and the Restless. She retained her lead until approaching the out stake for the second time. Due to heavy wind she was tern-

26

porarily out of control and could not get around the stake. The Icicle raced home two miles ahead of the Restless. Having won the two of three heats, the Icicle and Com,modore Roosevelt were presented with the "Corinthian Championship Tiller."

With the winning of this trophy, the official races of the Pough­ keepsie club closed for the season. Scrub races were held on the 18th, "The lovliest day o,f ice boating of the season." In the afternoon nearly all of the boats, with two or three men on each, started down the river to visit the New Hamburgh club. The Hail, while rushing along at tremendous speed, broke her bowsprit, her mast went overboard and she lay in the middle of the river a complete wreck.

The Ladies' Pennant was won by the Fairy on February 16 and by the Gypsie on the 17th. This trophy, first won by the Haze in 1872, now became the property of James N. Winslow, won twice by the Gypsie during this season.

On February 21, 1881, there was great excitement and much interest among the local ice boating enthusiasts when Captain Hiram Relyea, of Athens, sailed in at Poughkeepsie with his newly designed ice yacht Robert Scott, and speculation ran high as to how the new boat would measure up in contests with the fast ice yachts of the Poughkeepsie and New Ham1burgh groups.

Captain Relyea resided in Athens, New York, and was pilot of the steamer, Daniel S. Miller, owned by the Poughke_epsie Transpor­ tation Company. During the previous summer, at Poughkeepsie with the aid of Mr. Buckhout, he had designed and built the new ice yacht, making several radical changes in its construction. It carried 499 square feet of sail and it was the theory of her builder that she would sail much faster on all points of the wind than any ice yacht yet built.

It was constructed with a tray cockpit, with cable side stays instead of wood side rail_s, making the yacht much lighter in weight. It also had a new improvement in balance of weight, as her mast was stepped three feet forward of the runner plank, whereas masts of the older boats were stepped directly over the runner plank causing a heavy drag on the rudder which is a great handicap, especially if the ice is soft.

She used a much smaller jib and a shorter boom, bringing the center of effort to_ a better balanced point as to resistance, with higher· hoist

27

of the main sail.

All of the yachtsmen were anxious to test the merits of the new boat and the next day a scrub race was arranged for the Icicle, Aeolus, Snow Flake and Robert Scott to sail to New Hamburgh, nine miles.

The Robert Scott defeated them all, from four to thirteen minutes.

Commodore Roosevelt then purchased the yacht for $600. and re­ named it Great Scott. From this improved design, our later fast, rear­ steering ice yachts were perfected. The late George Buckhout built one that sailed a mile and a half on a measured course in 32 ?econds, about 176 miles per hour, which is fast traveling in an open conveyance on a frosty day.

On January 18, 1882, at a meeting of the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association, John A. Roosevelt, Theodore V. Johnston, Thomas Ran­ som and Dr. Guy C. Bayley were re-elected officers of the club. The regatta committee was appointed, as follows: Dr. Bayley, Thomas Foster and Clarence Cary. The association had a membership of be­ tween thirty and forty members who owned the following yachts: Advance, Aeolus, Avalanche, Cyclone, Echo., Ella, Fairy, Gracie, Gypsie, Hail, Haze, Icicle, Jessie B., Norseman, Restless, Sappho, Snow Bird, Snow Flake, Virginia Bird and Zip and two or three new boats, built

during the past summer. There was no weather for ice boating until late in February. The New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club had challenged, on January 30, for the Challenge Pennant of the Hudson River, which had been won by the Poughkeepsie club three years before. And, the Poughkeepsie association challenged the New Hamburgh organization for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America. On the last day of January, twelve inches of snow fell; February 2, twenty inches more; and, on the 5th, thirty-six inches more, a total of sixty-eight inches of snow in six days. This was followed by a thaw and, on the 15th, the ice in the river started to break. Then came sleet, hail, rain and snow and a cold snap. The steamer, J. L. Hasbrouck took eighteen hours to get from New York to Newburgh. It was not the right weather for ice yachting.

It was reported that on February 23, 188_2, there were seventeen ice boats at Roosevelt's Point, where a triangular course had been laid out. Races were sailed for three silk pennants. The Aeolus won

28

the first race, winning four heats out of five, against the Viking. In the second race, the Avalanche (which had been remodeled after the Robert Scott) won two straight heats in a contest with the Aeolus and the Gracie. (The pennant was awarded to the first yacht winning two heats.) In the next race, between the Flash., Fairy and Gypsie., the pennant was awarded to the Gypsie which won two heats out of four.

On the 26th, there was a race between the Gracie., Viking and Viva.

It was won by the Gracie., sailed by Commodore Roosevelt. On this occasion Archibald R!ogers appeared upon the scene with his new yacht, Jack Frost, which had been built on the design of the Robert Scott., but larger. 'George Lumb was out with his yacht, Jessie B. On March 2, there was rain, snow and a heavy fog. The yachts v.rere taken off the ice and there was no more sailing that season.

It was reported that one boat was on the river at Poughkeepsie on January 16, 1883. Plans were made for four regattas: one for the club colors, now held by the Icicle; a race for the Poughkeepsie Challenge Pennant, held by the Snow Bird; a race for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America, held by the Phantom ., of New Ham­ burgh; and racing by the Poughkeepsie yachts, for the silver tankard.

On January 23, the club pennant was won by the Avalanche, owned

by E. H. Sanford, vice-commodore of the club, against the Gracie., Viva, Aeolus, Hail., Jessie B., Snow Fldke, Icicle., Flash, Ella, Jennie and Jack Frost. On the 25th, a match race was arranged between John A. Roosevelt's Viva and Judge Gildersleeve's Virginia (sailed by E. H. Sanford). The Virginia was leading and was "fairly flying" at 500 yards from the finish buoy, when a heavy gust of wind heeled _her over on her beam and carried her within fifty feet of the finish line, when Mr. Sanford was thrown out on the ice. He held on to the tiller and threw her up in the wind and stopped the boat with her bowsprit broken in three pieces. The accident barred it being a race, and it was so declared.

The Poughkeepsie Eagle of January 27, 1883, mentioned that a reporter from the New York World had been in Poughkeepsie within a few days and the metropolitan newspaper had published a description of the races held here.

The Poughkeepsie Challenge Pennant, held by the Snow Bird,

29

...

was the trophy for which the New Hamburgh group raced the local club on February 1. The New Hamburgh club was represented by the Phantom.., owned by A. Van Wyck and sailed by "Nort" Carpenter.

The Aeolus was away first, followed by the Phantom and the Avalanche and, on the first leg buoy, it was Avalanche, Phantom..., Aeolus. At the upper buoy the Ella and Flash had collided. In order to avoid hitting Judge Gildersleeve, who was standing at the buoy, the Hail hit the buoy, carrying it a half-mile across the river. No one was hurt. In rounding the lower buoy, on the first leg, the Jessie B. hit the buoy as well as the starter's cannon. On the second leg, Avalanche was �till leading, followed by Gracie, Aeolus and Phantom. Viva had been disabled and had retired. The race was won by Aeolus, sailed

by Norman Wright. The Phantom came in fourth. Other yachts starting the race, included the Cyclone, Snow Flake and Virginia.

The following week the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association and the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club contended for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America. It was won by the Avalanche, owned

by Aaron Innis. Jadk Frost, owned and sailed by Archibald Rogers, came in second.

Some days later, on February 21, 1883, races (best two in three heats) were held for the Archibald Rogers ,cup. The distance was sixteen miles and the competitors were all members of the Poughkeep­ sie club. Aaron Innis won two straight heats with his new Haze, sailed by Richard Knight and Jacob Buckhout. The new boat had never been sailed before. It had been built by Jacoh Buckhout and was patterned after the Robert Scott, the model followed by most of the later yachts.

On Washington's birthday there was much stir and excitement among the yachtsmen at the riverfront. Captain Charles E. Throck­ morton, James B. Weaver, James Doughty, C. A. Hendrickson, J. M. Dennis and W. H. Chandler, all of Red Bank, New Jersey, representing the North Shrewsbury Ice Yacht Club, had come with their ice yacht, Scud, to contend for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America.

The regatta committee was com.posed of Commodore Bayley, John Miley, Clarence Cary, James Reynolds and Thomas Foster. Eleven of the local boats were entered against the Scud. Positions were drawn

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but the wind died out entirely and the race was called off, after the boats had drifted about for a time. The visiting yachtsmen were banqueted that evening at the Arlington Hotel and they ·attended a performance at the Collingwood Opera House, where they saw Sol Smith Russell in "Edgewood Folks."

There was better luck the next day. The Scud drew the favorite place and only seven of the local boats were entered. Most of them carried two men each. The distance was to be 20 miles and the course from· the Pumping Station to Roosevelt Point. The starter's gun sent them away at 9 :15 a. m. The Haze, Jack Frost, Avalanche and the Scud went away in that order, but it was evident at once that the Haze's runners were too sharp, as the Jack Frost overhauled her and went into the lead "with the speed of a frightened deer" and was first at the outer buoy, followed by the Haze, 19 seconds behind at the turning of the first leg. They were followed by the Avalanche, Icicle and Scud, in that order. At the end of the second leg the Scud fell back to seventh place. On the fifth and last leg up, Jadk Frost and Haze passed the Scud on her fourth lap. The Jack Frost finished in 1 :14:35, with the Haze twenty-two seconds behind, followed by Avalanche, Icicle, Aeolus, Viva and Gracie. The Scud, "the smartest ice boat in the world," did not finish and the North Shrewsbury visitors and challengers realized that they were soundly beaten, much to their astonishment �nd disappointment. They were outclassed and ack­ nowledged it by ordering Jacob Buckhout to build them a new yacht of the latest pattern for the next year.

Besides the racers in line, a score of other yachts, gaily decorated with flags, were flying a;bout in every direction. The sun shone brightly, the air was crisp and bracing and the scene generally was a picturesque one. When the Jack Frost finished she was loudly cheered, as was the Haze. When the confusion had subsided, Archibald Rogers was pre­ sented with the Champion Ice Yacht Pennant of America and hoisted it above the masthead.

Within a few days the yachtsmen with their yachts gathered at Rogers' Point and were guests of Mr. Rogers who had luncheon served at his boat house. There were two scrub races from this point to Esopus Island and return, gomg around the island. In one race

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Dr. Guy C. Bayley was thrown from the Gracie and was "ducked" in the river, when her runner dropped into an air hole. One of the races was between the GracieJ Aeolus and the ScudJ each carrying three men.

The Scud was defeated.

In 1884 the North Shrewsbury Ice Yacht Club challenged the Poughkeepsie association for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of Ameri­ ca. The local club accepted the challenge and appointed a regatta com­ mittee composed of William Morse, Thomas Ransom and Thomas Foster. The race was sailed on February 10, on the Poughkeepsie course, north 6 2/3 miles and return, sailed over three times; twenty miles, with a time limit of one hour and eighteen minutes. The North Shrewsbury group was represented by the DreadnaughtJ Captain Throck­ morton; ldlerJ Captain George Coley; Uncle BobJ Captain Thomas Hubbard and TempestJ Captain James E. Doughty. The wind was fresh, S.S.E., the ice was good ( there was a slight rain), and the start was made at 10 :29 a. m.

Position l Jack Frost 2 Icicle 3 Aeolus 4 NorthernLight 5 Tempest 6 Idler 7 Haze 8 Dreadnaught 9 Avalanche 10 Jessie 11 Uncle Bob

first 2nd third owner, sailor leg leg leg time 2 3 3 1:07:10 A. Rogers 7 6 8 1:12:48 J. A. Roosevelt Norman Wright 5 8 6 1:11:35 Dr. Barron 6 7 4 1:10:14 James E. Doughty 9 did not finish George Coley 4 4 5 1:11:14 A. Innis (Knight) 1 1 1 1:05:30 C. E. Throckmorton 3 2 2 1.:06 :56 8 5 7 1:12:05 E. H. Sanford George Lumb 10 9 9 time not taken did not finish Thomas Hubbard 11

The Haze led away, followed by the DreadnaughtJ lack FrostJ Icicle and AvalancheJ and was first at the out buoy. From there to the finish line it was a great race between the HazeJ Jack Frost and Dreadnaught. It was the first time the remodeled Haze had raced for this trophy and she finished "amidst the blowing of whistles, firing of cannon, ringing of bells and the cheers of the two thousand spectators, to which her sailing master, Dick Knight, responded by rolling on his back in her cockpit and kicking up his heels as he 'downed stick' and sent her across the line, winner of the 'Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America,' twenty miles in one hour, five minutes and thirty seconds."

Dreadnaught came in second and lack Frost third. It was a great race.

Other races, of less importance, were held that season. Dr. J. C.

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Barron had presented a cup which was won by Archibald Rogers and his lack Frost. The course was from Poughkeepsie, three and one­ half miles north and return, to be sailed twice, a distance of fourteen miles. Each entrant must sail his own boat and must win two heats.

There were only three contestants in the first heat. It was an exciting race between the lack Frost and Icicle, finishing thirty-three seconds apart. The time for the lessie B. was not given. In the second heat there were five yachts competing: Icicle, Snow Flake, Jessie B., lack Frost and Aeolus. The lack Frost won in 54 minutes. The Jessie B., sailed by Charles Lumb, was second. A race for the club pennant was won by Aaron Innis's Haze, sailed by Richard Knight, against nine other boats.

The local newspaper of January 17, 1885, reported that the ice yachtsmen were disconsolate because there were no signs of boating.

"They are all ready, rigging all set, boats oiled and polished, new canvas, runners sharpened, flags ironed out and still the yachts are resting on shore and liable to stay there for some time." A week later a telegram was received from Archibald Rogers reporting that the ice was fine at Hyde Park. The lack Frost was the first on the river that winter. There was zero weather by February 11 and. two yachts from the New Hamburgh called on the local club. The next day five Poughkeepsie boats, Northern Light, lack Frost, Avalanche, Gracie and Flash, returned the call. It was reported that Commodore Grin­ nell, of the New Hamburgh club, was out with his new yacht, Zero, built after the Robert Scott, and that she handled beautifully.

Arrangements were made for a race between the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club and the :Aoughkeepsie Ice Boat Association for the Challenge Pennant of America, to be held on February 14, 1885.

The course, twenty miles, was to be two miles north from Poughkeepsie, to be sailed over five times. The regatta committee was composed cf Thom.as R!ansom, Clarence Cary and Peter Hulme. There were more than 2,000 spectators gathered at the river when the start was made at 4 p. m. Twelve members of the Shrewsbury Ice Yacht Club had arrived in town and they wished to start in the race. The New Hamburgh club was asked to agree, but claimed prior rights and refused to give its consent. Seven Poughkeepsie club boats: Haze,

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owned by Aaron Innis and sailed by Richard Knight; Avalanche, E. H. Sanford; Icicle, Commodore Roosevelt; Northern Light, Dr. Barron; Jack Frost, Archibald Rogers; Gracie, Commodore Roosevelt, and sailed by William Smith; and Jessie B., George Lumb; and an equal number of New Hamburgh boats: Quickstep, owned and sailed by William Leroy; Whiff and Whistler, owned by Commodore Grinnell; Phantom; Zero, owned and sailed by Commodore Grinnell; Zephyr, J. S. Ackerman; and Mischief, owned and sailed by G. L. Aldridge; were entered in the race.

The Haze led off but was soon winded by Northern Light, which was first at the out ,buoy. The Zero, which was following, fouled the out buoy and struck a boy, Samuel Scott, son of the flagman stationed near the scene, bruising him severely. Commodore Grinnell stopped the Zero, to go to the boy's assistance, and other New Hamburgh yachtsmen did also, which put them out of the race. Coming down the river the Avalanche went to the windward of the Haze and took second position, with the Jack Frost in the fourth place and the rest far behind. From there on there were only four boats in the race, with the Northern Light leading up to the last lap at the out buoy.

The wind was now blowing a gale and as she reached and was a!bout to turn the buoy, she ·became unmanageable and Dr. Barron was unable to take her around. It was here that the Haze overhauled her and took the lead, having passed the Avalanche, and came home the winner, thirty seconds ahead of Jack Frost.

After the race Mr. Grinnell, Commodore of the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club, and sailing the Zero, put in a claim of foul against the Haze, as did also Mr. ·Rogers who sailed the Jack Frost. Mr. Grinnell said "the Haze crowded him against the buoy." Commodore Grinnell claimed "that after the Haze had rounded the upper stake boat the first time, the Zero was close up when the Haze ran across the Zero's bow and Mr, Grinnell being crowded by the Haze, had to turn abruptly to the westward to avoid a collision and in so doing hit the boy."

Mr. Rogers protested against the Haze claiming the race and the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America on the grounds "that the helmsman of the Haze did force my yacht, Jack Frost, either to run

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into the Haze or give way and accept a lee berth, said yacht Jack Frost being on starboard tack and said yacht Haze being on port tack. The yacht lack Frost would have winded the Haze if the latter had acted up to the rules of the road."

On Mr. Rogers' claim, Richard Knight played ignorance and. to Commodore Grinnell's claim, he replied, " ...after I rounded the buoy I ran in stays [tarry; dally; wait] and in endeavoring to move my tiller found that the end of it had caught in the button-hole of my coat, so I kept the boat in her stays, thinking Mr.Grinnell would. take in the situation and act accordingly. I consider that he claims a foul on a mere technicality."

It would appear that Mr. Knight tried some foxy and loose sailing, according to the rules, and, unfortunately, the regatta com­ mittee did not handle the matter at all skilfully. They first presented the matter at a special meeting of the club, which had been called for other business; it was referred back to them and they then decided the matter without any hearings from either of the claimants.

Mr.Knight said that if they did not award the pennant to the Haze, she would not start in the race against the Shrewsbury Ice Yacht Club, to be sailed within a few days for this same trophy.

The regatta committee awarded the race to the Haze, which under the circumstances was most unfortunate. Immediately Com­ modore John A. Roosevelt, Archibald Rogers and several others resigned from the clulb, a blow from which it never fully recovered.

James B.Weaver of the Shrewsbury club had brought to Pough­ keepsie his new yacht Scud, equipped with the new lateen sail, the largest in the United States, measuring 52 feet on the foot, 36 feet on the yard and 40 feet, six inches, on the after leech, an area of nearly 600 square feet of canvas. The new model, lateen rigged ice boat, was credited to Charles Gallup, an idea which he had conceived twelve years before. It did away with the jib and main sail, spreading them all into one, which swung between two supports. Mr.Gallup had been a member of the Poughkeepsie club but had removed to Cuba.

A day or so later the Shrewsbury club had the opportunity to race for the Challenge Pennant of America, against the Poughkeepsie club.

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The course, from New Hamburgh to Van Rensselaer Point and return, and over the course four times, a distance of twenty miles, was chosen.

The Shrewsbury group entered three yachts, Scud., Dreadnaught and Grover Cleveland., and the Poughkeepsie club had five yachts in the race: Northern Light, owned by Dr. Barron and sailed by J. Buckhout; Haze., owned by Aaron Innis and sailed by Richard Knight; Avalanche., owned and sailed by E. H. Sanford; Jack Frost., owned and sailed

by Archibald Rogers and I essie B . ., owned and sailed by George Lumb.

The Haze led off but was soon overhauled by the Northern Light., which held the lead to the finish. The much-vaunted Scud became stalled on the first lap and was never in the race. However, the Dreadnaught sailed a good race and was beaten by three minutes.

The members of the Shrewsbury group were much surprised and dis­ appointed and issued another challenge to the local club. Dr. Barron agreed to race his Northern Light (sailed by William Smith) against any yacht of the Shrewsbury club. The date was set for March 26, in the early forenoon, because it was late in the season and the ice might become soft. The contestants gathered at New Hamburgh at 7 :30 a. m., but by 9:30 the ice had become too soft. The race was post­ poned and within a few days the steamboats were on the river again.

I can recall that, on April 1, 1885, my father, John G. Briggs, came home saying that he had just sailed from Poughkeepsie to Hyde Plark with Edward S. Foster, on the latter's ice boat, a feat that he had never heard of at so late a date. And I have never heard of such an experience since.

The organized ice yacht clubs of the Hudson Valley, at this date, included: Dutchess Junction Ice Yacht Club, Newburgh Ice Yacht Club (later the Orange Lake Ice Yacht Club), Carthage Landing Ice Yacht Club, New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club, Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association, Port Ewen Ice Yacht Club (with seven boats in their fleet), Rondout Ice Yacht Club, owning five yachts; Athens Ice Yacht Club, Hudson Ice Yacht Club and the Allbany Ice Yacht Club.

The men, including Archibald Rogers and John A. Roosevelt \vho had resigned from the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association, organized the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club. Dr. Barron became a member

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of the new group, but also retained his membership. in the Poughkeepsie club.

On January 1, 1886, the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association held its annual meeting and elected officers for the ensuing year: Com­ modore, Theodore V. Johnston; vice-commodore, William R. Innis; secretary and treasurer, Thomas Ransom. W. B. Weaver of Red Bank, New Jersey, a member of the Shrewsbury club and owner of the Scud� was elected a member of the Poughkeepsie association.

The Hudson River Ice Yacht Club challenged the local club for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America and for the Poughkeepsie Challenge Pennant. The New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club also chal­ lenged for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America. However, there was no racing under the auspices of the Poughkeepsie association during this season. The newspaper of January 18 reported that the previous day had been a gala day for winter sports on the Hudson.

A ,crowd, estimated at one thousand men, women and children, had been skating on the river and there had been trotting races on the ice.

The ice yachtsmen had been there too, but there was no wind for sailing. Judge Barnard, one of the skaters, had skated fourteen miles and others were reported to have skated to Kingston. Throughout the month, in fact during the whole season, there was no proper ice for ice boating at Poughkeepsie. However, there was racing at Hyde Park and at New Hamburgh. On February 6, there were at one time on the ice at New Hamburgh twenty-five yachts, with all sails stand­ ing and presenting a handsome picture.

The newspaper of February 8, gave a long description of a new steam ice yacht which looked "exactly like a locomotive with runners instead of wheels," which had been invented in New York by a former local resident.

The Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association held its annual µieeting on January 4, 1887, and re-elected the officers of the year before. The river north and south was in good condition for ice boating and the local yachts were 'being rigged and put upon the ice. The riverfront pre­ sented a scene of great activity. Hundreds of fishermen with nets sunk through the ice were catching striped bass, perch and frost fish.

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Harvesting of the ice crop was in progress, requiring the aid of thousands of men and boys and horses and a hundred steam engines. Then came snow storm after snow storm and there was splendid sleighing but no ice boating. The newspaper reported that Mr. Herrington had used· his roller on College Avenue and the track was in good condition for horseracing. At the end of the month the ice yachts were finally on the ice and plans were made for the race for the Poughkeepsie Challenge Pennant to be held the next day. This was the first race for this pennant since February 1, 1883.

The regatta C<_)mmittee, Theodore V. Johnston, William F. Booth and Theodore Van Kleeck, selected a twenty-four mile course, from the Lower Landing to and around a flag bush off Van Rensselaer Point, to be sailed over twice. The Hudson River Ice Yacht Cluh entered eight ·boats: Bessie, owned by N. P. Rogers; Reindeer, George Bech; Northern Light, .Dr. J. C. Barron; Jack Frost, Archibald Rogers; Great Scott, E. H. Sanford; St. Nicholas, Edmund P. Rogers;_ Icicle, John A. Roosevelt; and Gracie, sailed by Lewis Edwards. The Pough­ keepsie association entered the Haze, owned by Aaron Innis and sailed

by Richard Knight; Jessie B., owned and sailed by Charles Lumb and the Scud, owned and sailed by J. B. Weaver.

The Reindeer led the yachts away and was first at the out buoy; however, the Bessie beat her home on the first leg. The boats had been sent away ten seconds apart, to avoid interference. The Scud, which had been re-rigged from a lateen to a sloop and boasted of now being the fastest yacht sailing to windward, was beaten on every leg of the race. She finished the course in 1 hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds.

The race was won iby the Reindeer, her time being 1 hour, 5 minutes and 40 seconds. She was followed by the Northern Light, second, and Bessie, third. The newspaper reported that the Scud was fourth but, a few days later, Archibald Rogers and other members of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club protested that the Great Scott and the St. Nicholas had been fourth and fifth and the Scud had really come in sixth. A passenger on the Jack Frost had had his foot frosted and the boat had stopped and had withdrawn from the race. The Haze had carried away a bob-stay and had withdrawn.

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This was the first race for the Reindeer and was sailed by Jacob Buckhout. The pennant which she won was never won away from the Hudson River Yacht Club. This was the first ice yacht race which I had ever witnessed. I was twelve years old and was much impressed and well remember it to this day.

On February 14 there was great excitement on the river. The yachtsmen were preparing their boats for the contest for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America, held by the local club. The newspaper reported that it was a cold day and a ·strong win.cl blowing. There were about a thousand persons and about thirty handsome ice yachts.

The regatta committee had selected a 16-mile course from a stake off the Main Street pier to, and around, a stake off Milton, four miles south and return, to be sailed over twice. There were entered three local yach�s: Haze, owned by Aaron Innis and sailed lby Richard Knight; Scud, owned and sailed ·by J. B. Weaver,; and the Jessie B., owned and sailed by Charles Lumb.

The Hudson River Ice Yacht Club had entered nine yachts: Iack Frost, Archibald Rogers; Northern Light, Dr. J. C. Barron; Great Scott, E. H. Sanford; St. Nicholas, E. P. Rogers; Reindeer, George Bech; Icicle, John A. Roosevelt; Bessie, N. P. Rogers; Avalanche; Edward Sanford; and Eskimo by Phillips Phoenix. These yachts were all sailed by their owners.

The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle of February 15, 1887, reported that it was a great race. The lad.k Frost led on the first leg, followed

by Northern Light, Haze, Great Scott, Eskimo and St. Nicholas, with the others following closely behind. "As each boat rounded the stake and turned south again, several of them lifted and the spray from their groaning and shrieking runners flew to the rear in clouds and sparkled and shone like particles of diamond dust." It was a beautiful and exciting race as the great white wings tacked and sped up. and down the river after one another and it had the assembled spectators spell­ bound. When the lack Frost shot across the line, the winner, there was tremendous cheering, especially by the friends of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club. Soon after, the famous yacht had the Challenge Pennant at her peak and there was more cheering.

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The boats made the sixteen miles in the following time: Jack Frost Northern Light Haze Great Scott Reindeer Icicle Eskimo St. Nicholas Scud Avalanche Bessie Jessie B.

minutes 43 44 44 45 46 47 47 48 50 50 50 56

seconds 40 20 30 50

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35 35 5 29 30 32

This was a very satisfactory race, with no protests or complaints.

The Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America was presented to Com­ modore Roosevelt of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club and it was never won away from this club.

The next season it was reported that the first month of the year, 1888, had ·been one of the coldest Januarys, with continuous cold and snow, in forty years. The ice boats had little opportunity to get on the river until the end of February. There had been some trotting on the ice during that month. Early in March there was some racing at Low Point and at Hyde Park. Some of the local boats were par­ ticipating in those races. Then came the great blizzard and there was no ice yachting for the rest of the season.

The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle of March 1, 1888,. lamented that neither the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club nor the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association had held an annual meeting or arranged for any racing and that both groups seemed to be practically disorganized. It commented on the fact that the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club had "come to the front with a rush that is something wonderful, considering the fact that it has been organized not quite three years, and now has a membership of sixty-five and a fleet of thirty-two handsome and im­ proved yachts." All of the enthusiasm that had marked the Pough­ keepsie club when it was "the greatest ice boat club in the world," seemed to have evaporated. Even the proddings of the newspaper did not rouse any great response and· there was no racing under the auspices of this association after it lost the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America on February 14, 1887. Many of the members joined the

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Hudson River Ice Yacht Club, some sold their yachts and others continued to enjoy the sport for its own sake. By 1892 the disintegra­ tion of the local organization seemed to be complete. No trace of the record books has been found. The dissolution of the club has been considered the result of the unfortunate accident involving the skipper of the Haze on February 14, 1885. Another reason for the discon­ tinuance of racing at Poughkeepsie, in addition to the location of the headquarters of .the Hudson Rliver Ice Yacht Club at Hyde Park, was the con�inued effort to keep open the ferry track.

The Icicle, together with the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America and one of the other pennants, has been preserved in the museum of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park. For more than a quarter of a century Poughkeepsie had been the center of ice yacht racing. When the pioneer of this sport, the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association, dissolved the Hudson River Ice Boat Club was flourishing and it carried on the sport for some years.

HARRY T. BRIGGS NOTE. The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, of January 11, 1886, pub­ lished the conditions under which the races, for the pennants, were held by the local clubs: The Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America, the championship flag of the world. Regattas open to all organized yacht clubs. The races for it are to be sailed in the order in which the challenges are received, over the annual regatta course of the club challenged, but if the ice on such course be in no proper condition, the race shall be sailed over the nearest mutual course to be selected by the committee appointed for this particular race. By precedent the course has been ten miles to windward and return, to be made in one hour, fifteen minutes. (Under very favorable circumstances the race was sailed over in 57 minutes and the flag won by the Avalanche in 1883).

The Poughkeepsie Challenge Pennant is the championship flag of the Hudson River and the regattas are open only to organized yacht clubs on the Hudson River.

The Ladies' Pennant and the Winslow Pennant were both re­ ferred to as "club pennants" and were sailed for only by the members of the Poughkeepsie Ice Boat Association.

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AS I REMEMBER Frank V. Mylod *

Sixty years ago in Poughkeepsie, a boy's entertainment was no better than his own imagination but he had quite a territory to cover in those days in search of adventure.

The Hudson River vvas the western limit of the territory we roamed and it provided a variety of diversions. Much of that boundary has changed drast;cally since those early days and, for any recollection of how things were then, we must now resort to meffiory.

We early learned that the river alternately flowed north and south, changing every six hours giving high tide and low tide.

Our tour north along the shore begins at the old Main Street dock which projected into the river directly in line with the street.

The north half of the dock was open and ran along the piles of the ferry slip. The south half was covered. There was an old hotel build­ ing on the south side of the street adjoining the dock and extending back along the shore. The Jacob Tremper, The Martin and other freight boats tied up along the wharf and took on their cargo here. The Day Line boats and the Jl1ary Powell also landed at the Main Street dock.

On one occasion, the iron steamboat Sirius docked to take on a crowd of mothers and eager children for a sail do,,·n the river as the guests of Robert W. Chandler \\·ho was running for Dutchess County Sheriff. ( He also had a clambake for the farm vote and became known as "Sheriff Bob.") From time to time we Yvere "resident engineers," brought to the �cene to plan the recovery of one of the trolley cars which had run off the end of the dock into the river. All that remains now .at the foot of Main Street is a narrow pier used mostly by heirs of the perennial fish­ ermen. Whether thev still tie their lines to an umbrella rib with a bell on the end, I do not know.

Hard by the old Main Street dock was the ferry slip used by the Brinkerhoff and in later years also by the Poughkeepsie, the first electric ferry boat. The slip's bulkhead could be raised or lowered against the main deck of the ferry to compensate for the rise and fall of the tide.

The chain controlling the device rattled music all its own and signalled the prompt rush of wagons and people coming ashore. The only com­ petition the ferry had at the time was Cashdollar's launch which ran across to "The Oaks," a mile or so below the Highland landing.

To request passage in the launch which was moored on the west shore, a white flag was run up a flagpole on Main Street dock. To signal Cashdollar at night, a lantern was run up the pole.

The building of the Mid-Hudson Bridge of course eliminated the need for ferries and also eliminated the luxury of riding all afternoon on the upper deck of the Brinkerhoff for ten cents.

'Frank V. Mylod is a life-long resident of Poughkeepsie. He is a Trustee and Secretary of the Historical Society and is the Historian of the City of Poughkeepsie.

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.View of Poughkeepsie about 1900 from the Railroad Bridge

The "New York", Hudson River Day Line boat at Poughkeepsie, 1900

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Also a familiar sight also in this v1cm1ty was the tugboat Annie which was furnished by the bridge . .railroad to guide strings of scows and canal boats safely between the piers of the railroad bridge. The tows be:ng pulled by a Cornell or some other tug were of consid­ erable length and the Annie generally took up a position in the rear.

I read one night that the Annie, showing the strain of her years, had sunk at the dock. Her replacement never knew the same fame. The colorful tows no longer pass here in numbers and I believe the guide is no longer furnished.

The Day Line Company bought the coal yard adjacent to the ferry slip and built a handsome pier of its own capable of handling thousands of passengers a day. Some of the steamers had capacities of six thousand people and many of these passengers got off the 'up-boat' and immediately boarded the 'down-boat' when it came in. The Mary Powell also docked here in the morning at 7 :30 on her New York trip and in the evening at 6 :30 or 7 :00 on the return run to Kingston.

The variafon in her arrival time at night was regulated by the tide and referred to as her 'early' or 'late' week.

The pleasure of a sail on the river was available in many combi­ nations. One could take the Powell in the morning, have a couole of hours in New York and be back in the early evening, or get off that boat at Newburgh on the down trip and come back on the day boat which arrived here about 1 :30. Still another trip was to go to New­ burgh or Bear Mountain on the day boat and return on the Po·wel!; or in later years on the Chauncey DePew. Next to its dock the Day Line company also built an ice-making plant and there were always large blocks of ice ready on small trucks when the boats arrived. Just north of this building was Foster's coal dock which had small trucks loaded with fine coal ready to be rolled onto the boats when needed. Foster's steam hoisting equipment and dock have now been replaced by a ramp for out-board enthusiasts to launch the:r boats from automobile trailers.

On the Poughkeepsie bridge side of Foster's coal dock was a group of unoccuoied factory buildings - Vassar brewery among them - which have long since disappeared. This land is now vacant and part of what the city calls Riverfront Park.

C. N. Arnold's lumber yard was north of the brewery property.

Sailing vessels from Maine were often seen unloading lumber here and first ward boys used to cFmb in the riggings of these ships for high dives into the river. There is a dilapidated brick building still standing at the upper end of riverfront park which may have been a chair factory.

Beyond this was a dyewood factorv which fronted on Innis' slip.

Innis' slip is the mouth of the Fallkill and is now almost filled with silt. Many factories, including a carpet and pin company, bordered the Creek east of the New York Central before it was four-tracked.

The Creek had quite a descent in its last half mile and provided excel­ lent water power to operate the mills. One factory which gave way to the railroad widening was known to us as the "licorice mill." Here twigs

44

of licorice wood were sometimes available for us to chew on. St. Peter's boys' school backed up to the raceway used by the licorice factory and many of us learned to swim in the raceway which was about two feet deep. The raceway is gone now and St. Peter's School was recently razed.

Across Innis' slip was the Poughkeepsie Light, Heat and Power Company. Their generating and gas plants were built snug against Reynold's Hill, a coal colored outcropping of rock west of the New York Central tracks. The hill was used unofficially as a public park and was the scene of many band concerts which were occasionally interrupted by a train passing overhead on the Poughkeepsie bridge.

There was also some ball playing here and in June the hill was swarming with people eager to see the collegiate boat races. The electric station has been discontinued and the gas plant is practically inactive because of innovations in the utility industry.

Intercollegiate boat race day used to be an exciting day. Crowds of people came to Poughkeepsie by all means of conveyance, mostly by train, steamboat or private motor boats and yachts. Some came by wagon and a few by automobile which had not as yet become a universal mode of travel.

The dock front was a scene of great activity. The police department generally imported a few New York City detectives to help spot known pickpockets. The ferry was crowded on every trip to the west shore delivering the vast number of people headed that ·way either to board the observation train or to find some vantage point on the hillsides where a good open view of the river could be had.

Various questionable small craft appeared at the docks taking advantage of the opportunity to make a few dollars from passengers over-eager to cross the river and willing to pay a good price.

Everywhere on both sides of the river were the usual hawkers peddling college pennants, buttons, colored oars, official programs and soda pop.

The program consisted of three races - The Freshman ( eight oared) 2 miles, the Junior Varsity ( eight oared) 3 miles and the Varsity ( eight oared) 4 miles. The races were held about an hour apart commencing about four o'clock or so - the time being set for the best advantage of the tide.

The observation train was made up of approximately sixty flat cars upon which seats were erected - really a rolling grandstand with a canvas cover over the top. There was a locomotive on each end of the train and official and press cars in about the center.

The passengers were taken aboard near the Highland station. The train went to the starting line shortly before each race and com­ menced following the race from the moment the starting gun was heard.

The speed of the train was supposed to keep the center cars about even with the race but the engineers were sometimes believed to have given each other an advantage point at times. The train was the best place

45

from which to view the race and tickets to the cars were sometimes very difficult to obtain even when the price was as high as $5.50.

Perhaps the next best observation point was on the railroad br�dge, from which a good view of the race and all the river activities was available. Telegraphic reports of the progress of each race were rece \red on the bridge. After each mile the leading crew was reported and aerial bombs were exploded. The number of bombs indicated the crew occupying that lane number on the course. At the end of the race, the winner was similarly announced. For years "Mike Bogo" whose real name was Emanuel Bocchino was the signal man. The college colors of the crews in the order of their finish were lowered from the bridge so all could see. All boats blew their whistles makir.g a tremendous d:n in honor of the winning crew.

The great number of boats of every size and description, with their gala display of strings of flags ;ind pennants. 1J1::ide a memorable spectacle. There were special excursion boats by the Day Line, Sandy Hook line and other companies from New York for the event. They were generallv very crowded. Then there vvere private vachts of various sizes from Vincent Astor's Normourlwl do-wn to little run-abouts.

Whenever the crew from Annapol 's competed, the Navy would send a small flotilla.

All river traffic for the day was regulated by the Coast Guard, which had strict control over the movement of boats especially just before race time. On one occasion, the Day Line captain was cited for changing position and required to answer the charge at an inquiry session. All large vessels were kept east of the c�urse and only row­ boats and canoes allowed along the west shore. Th ·s was to prevent blocking the view of those on the west shore.

After the last race, which took place around six o'clock at which t:me the river is generally calm, bedlam broke loose on the river with everyone trying to start away. Whistles and blasts of all kinds were heard as everyone demonstrated his seamanship. Probably by nine o'clock or so the ferry and other craft had returned all the weary spectators to this shore.

In preparation for the races, the college crews came two to three weeks ahead of time to practice and get used to the river. Rough boat houses, sufficient in length to protect the eight-oared shells, were used and in later years the city furnished accommodations at Regatta Row. Other facilities were located at what is now the Hudson River State Hospital boat house and dock. Colurr.bia College owned a boat house between the railroad and the river about two and a half miles from Highland. It was substantiallv built and had sleeping and dining quarters as well as storage space. The other crews generally lived at local hotels or boarding houses and some even lived at Vassar College.

There were usually three races governed by strict regulations. main event was the varsity eight-oared race. For many years it a four mile race. The Poughkeepsie course on the "Lange Rock" the best ava;lable four mile straight stretch of water. It was said

46

The was was that

four miles was too great a strain on the oarsmen and the race was cut to three miles.

The best time for the four miles here was 18 minutes 12 3/5 seconds by the California crew in 1939; and for the three mile race 13 minutes 33 3 I 5 seconds by the Navy crew in 1922.

The first race - 1895 - won by Columbia 21 min. 25 sec.

The second race - 1896 - won by Cornell 19 min. 59 sec.

Originally local merchants vvere supporters of the event. Hotels did good business as sport writers and reporters from New York papers generally came days ahead of time to report their studies of the crews.

Some rowing enthusiasts also appeared ahead of time. Restaurants and other business places profited from the crowds who came to town on "boat race day."

With the advent of the automobile and radio coverage, it became an event of a few hours only and local support dwindled. The observa­ tion train was dismantled during World War II due to a shortage of flat cars.

In 1947 or 1948, the Intercollegiate Rowing Association reduced the varsity event to three miles and after this the race was wooed away to Marietta, Ohio, for one or two years. It is now held in Syracuse.

Most of the coaches did not mind the Hudson. In fact it was, and still is, an imposing challenge for any crew; but the extra river facilities be­ came inadequate and Poughkeepsie lost the race.

When the Intercollegiate Regatta Association moved away, Arling­ ton, Roosevelt, and Poughkeepsie High Schools took up the sport and have expanded it on a secondary school level. In 1957 fire destroyed most of their equipment but they have again expanded their facilities.

Marist College began a rowing program in 1960 and has since built a fine new boat house.

Beyond the electric station, Dutchess Avenue still runs to the river but the Poughkeepsie Glass Works and Tower's Furnace have both given way to the Dutton Lumber Company which also owns "second point" and the land where Myer's Ice House was located. The northern end of Dutton's land was reclaimed from the river which then extended back to the railroad property. The Dutton Company now owns all the land between Dutchess Avenue and the Marist College boat house - about one-half mile.

The glass factory was an attractive place for us and we were allowed to look around in the very hot room where the glass was m�de.

As I recall, the melted substance was available from a raised brick position, a long tube was twisted in the molten mass until a calculated amount accumulated in a ball at one end of the tube. The glass blower then twisted the tube in the air and finally put the ball end into a form. He then blew through the tube until the pliant glass filled the form completely. The surplus was then clipped from the withdrawn tube and the glass blower repeated the operation. These glass items were then drawn slowely through an oven which, I believe, was a slow

47

cooling process. I once had a bottle blown here in the shape of an ear of corn.

The production room was, by necessity, extremely hot and I guess in the hottest months no work was done here. At times a whistler blew for "tempo" which signaled for a rest period outside. It was not uncom­ mon to see the furnace workers, who wore a minimum of clothing, come out and jump, so dressed, into the river. A few minutes back at the furnace would dry them out again. Automatic bottle making machines eventually put the glass works out of business.

At this time the New York Central and the Hudson River Rail­ road passenger station was located on the west side of the tracks and adjacent to Main Street. The entrance was on the west side of the building which faced on the wide driveway located between the station and the William T. Reynolds Warehouse (now occupied by J. D. Johnson Company). There was an exit by stairs to Main Street through a one-way turnstile. The station, in addition to a baggage room, ticket office, and waiting room, also included a large restaurant. Trains some­ times stayed ten or twelve minutes to allow passengers to visit the restaurant. Passengers from westbound trains had to cross the east­ bound tracks; the space between rails and tracks was filled in with planking. This procedure was no longer practical when the new station was built as restaurant facilities were too far from the tracks; and many trains carried dining cars. The coal chute for fueling locomotives was east of the tracks about where the present station and parking lot are now located. The coal chute was subsequently moved up near the present Marist College and the use of oil by the diesel engines has eliminated its need.

It is my recollection that the railroad had a closed system of signals with semiphores showing the track closed. When a train was permitted to enter the block, the signal arm mover to an upright position and, when walking the track, we always kept an eye on the position of the signal.

At this time steam engines took the passenger trains into Grand Central and, when entering the tunnel, a trainman lighted the gas lamps in each car. There were open spaces along the center of Park Avenue above the tunnel to allow the smoke and gases from the engines to escape. These spaces have since been filled in and planted, making the divider down the center of that wide and busy street.

The loss of passenger travel caused by the general use of the automobile took the romance of railroading from the present genera­ tion and the discontinuance of the luxurious Twentieth Century after over fifty years of glorious memory has left the older folks with only pleasant recollections.

The Marist College land which now skirts the Dutton property was known as Bech's woods. We picked w:ld flowers there. There was a large, unoccupied house on the property which was naturally known to be haunted; so we kept away from it. On the eastern end cf the property a brick gate house (still standing) v-.ras occupied by Conrad

48

Gindra who later owned the Glebe House. There was a small pond for skating near the reservoir road. Along the Bech river front was a small beach for swimmers which we referred to as "second point."

The hills and beach are gone now and in their place is what used to be known as "Regatta Row." Only the City-owned Cornell and California shell houses are still standing in Regatta Row. The new Marist College boat house is adjacent to the Dutton Lumber Company south of the City houses.

This brings us to the old City pumping station. There used to be a grade crossing on the pump:ng works road but, when the railroad vvas widened, an underpass was built for safer access to the river front.

There were open filter beds east of the tracks and great piles of white sand. Sometimes the filter beds were left empty for cleaning. There is novv a new water treatment plant just east of the railroad north of _the pumping station road. Crosby's swirr.ming place was located north of the City property and was actually on land owned by the Marist Hermitage. The Herm�tage property was on the north side of the pumping station road and both the brothers and boys were housed in one, large wooden building. The Marist Brothers subsequently pur­ chased the Bech property on which the main campus of Marist College is now situated.

Just north of the Hermitage property was the Winslow estate in front of which a mile stone indicating "83 miles to N. Y." Across Route 9 from the Marist Hermitage was a row of black vvalnut trees near a small stream with skating bugs on it. A large field separated the trees from a new factory building in which Fiat auto­ mobiles \;\,rere manufactured prior to World War I. Fiat chassis were dr;ven about the County by test drivers who sat on packing cases. One of these drivers was Ralph DiPalma, famous for his dirt track racing.

After the War, the Fiat property had several tenants including a one­ night stand by Barnum and Bailey's circus. The building was eventu­ ally purchased by Whitman and the Western Printing Company and expanded to its present condition. The black walnut trees and a small brook near them have disappeared.

,ve will return to Main Street now by way of Delafield Street and pass the rear of the lands occupied by St. Faith's, a fashionable girls' school \;i,rhich later changed its name to Glen Eden. In World War I the Century Steel Company located across the street from the school and installed a large, noisy triphammer and the girls' school removed from the area shortly thereafter. vVe pass Benjamin Franklin public school No. 9, which had been built only a few years. Judge C. W. H. Arnold's house was located near the Poughkeepsie Bridge and had a fine view of the river. It was eventually remodelled into a three story tenement which became known locally as the "house of all nations." It was across Delafield Street from -the home of Patrick Kearney on whose lawn rested life-sized metal deer. These deer, by rr.eans of some unknown power, have managed, I think, to get as far as Fulton Avenue in Arlington.

49

Cataract Place, now Mount Carmel Square, was so named because of general reference to the Cataract Steamer Company fire house.

Eng·ne 4 was drawn by a team of black horses which were trained to leave their stalls at the sound of the fire gong and to run under their collars which were suspended above the shafts. The collars were snapped shut and the driver was in the seat ready to roll. When the gong sounded at seven in the mornig and seven at night, the horses took their positions while their stalls were cleaned.

One time Cataract's was on the way to a chimney fire on l\1ill Street when one horse got the notion to go over Clover Street while the other was for going up Mill Street. As a result, the team slammed into the drinking trough in the middle of the Clover-Mill inter­ section and one horse was killed. The Cataract Steamer is no,v at Smith's Clove Museum in Monroe, New York.

Mill Street today is dead-ended :n front of St. Peter's Church but sixty years ago it crossed the Central's tracks on a grade crossing and ran west to Innis' Slip. Neither Verrazano Boulevard nor Dongan Place had been put through in those days. In fact, :Mrs. Keltv ran a candy store a step or two below the s:d:c:walk where Dongan Place is now. Kelty's bakery was a few doors a,,7 a-, on Clover Street but it went out of business within recent years and has since been destroyed by fire.

Go"ng south on Clover Street we would pass St. Peter's convent and girls' school which are now located at Chapel Corners on Ea�t Dorsey Lane. This property is now to be the location of Catar�c'c Fi re Company.

One of the great fascinations of l\,1ain Street was the tV,70 track trolley system wh = ch ran from the river to Arlington and eventually to Vassar's main gate. The system had a circuit on the north side of Poughkeepsie too which went over Washington Street to Parker Ave­ nue then east to North Clinton Street. Along Parker Avenue it crossed the Central New England's two spurs; one of which went to the Cottage Street Freight Yard and the other to the Hudson River State Hos­ pital. The Central New England furnished a steam locomotive and one passanger car on its Hospital branch. On North Clinton Street there was a long switch on which trolley cars vvere kept waiting to accommodate the baseball fans at the Buckingham Avenue ball-oark.

At Cottage Street the track went east to Sm;th Street vvhere the Pough­ keepsie and Eastern Railroad had its station. This railroad, ;:imong other services, furnished transportation to the now defunct Upton Lake Amusement Park. The trolley line then ran south along Smith S-creet to Main Street.

The South Side tracks left Main Street at Grand Avenue and went south to Southeast Avenue (now Hooker Avenue). The Fair­ grounds were here. Then west along Hook Avenue and Montgomery Street to Market Street. Here, at the Soldiers :Memorial Fountain, the tracks turned north to Main Street.

Transfers were available from one of the foregoing branches to the other.

50

The trolley line to Wappingers Falls started from in front of Smith Brothers Restaurant and went south in the center of Market Street as far as Freertown ( Livingston Street-Route 9 neighborhood).

From here the tracks ran along the east side of the Post Road and con­ tinued as far as Vassar Road where the old road curved to the right to pass through the Village of Wappinger. The tracks in the Village returned to the middle of the street and ran to the bridge at the foot of Main Street hill in Wappingers Falls.

At a later date, the trolley company also used the New Haven's tracks to run from Parker Avenue as far as the Hudson River State Hospital. It was necessary for the motorman to phone for clearance to insure that there were no freight trains using the tracks. The tracks vvere extended to the front of the Main Building and a waiting room was provided.

Two trolley cars ran in opposite directions on the north and south sides and passing switches were located at appropriate half-way marks. In cold weather closed cars replaced the open, summer coaches which could be easily boarded from the sides. There was a motorman's control in each end of the trolley and the seats were reversible so that the cars did not have to be turned around at the end of the run. Double­ sized closed cars were used on the runs to Wappingers and the State Hospital. A trolley with a revolving broom swept the tracks free from snow before the automobile made it necessary to plow the streets.

The car barns were located east of Clinton Square on the north side of Main Street. Fire destroyed the original building. We all knew there was trouble at the time because the barn whistle was tied down and blew until the steam ran out. When the electricity was shut off, the only trolley that was not destroyed in the fire was just making the turn at Main Street and South Grand Avenue. It sat here until it could be towed away.

The trolleys were propelled by electric motors - deriving their power from a heavy copper wire located well above the tracks. Contact with the wire was maintained through a pulley on a pole. The pole was located upon the top of the car with a rope running down to the rear of the car to adjust the pole and pulley when the pulley left the ·wire or when the direction of the car was reversed.

Pranksters sometimes jumped upon the back of the car and pulled the pole and pulley out of place thus stopping the car. On the fourth of July many little powder pellets were placed upon the track. The weight of the car exploded them with a tremendous noise much to the satisfaction of young America.

While Poughkeepsie received publicity from many sources, perhaps Vassar College, Eastman College, Smith Brothers Restaurant and the an­ nual Intercolleg =ate Regatta made an impression upon the largest and varied newspaper audiences.

There is no great need here to show how Vassar College, with its students from all over the United States and from foreign countries, made the name Poughkeepsie known. Rightfully, the committee studying

51

its transfer to Yale, kept the faith with the college's many benefactors; especially with those who endowed permanent buildings and facilities, when it decided that the college should stay among its traditional class trees.

Eastman Business College was located at the southwest corner of Mill and Washington Streets. Its founder, Harvey G. Eastman, ap­ parently knevv how to organize a first-rate business course to fit young men for the commercial world but he also knew how to let the world know about it. At one time the Eastman Band from Poughkeepsie was known far and wide, it having played at Lincoln's funeral. Students came to his school from many parts of the United States and South America. They received a good business education and returned home to make good use of it. Local travellers have said that, when they men­ tioned the name "Poughkeepsie," the comment was often made by the listener that he had gone to Eastman College. The institution of many business courses throughout the country caused a loss of students and the College was forced to close.

Perhaps one of the questions most frequently asked by visitors is "Is Smith Brothers Restaurant still in business?".

The restaurant was really a confectionary shop with a restaurant in a large room in the rear. There was a soda counter along the north side of the store, candy cases along the south side and a rear counter devoted to pies, cakes, cream puffs, crullers, charlotte russes, et al, the heavenly taste which is unobtainable today. The ice cream and baked goods were made on the premises, as were rr.ost of the candies.

Home deliveries were made by wagon in summer and sleigh in winter.

At Christmas time the upper area of the shop was crisscrossed with wires upon ,,,hich hung colorful cornucopias, a standard tree decoration. Broken candy was put up in rough paper cornucopias and sold for one cent. Sodas were five cents.

Some distance out in the street was a metal covering over a large hole. Ice for the store and restaurant was dropped from the ice wagon through the hole and into the cellar which had been built out under the street. Across the front of the store and extending out to the curb was a metal canopy which provided a waiting space for the Wappingers trolley passengers.

The restaurant room was large with sizeable tables properly covered and arranged. Old-fashioned large bladed fans, hooked together with belts and all caused to turn from a common source outside the dining room, revolved overhead with lazy repetition. Waitresses served the meals. Living quarters on the upper floors of the building were provided for the waitresses.

The restaurant was patronized by local people and by a great many transients. In later years, many New Yorkers came by auto on a Sunday to have dinner there. Some came on the Day Line which arrived about one fifteen, took the trolley to Market Street, had d:nner at Smith's and returned to New York on the 4: 10 boat. A group of

52

The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Station and Round House, Poughkeepsie. Vassar's Brewery-Early 1900's

Smith Brothers Restaurant Delivery Truck, Poughkeepsie, about 1910, Robert Kendrick, Driver

53

t

lawyers ate regularly at noon at a long table reserved for them in the rear section of the restaurant. Mr. Arthur G. Smith used to give them their lunch "on the house" once at each Christmas time.

When eating at lunch counters came into vogue in the twenties, the store was rearranged by putting the candy counters and bakery goods on the north side and a long lunch counter on the south side.

This was necessary to give the counter ready access to the kitchen for short orders. The proper steam pans for making real oyster stew were part of the new equipment. Young men and women served at the counter which had its daily regulars.

When Arthur Smith died, the business was sold with the reputed restriction that no liquor would be served while the name Smith Brothers was used. Subsequently, the name was changed but the aura of the place was gone and the fans no longer fluttered in unison. A premium store now occupies the premises.

As far back as I can remember, I have heard of Smith Brothers Cough Drops. My early contact with the aroma that went with their manufacture was the first time I was in the vicinity of Market and Church Streets when a batch was being cooked. The factory was on the north side of Church Street just east of the Armory and the pleasant odor blanketed the neighborhood. Many families in that general area made extra money by counting the cough drops into the little pasteboard containers. Everyone, no doubt, probably had been advised to always have clean hirnds. Once :n a while some neighborhood child would have a sizeable chunk of the black confection to suck on.

The fame of the cough drops grew. Webster, the cartoonist, once had some syndicated strips in which he named one brother "Trade" and the other "Mark" because their pictures were located near those words on the package. Each was trying to guess what the other ,vas thinking about.

It was said to be a practice of their advertising agency to present a box of cough drops to a person who had just reached the pinnacle of success - especially actors who had made the big time. On occasion I have heard it said on stage "He has received his Smith Brothers Cough Drops," as a proof of his success.

The product was expanded and sold all over the world, some ship­ ments having been made by coastal freighters leaving Dutton's dock.

A factory was set up in Michigan City, Michigan, to meet the demands at the time but it has since been discontinued.

A modern factory was built in North Hamilton Street where the cough drops and subsequent added confections were manufactured and packaged in a scientific way. With the passing of the last Smith boy, the business was sold to Warner Lambert Pharmaceutical Company who perhaps mix the secret formula with less showmanship than used to be reported from time to time, and now "Trade" no longer wonders what "Mark" is thinking.

Many other important places of everyday knowledge no longer exist - to name a few :

54

Riverview Military Academy run by Major Bisbee and which still has a section of town named after it; Adriance-Platt Reapers and Mow­ ing machines were known throughout the world - Russia having been an important customer before World War I. It was known locally as "The Buckeye." Bullard Foundry which period:cally cast a fiery glow over the skaters on Tower's pond no longer casts mouldings.

The Tiffany and Delamater garages were early pioneers in auto services. A service station occupies the site of the former on Market Street and a bowling alley occupies the latter at Wash:ngton Street and Brookside Avenue.

No excursion trains run to Savon Rock in Connecticut on the Central New England from a passenger station on Parker Avenue; now only diesel drawn freight trains of tremendous length.

The Collingwood Opera House with its two upper galleries and its 10, 20, and 30 cent stock companies and its 5, 10, and 15 cent vaudeville succumbed to the 7 reel movies and was transformed into the Bardavon.

Gone is the "Best," and few will remember "Dreamland," "The Arlington," "The Vassar"; nor will many recall that the "Strand" is really a remodeling of the Dutch Church with its still present dis­ abled Town Clock to prove it. The modern "Stratford" is now trying to do better as the home of Avis rent-a-car.

The foregoing departed singly and quietly but with present day "progress," Urban Renewal takes them blocks and blocks at a time come ,vhat may as to the traditions and memories they hold.

Shad Will be Plenty. Thirteen million shad were deposited in the Hudson River this year, eight m Ilion being hatched by the state and five million being con.­ tr:buted by the national commission. This is an increase of nine million over the la :·gest number deposited in any one year by the authorities of the state or nation.

Poughkeepsie Da ·1y Eagle, October 31, 1896

55

Dut c h e s s Co un ty

Hi s t o r i c a l

So c i e ty

Poughkeepsie Yacht Club: Working Men Build a Club

by Arthur E. Scott The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft a-gley -Robert Burns Working men and women built Poughkeepsie Yacht Club-"woodworker, drafts­ man, telegrapher, railroad clerk, owner of small business;" and more recently, "computer engineer, programmer and manager." You won't find many names of Poughkeepsie Yacht Club officers and members in the history books, for they were not among the rich and famous. They were people who realized that by working together they could enjoy recreation on the river. Doctors, bankers, and lawyers ·- contributed in the same way-giving of their time and skills-doing what needed to be done. Working people built the Club-folks who loved the river and wanted a way to use it, wanted to be on the water, wanted to be around and enjoy boats, wanted to enjoy sailing. This is their story, largely in their words.

Poughkeepsie Yacht Club Organized From the beginning of its history, Dutchess has been a maritime county and Poughkeepsie, a maritime center. The great Hudson River is still the highway to the rest of the world. From the days of the great ex­ plorations through the times of the whaling in­ dustry until the railroads took over, the river was the artery of commerce and transportation. The yacht, once the boat of commerce, was subse­ quently used so much in racing, that today it means only pleasure craft. At the end of the nineteenth century, sailing boats and Poughkeepsie Yacht Club Collection hand-propelled craft were the average person's means for water recreation. The object of the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club as stated in its Constitution has, from the beginning, been "the advancement of yachting and recreation for its members."

Arthur E. Scott is historian of the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club, which will cele brate its Centennial in 199 2.

56

Po u g h k e e p s i e Ya c h t Cl u b

Aboard the 28�foot gafhigged sloop 'Beatrice' on 14 September 1892, Messrs.

Powell Hobert (molder), William Hartman (painter), R.W. Haupt (clerk), Gus� tave Nolting (carpenter), Gottlieb Nolting, Jr. (cigarmaker), Chas. W. Morgan (engineer), Edward Laufersweiller (clerk), and John and William Furman organ� ized the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club. They elected officers and accepted new members at their first business meeting at a member's house at 35 South Bridge Street on 22 September. The Club accepted the first Constitution, By�Laws, and Sailing Regs on 12 December. Thus, the Club was born. Two days following the organization of the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club, "there was an interesting sailing regatta at New Hamburg. It grew out of a race sailed there two weeks previously.", Wasting no time, the Ball Committee invited the Albany Yacht Club to attend its first ball the following January.

The First Clubhouse The Club leased a dock known as Sand Dock from the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad for 25 dollars per year and built the first clubhouse the following May. This was on the site of the old Revolutionary Ship Yard (or Continental Shipyard) at Ship Yard Point, now known as Fox's Point. Commodore Hobert drew the plans for the first clubhouse, 20 by 20 feet, two stories. "Sundays were the days when mechanics from all the trades came down with their overalls and tools to contribute their mite toward the new recreation ...and gentle� men, if you of the luxuri� ant clubhouse were as proud of your clubhouse as these men were of theirs there could be nothing asked for in the boating world ... ln 1896, as the ever�increasing member� ship made more room necessary, an addition of 50 feet was added."z The use of the coves Poughkeepsie Yacht Club Collection for mooring boats north and south of the ice house on the adjoining property was given to the Club on the understanding that, "they were to look after the Ice House property as much as possible."3 With money always in short supply, unusual fundraising methods were required.

For example, in 1897 "The veranda in front of the house was added using the proceeds of the Autumn Carnival. The Mosquito Fleet Band consisting of 32 musicians attired in white and recruited from the membership and their friends furnished the music. There was a street parade each evening with "red fire." This brilliant affair was a great success.4

57

DU t Ch e SS

_c OU n t y

Hi St Ori Cal

SOC

iety

Regattas and Races Rowing played an important role in the Club's program: Together with the Apokeepsing Boat Club, [PYC] fostered much interest in rowing here which led to the negotiations securing the first race of the University Eights (Intercollegiate Regatta) in June, 1895. Sufficient money to erect boathouses, make necessary arrangements for crew quarters, for surveying, marking the course, etc., was raised by subscription through the efforts of a finance committee composed of Grant Van Etten of the Yacht club, James Reynolds of the Apokeepsings, William Schnickle of the Board of Trade, and A.O. Cheney of the Retail Merchants' association.s Races, regattas, and illuminated parades were held almost every year. For example, in the 1907 "Hudson River Yacht Racing Association races on Labor Day -one of the most important in the history of the Club-over 100 boats participated in various classes-a grand success.''6"Poughkeepsians, however, were much disap, pointed because Al Traver's famous Black Cat lost the race for the Lackawanna Cup."7 Identification of yachts with clubs has always been important among the yachting fraternity. For example, Poughkeepsie Yacht Club rules state, "Any members, owners of steam, or sail yachts, or naptha launches must fly the club signal when sail, ing in our waters while , club is in commission," as recorded in the PYC Minutes of Meeting, of 4 January 1907.

G r a d u a l l y, p o w e r launches came to domi, nate the fleets. In 1900 George Buckhout in, stalled the first ten horse, power standard engine in Intercoll egiate bo at races Daubert's 33,foot glass cabin launch, 'Tartan.' A photomontage in theClub dining room taken about 1920 shows one sailboat and 19 steam and naptha,powered launches. From the 28,foot sloop, boats grew in size, the fleet changing to 35,to 40,foot launches. T he Club had continually to increase the capacity and size of the equipment to launch and store boats at the beginning and end of the season.

T hrough the years, various details of yachting life stand out. In 1907 colorful night river parades were aided by a suggestion "that the Club purchase 100 Japanese Lanterns for Illuminated River Parade."s For the Poughkeepsie,Brightwater race, the "regatta committee had the power to incur such expenses as might be necessary to make the Poughkeepsie,Brightwa, ter race successful. Club entered 9 boats in the race. Race arranged by A. C. Ackerman and Commodore Day, editor of The Rudder, who crossed the Atlantic 58

Poughkeepsie Ya cht Club

a 22- foot boat."9 During the years, safety was a concern, especially on the marathon outboard races between New York and Albany. In 1934 "Dr. Carpenter spoke about an organized patrol of perhaps 10 to 12 boats placed about 2 miles apart during the Outboard Marathon May 13th to furnish protection for drivers."10

Iceboating In addition to racing, yachting and rowing, ice boating was popular with Club • members, as these newspaper quotations show: The sport, perhaps one of the fastest in the world, started in New Hamburg in the 1860's when Captain Van Nort Carpenter constructed a crude ice boat and named it 'Fult' ...John Roosevelt, who was a great competitor, had Jacob Buckout, a Pough-keepsie boat builder, construct the largest ice boat ever to sail the Hudson. He called her'Icicle'-and she carried over 1,000 Kraus Collection square feet of slooprigged sail and was 69' 10 11 long...ln one famous race in 1871, the 'Icicle' beat the Chicago Express, which ran along the tracks bordering the east side of the river.11 It should be borne in mind that Poughkeepsie was long the center of ice yachting. In fact, the ice yacht first came into existence here as a racing craft, and was made known to the sporting world through the reports of the early races of the Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club...The leading rivals in the period of the Poughkeepsie club's supremacy, were John A. Roosevelt and Aaron Innis, whose 'Icicle[II]' and 'Haze,' as remodeled after the crack 'Robert Sc ott' about 1884, were not greatly improved upon...lnJanuary, 1887 the members of the Poughkeepsie Yacht club were busy as bees getting their crafts ready for the annual races.12 The long-looked-for race for the Ice Yacht challenge pennant of America was successfully held on February 14, 1887. The course was from a stake off Main street pier to and around a stake off Milton, four miles south and return, and the course was sailed over twice.ii The Poughkeepsie Yacht Club was not at any time the 'Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club:' these were two different organizations. The Poughkeepsie Yacht Club fielded as many as seven ice yachts, generally storing four in the boat house. The

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Club had an official ice race course-apparently the same one specified by Welling� ton Lansing in The Starfor 1932: Whereas members of this Club having measured a Race course upon the ice of 5 nautical miles, 4 1/2 south of the Clubhouse and 1/2 north, and furnished a diagram of the same showing and describing the location on the shore of the different distance points, be it Resolved that the same be and it is hereby adopted as the regular and official Race Course of this Club.14 Later on, powerful ferry boats of the Poughkeepsie�to�Highland line broke the ice and forced iceboating to move north to Hyde Park. Ultimately, the steamboats and Coast Guard icebreakers nearly stopped the sport entirely. As late as 1961, however, PYC still had an iceboat in its boathouse.

Sub�zero weather enabled the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club to break out its iceboat today. Custodian Edmund Lynk is stretched on the boat for a trip along the shore but a lack of wind kept its speed low. Mr. Lynk said the iceboat was put on the riverfor only one day three years ago but it's been a long time­ perhaps back to the 1920s-since iceboating conditions on the river have been 'real good.' Recent winters have not been cold enough to freeze ice to any great thickness, and icebreakers opening a channel many times crack the ice from shore to shore.is The Club has a model of an ice yacht which was donated some years ago by A. Van Vlack. In 1942, George Buckhout volunteered to put the ice yacht in "Al condition" and have it placed in Roosevelt Library as a gift from the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club.16 Forty�seven years later, this model is still in the Roosevelt Library collection. Ray Ruge identified the model as the 'Whiff' .11

Second Clubhouse The Yacht Club had an untroubled history until the Fall of 1904 when "the startling news came that they had to move, for in their zeal they neglected to buy the land and that was a very solemn Winter for them, until their spirits of enterprise rose like a Phoenix and they could not say 'die'."1s "The club members, with the spirit of enterprise which they have always shown, have already torn down the old club house and removed the materials to the new site and considerable work has been done pre� paring for the erection of Poughkeepsie Yacht C l ub Col lection the new building."19 60

Poughkeepsie Yacht Club

The records revealed plans for the new location: In addition to the clubhouse, a locker and boat house 25 x 80 feet will be erected on the north side of the lot. It will be built from the materials of the old boat house. The members of the boat club will provide the labor for the erection of this building, drawing upon the club roster, which contains the names of a number of skilled artisans. The club members have done most of their own work in the past and they propose to keep up their reputation on -these lines...The cost of the improved clubhouse property will approximate $5000 for which five hundred bonds of the denomination of$10 each will be issued...The club dues are only fifty cents a month, and the initiation fee$5, which is a very modest charge for the many privileges offered by the club.20 The new facility reinvigorated the Club: The following year, 1905, they had finished the present club and started in life anew with 125 members, 16 naptha launches, 7 sail yachts and 35 rowboats, and debts galore, but the never failing spirits did not leave them and each year they added$1,000 worth of improvements, and at last the club became selrsustaining. This could not have been possible if it were not for the members doing a very large part of the work themselves. From the painter, plumber, and carpenter who belong to the club came new gifts of their handiwork...21 Some problems remained: The House was apparently intended for summer�use only, as it was not insulated. Later on the fireplaces were added, on two floors. The Steward's quarters were located on the third floor, good view of the property and boats on moorings. The entire area was slightly over one acre, which necessitated the storing of boats about 2 feet apart. Hauled on marine railway and skidded sideways on grease and planks, one boat per day, with luck two.22 As the Club continued to grow, space became a premium; in 1931 More space was needed to store boats on the grounds. The Club grounds were extended into the river by laying large stones for 90 feet in front of the Club House and south end of the yard, then filling in back of them with about 300 loads of stone and dirt. A new dock was also laid from the marine railway to about 50 feet south of the Club House. A new concrete wall to support the Club House was built during the season. This and extensive repairs to the marine railway made it one of the best on the river between New York City and Albany.23 Membership continued around 250 through the time of the Great Depression, which did not seem to have a large impact on the Club. This was probably because the members did most of the work themselves. Thus, the costs were kept within the reach of most of the members.

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First Woman Member Miss Frances Roberts, daughter of Dr. Charles Roberts, became the first woman member of the Club as reported in the PYC Minutes of Meeting of 1 August 1913, to wit: "The investigation committee on the applications for membership of Miss Frances Roberts, Highland Landing, Oakes, N .Y...reported favorably and a ballot was taken and the candidate elected." (On payment of the special lifetime fees she was granted Life Membership on 5 March 1926.) Miss Roberts remained a member until her death on 25 October 1946. From the dimensions and location of the area shown as 'Water Rights' on the Atlas ofthe Huds o n Riverfrom NYCto Troy, 1891, it can be inferred that Miss Roberts was instrumental in obtaining an anchorage for the Club on the west side of the river, directly opposite the location of the Club.

This is hinted in the PYC Minutes of Meeting of 7 June 1929, where it was stated: "Anchorage available on west shore 1200 feet long, 500 feet out from shore."

Obtaining an anchorage on the west shore of the river was highly advantageous under some wind conditions. The PYC Minutes of Meeting of 6 May 1927 indicated that "the Steward be allowed to place lights on boats in the event that they have to be anchored across the river."

For many years, Miss Roberts was the only woman member although junior membership was open to both boys and girls. In 1929, the Committee on Junior Members stated the qualifications: "Any boy or girl between the ages of twelve (12) and seventeen (17) years...can make application for Senior Membership." The Club became ambivalent about female members in the middle years. During that time, the Ladies Auxiliary of the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club was formed. The wives of members continued to make contributions to building and maintaining the Club. The ambiguity was resolved on 6 April 1987 when the Constitution was changed, clearly defining membership: "Active members are composed of boat owners and non,boat owners and have all the privileges the Club affords."24

Urban Renewal In 1966, the title of the Poughkeepsie Journal article, "Sad End Looms for Yacht Club," told the story. The article began: "Here's a view of the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club from the Mid, Hudson Bridge. The yacht club now has about 250 members, some 200 of them boat owners. Their craft range all the way from six,foot sailboats to one 84,foot cruiser. The yacht club is slated to be demolished under urban renewal to make way for a riverfront park."2s The best laid schemes o' mice and men-for the second time the Club was in danger oflosing its clubhouse and property in spite of the precautions the Club took in purchasing the land. In 1964, the Poughkeepsie Urban Renewal Program was announced. "Mr. [Lawrence] Heaton reported he talked with officials of the Urban Renewal Program. The yacht club may be affected by relocation or just addition or improvement to the property," was recorded in the PYC Minutes of Meeting of 1 June 1964.

The members were stoic about the threat to their club: "We're certainly sad over the prospect of losing our clubhouse" said Carl Fritz, a former commodore. "It's like losing an old friend"...Even more disturbing 62

Po u g h k e e p sie Ya cht Cl ub

to the club's members is the offer of $61,000 for the property, which they contend is far too little to enable them to buy property and rebuild the yacht club elsewhere...The Mid-Hudson Power Squadron meets here," Mr. 0 ames] Carroll said, "and the place also is used by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary for meetings....In addition the club is used as a patrol base and stopping point for the outboard motorboat races between New York and Albany...The Yacht Club has fostered activities on the river since it was organized in 1892," said Mr Carroll. "Instead of driving us out, they should be trying to encourage us to stay in Poughkeepsie....The old lady has played an important role on the riverfront for years. Now they say she's old and want to get rid of her. They call it progress. But to me it's a desecration of our historical riverfront."26 Negotiations continued into 1967; the image of yacht club members as rich biased the issue. "The club, contrary to popular belief, is not comprised of wealthy business and professional men with expensive hob­ bies. Rather the members come from all areas and backgrounds and have one common interest-a love of boating...And be­ cause of this mixture of training and abilities the members are able to do things for themselves.

They maintain their own boats and their own club.

New projects are done by the members themselves Poughkeepsie Journal Collection and they are always eager to welcome into their midst those individuals in the community who share their boating interests."21 Frustration with the implacable will of Poughkeepsie Urban Renewal led to ca­ pitulation; but in a final gesture of hope the clubhouse was scheduled to be painted one last time in June 1967. "Clubhouse to be painted next Saturday," read the PYC Minutes of Meeting of 28 May 1967.

After the last goodbye came a new possibility in 1968: For 76 years our club, the oldest in the Hudson Valley, has welcomed area yachtsmen. The old building has seen many a Commodore's Ball, but now the old must give way to the new and while we all look forward to a new clubhouse with modem facilities, we all share a certain nostalgic affection for the old building...On November 16th she'll be dressed up in her faded best for one last fling, and I know every member will want to be on hand to make this last ball the most memorable of all.zs

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ANew Beginning-1969 A new yacht club on a river needs enough land for a house and winter storage for boats and docks; it needs a house and docks and moorings; it needs an anchorage; and it needs permits, permits, permits.

Recognizing possibility within a difficult situation requires vision and fore, sight-a few small scat, tered rocky islands, five derelict barges abandon, ned on the shoreline, much of the land between the railroad track and the river under,water at high tide and mud the rest of the time. The Club had the men with vision, men who could see the possi, Poughkeepsie YachtClub Collection bility. "Einar Reves gave a description of the proposed new property just north of Hyde Park...4, 5 acres on the river, approximately 18 acres total."29 "Contract has been signed and downpay, ment of $5,000.00 paid ...owner of the barges at the property, agreed to move the barges in the spring.'\o As in the old days they harnessed the power of the tides. "Floats are going to be rafted together and floated to the new site on incoming tide."31 Because most of the property was under water much of the time "old outboard floats are to be used to reach the island...Pier has already been installed on the is, land to install Main floats...Plan to set new floats March 22."32 Un, daunted, the planners went ahead immediately to get boats into the wa, ter.

For the first years a barge served as the club, house. The minutes from Poughkeepsie YachtClub Collection meeting to meeting noted progress, such as the repair of ramp, sides, roof, railings, 33 the purchase of a construction trailer,34 and the satisfaction of Penn Central requirments.3s Time pressed the members heavily. But in spite of a threat of eviction, the group met its deadlines in May, 1969.

And to round out the year, "Poughkeepsie Yacht Club's 78th Annual Commo,

-

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Poughkeepsie Yacht Club

<lore's Ball took place Saturday at the Covered Wagon, Red Oaks Mill. Commo, <lore Einar Reves was honored for 'his outstanding success in keeping the club unified and vital' during its recent move from Union Street."36 The new site invited new plans: "Planning Committee consensus to fill bay in the front center of the Club grounds would make the best site for the proposed Club House."37 Exploration had shown the area for a yacht basin could not be dredged -too much rock too close to the surface. "The location chosen primarily for the view of the river that it afforded, was not legally our land. It was tideland owned

by New York State. We immediately set out to obtain the necessary permits to buy and fill the property," stated a Club notice at the time.Js And, after much negotiation with the Corps of Engineers, Water Resource Commission, Office of General Services, Conservation Department, and the Water Quality Division, New York State Department of Environmental Conserva, tion, survey maps and more detailed maps, and on and on, while fending off Penn Central's protest, finally, "the People of the State of New York...in consideration of the sum of Eight Hundred Ten Dollars ($810.00) ...do give and grant unto the said POUGHKEEPSIE YACHT CLUB, INC...All that parcel of land now or formerly under the waters of Hudson River, situated in the Town of Hyde Park, County of Dutchess, State of New York, bounded and described as follows: Beginning at a point in the easterly mean high water line of Hudson River, said point being...feet from U.S.C. & C.G. Station "Blunts Island"...thence into the waters of Hudson River...to the point or place of beginning, containing 0.925 acres, more or less."w That decision allowed the Club to proceed with "plans for a landfill project for the weekend of October 10."31 And, of course, a permit had to be obtained.

'The applicant requests that he be issued a permit to place approximately 6,000 cubic yards of fill in an area 165 feet by 85 feet to an elevation five (5) feet above the high water line in what is presently a tidal marsh located on the east bank of the Hudson River approximately three tenths (.3) of a mile south of Esopus Island in the Town of Hyde Park, County of Dutchess."40 "Over 4000 yards of fill [were] moved from the upper part of the club property to the swamp area south of the trailer. By Sunday afternoon the area was leveled off and one section seeded with grass."41 "An application was made for a Special Anchorage and was granted.'\2 In 1973 the good news began to arrive. The Commodore announced: The building is in transit and is expected in the very near future. Contractors are being selected and we're shooting to have the outer shell up and closed in before the turn of the year. And that's where we all come in! We'll be relying upon voluntary labor throughout the winter for plumbing, heating, electricity, finished carpentry, etc., with a target date of completion in the spring, in time for a really big beginning of the 1974 boating season.43 Steady progress was achieved in construction: Jan 2: Mar 4: Sept 9:

Construction is underway.

Roof is being put on.

Building heat is complete and turned on.

Deck is almost complete-job is excellent.

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The disruption was not without its cost in human terms. The membership dropped in ten years from 250 at the announcement of Urban Renewal in 1964, to 102 total (12 honorary, 74 active, 16 social) in 1974.

Our Nation's Bicentennial A sense of normalcy began to reappear in 1976, the year of the United States Bicentennial. Among the celebrations, Poughkeepsie Yacht Club hosted one on an evening in) uly, "With red, white, and blue streamers blowing from her mast, the 50,foot long 'Dank Baarheid' (built in 1894) leads a flotilla of nine antique Dutch sloops."44 "This special fleet of leeboard sloops, which range in size from 23 to 50 feet, will be re,enacting the historic journey Henry Hudson took on board the Half Moon in 1609 ...The 29 male and 15 female crew members of the sloops will be in 17th century dress to depict the era of Dutch Colonial rule in the Hudson Valley."4s "Tuesday evening they docked at Poughkeepsie Yacht Club."46

The Club and its Boats When all's said and done, boats are what a yacht club's all about. A few of the more notable, built or rebuilt in 1900, 1929, 1967 and 1979 can be cited here: Queenie: Most sailors buy their 'yacht'. Some, like Bruce and Muriel Anderson choose restoration.

"Over the past five years, folks at the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club in Hyde Park have observed a visible transforma, tion-something akin to a nautical phoenix rising from a watery grave ... Now, thou, sands of hours of effort

by Bruce and Muriel Anderson have paid off as their 1929 Elco -a 38,foot craft was recently awarded top ' . prize in the annual . �� Antique and Classic :, ..., -"'- . ...

Boat Show at Old Mystic Seaport, Ct."41 B & M Anderson Collection The boat was named 'Queenie' because someone once said [it] ...looked like the ramshackle 'Afri, can Queen' of movie immortality...The Andersons said they found 'Queenie' ... at the Norrie Point Boat Basin...But restoring 'Queenie' to her former grandeur was no occasional weekend task. It took thousands of hours...Mrs. Anderson compared herself to 'Rosie the Riveter' for having installed over 2,000 bolts beneath the water line, burning the paint off the hull and sanding 66

Po ughkeeps i e Ya cht Cl ub

it inside and out. It was only after she had handled the rougher job that she could get down to the more traditional ladylike pursuits of making cushions, curtains and the like.4s Anderson, meanwhile, was doing his part in the project including 60 white oak ribs, eight new timbers, all new parquet teak flooring in the pilot house plus putting in a 120,horsepower diesel engine and propeller...the Andersons didn't put in all the work for speed,they did it for pride-and love.49 Aloha: Others build their yacht from scratch: Prior to 1900, my grandfather, William C. Saltford, bought the 8,acre Stephen M. Buckingham 'estate' just north of the Poughkeepsie railroad bridge, where he had been head gardener. In addition to the 26,room residence, there were greenhouses and a large barn...In 1908, my fa, ther, W. Arthur, with his brother George and cousin Freeman, a carpenter, built a 35,foot mo, torboat in the barn, though they had to remove the siding to get it out.so With an 8,foot beam, the craft had a 4,cylin, der, 15,horsepower Niagara engine with deck control and a cruising speed of 10 knots per hour.

It would sleep 6 persons ...The diary of a 15,day cruise my parents and three friends took from Poughkeepsie to Montreal in 1909 provides considerable contrast in costs between then and now. With gasoline at 14 cents per gallon; trip insurance, $15.00; bread, 15 cents; and gramo, phone rental, $7 .50 for entertainment ( despite, Saltford Collection friendly arguments over who should wind it!); total cost for the entire trip was but $102.49 .s1 Blue Maid: Some, after building their yacht, participate in historic events: On Saturday, May 24th, the 'BlueMaid' set sail for Boston Harbor and Op Sail '80. The 'BlueMaid', a 32,foot schooner carrying a 6 foot bow sprit, has been a proud member of the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club fleet since the day her keel was cast at the clubhouse late in the Sixties. She flew the PYC Burgee in the international parade of Tall Ships...The 'BlueMaid' is owned jointly by two club members, Ernie Klopping and Captain Ab Salter, both of Staats, burg, N .Y. Her silhouette is a familiar sight on the Hudson River; and she is no stranger to New York Harbor or Long Island Sound. Ab and Ernie have raced her in the South Street Seaport Museum Mayor's Cup race for the last 7 years, and in the Mystic Seaport Schooner race for the last 3 years.sz The Boston Op Sail parade of sail was held on Friday, May 30th...The entire fleet was led by the 'USS Constitution' or 'Old Ironsides', the oldest commissioned warship in the world. Altogether more than 60 sailing vessels accepted invitations to participate; among them the 'Blue Maid' is distin, guished by being the only one hailing from the Hudson River...In addition to 67

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the owners, Louis Vinciguerra and Bill Washburn were on board for the parade after helping bring the 'Blue Maid' to Boston.sJ Construction of the 'Blue Maid' was begun in Poughkeepsie in 1967 and she was launched two years later attheformer PYC clubhouse. The boat was built by Bob Roberts, a club mem, ber at the time, to plans designed by Wm. Atkins. She has a beam of 10 feet and draws 5 feet, 2 inches.

The keel consists of 3000 lbs of lead cast in one piece with another 1500 lbs of inside bal, last. There is a total of SalterCollection 438 square feet of sail area comprised of a club,footed jib, a gaff,rigged fore,sail and a marconi, rigged main sail. All sails are self,tending, requiring only one hand on the helm to bring her about when tacking.s4 Long Reach: Others like Shellman Brown do the hard work of training and

preparation for international events: After five months of preparation we left the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club on June 7th bound for Middle River, Maryland, our staging area ...Our start next day, Saturday, was at eleven o'clock with practically no wind. Southerlies came in eventually and we worked to get down to the mouth of the Chesapeake, 125 miles away. With light head winds, our ketch rig and wrap,around sails made slow going and we were one of the last boats out of the Bay, passing the Bay Bridge, Tunnel at 0118 early Monday morning.ss From then on, driven by the very ex, perienced ocean,rac, Poughke epsie Yacht Club Collection ing crew, the Long Reach had conditions more to her liking. Riding one rain squall after another, we sailed her like a dinghy, occasionally surfing with the bow wave aft of the cockpit! Thursday evening after a day of very light airs, we crossed the finish 68

Po u g h k e e p s i e Ya c h t Cl u b

line at the Spit Bouy after dark and went into St. Georges. We anchored off the club and were disappointed to find twenty-two boats already there.

However, no one from the last two divisions had beaten us ... Corrected times gave us a trophy for the first position in Division 6. After our poor showing in the Chesapeake we were still 7th in fleet, but the hard work on the 625 miles of ocean paid off! We were awarded the Offshore Trophy for the fastest time in the fleet from the Bay Bridge to Bermuda.s6

Clubhouse as it exists today.

Poughkeepsie Yacht Club Collection.

' r....-

--i

..

__ ,,___

�ll,;,

� _ ... � .. ;

Retrospective Consistency has been obtained in the important things. The purpose of the Club has remained the promotion of yachting and mutual assistance in the recreational possibilities of the river. Throughout the years, the spirit of a working­ man's club has remained strong. Random examination of the member applications show occupations of toolsmith, aviator, machine operator, seminary professor, laborer, cabinet maker, and florist.

Membership grew rapidly to about 250 from the Club's inception. The two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam, taxed the resources of the Club. Besides carrying the servicemen's memberships, the remaining members put more time and effort into the war efforts, less into the Club. The real test came with Urban Renewal when membership dropped to less than half; nevertheless, difficulties were viewed as challenges, so that today the membership is back to regular levels.

The fleet of the Club has changed from predominantly sailboats, canoes, and rowboats to steam, naptha, gasoline and diesel launches as the size and cost of engines has diminished. The two energy crises of the 1970s and 1980s brought a reversal-the fleets now are 70 percent sail, 30 percent power. The size of yachts has slowly increased, and the hull construction materials have changed from wood to fiberglass.

The Club continues to support other maritime activities from the Naval Militia of World War I, Sea Scouts of World War II, to the Mid-Hudson Power Squadron and U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. PYC also continues as a member of the Mohawk-Hudson Council, yacht and boat clubs of the Hudson River north of the Mid-Hudson Bridge to Schenectady. © 1989 by Arthur E. Scott 69

Du t c h e s s Co u n t y Hi s t o r i c a l

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Appendix A: PYC World War I Honor Roll Nelson Ackert Vincent Clark Louis P. Crauer, Jr. Daniel R. Delehanty Frederick C. Eckert Edward Frank Walter Hannah

Robert P. Huntington Harold K. Joseph Edwin Knauss Fred Machler, Jr. John Mc Manus Herman L. Merkle Manfred Misner

William A. Mulvey John E. Nelson Dr. Edward]. Nesbitt Jacob Schade ]. Rupert Schalk Fred Wohlfahrt, Jr.

Appendix B: PYC World War II Honor Roll *Andrews, Ray E. Andrews, Richard *Andrews, Wesley W. Auwater, Thornton K. Bacile, Dr. Victor A. Bellock, John P. Berish, John Brands, E. Vincent Breed, William Brehm, Eugene B. Brown, Robert K. Chervenka, Gustav].

Clark, Herbert K. Collson, Elliot B. Davidson, Bruce D. Dodge, Clarence *Dow, William E. Durkee, Myron C. Fitzgibbons , Larry A. * Frank, Edward A. Jr. Gutman, John A. Halstead, Charles W. Hart, Wallace Hayner, Fred Hindle, Carroll R.

Ifill, W. Murray Jones, Archie Key, Floyd Kopser, Arnold W. Kopf, Frank Lansing, William H. Leadbitter, Wallace Lesco, John E. Leonard, Paul R. Lynk, George B. Mansfield, G. Stewart Marchs, Theodore Matthews, Frank B. Miller, William Moawood, Thomas A. Moran, William].

Nielson, Raymond H. Peterson, J. C. * Plog, Charles T. Post, Stanley V. Reuthershan, Warren Roberts , Donald V. Rugman, Herbert L. Sauter, Edward W.

* Died in Service

70

Schlude, Robert W. Sears, Robert W. Shea, Eugene].

Smith, Frederick E_.

Spross, Hubert C. Starpoli, Jerome Stibbs, Dr. H.W.B. Swift, Stanley S. Teator, Lee C. Tillmdn, Robert Travis, John R. Van Benschoten, Wesley Van Norstrand, Albert J. Van Norstrand, Kenneth Waddle, Robert A. Wagler, William R. Walsh, Donald].

Wanzer, Alvin D. Wanzer, Herbert L. Wanzer, Kenneth Wanzer, Leonard Wanzer, Norman Wanzer, William G. White, Albert C. White, John S. White, Howard F. Whittacker, Russell V. Woolsey, James G.

Poughkeepsie Yacht Club

Endnotes 1. Wellington C. Lansing,"Yacht and Boat Clubs,"The Star, 13 July 1932.

2. George C. Saltford, "Poughkeepsie Y. C., 1892-1915", The Rudder, 31 January 1915, pp.7,8.

3. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 15 March 1895.

4. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 15 February 1897.

5. Wellington C. Lansing, op. cit.

6. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 4 January 1907.

7. Wellington C. Lansing, op. cit.

8. PYC Minutes of Meeting,: 7 June 1907.

9. PYC Minutes of Meeting,2 July 1915.

10. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 2 March 1934.

11. Joan Doyle, "New Hamburg Club Centenary Recalls Ice Yacht's Golden Age, " Poughkeepsie Journal, 18 May 1969.

12. Wellington C. Lansing,"Ice Yachting," The Star, 23 February 1932.

13. Ibid.

14. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 6 March 1908.

15. Poughkeepsie Journal, 1 February 1961.

16. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 5 January 1942.

17. Ray Ruge, letter, 27 August 1982.

18. Saltford, op. cit.

19. "The Poughkeepsie Yacht Club,"The Courier, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 8 October 1905.

20. Ibid.

21. Saltford, op.cit.

22. Einar Reves, note, 11 April 1981.

23. Andrews, "Poughkeepsie Yacht Club History," 1975, p.4.

24..Article XIV, Section 2. PYC Constitution, By-laws and Rules.

25. " 'Sad End' Looms for Yacht Club With Demolition Under Renewal,"Poughkeeepsie Journal, 19 June 1966.

26. Ibid.

27. "Yacht Club Seeks Relocation Specifics," Poughkeepsie Journal, 1967.

28. Commodore's Ball announcement, 16 November 1968.

29. PYC Minutes of Meeting,10 June 1968.

30. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 6 January 1969.

31. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 3 March 1969.

32. Ibid.

33. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 5 May 1969.

34. Ibid.

35..PYC Minutes of Meeting, 7 April 1969.

36. Poughkeepsie Journal,. 13 November 1969.

3 7. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 5 October 1970.

38. Notice of Anchors Aweigh Ball, 4 May 1974.

39. Letters Patent, State of New York, Book of Patents No. 81 at page 330 on 14 November 1972.

40. Notice of Application, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 27 October 1970.

41. PYC Minutes of Meeting, 2 November 1970.

42. Federal Register,Vol.35,No.247,Tuesday,22 December 1970.

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Society

43. Harold Krom, memo, 1973.

44. Poughkeepsie Journal, 6 July 1976.

45. "Dutch Flotilla To Visit,"Poughkeepsie]oumal, 30 June 1976, p.20.

46. Poughkeepsie Journal, 7 July 1976.

47. Hyde Park Townsman, 8 August 1979.

48. Ibid.

49. Ibid.

50. Herbert Saltford, letter,26 April 1989.

51. Ibid.

52. William Washburn, "Blue Maid Goes to Op Sail '80", PYC Newsletter, May 1980.

53. Ibid.

54. Ibid 55. Shellman Brown ,"Long Reach Races to Bermuda", PYC Newsletter, August 1986.

56. Ibid.

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Rowing on the Hudson

by John Mylod rowing is a sport in which you work going backwards to get ahead. It is a mix of personal fortitude, individual achievement and, with other rowers, meeting the difficult goal of working and staying together as a team.

In well-rowed boats, oarsmen and oarswomen strive for a complex interaction between athlete efficiency and boat speed. there is a synchronization of skill, technique, physical endurance, mental toughness, and pride of accomplishment which, when things are going well, combine to reach that splendid moment when a rower is one with the boat and the water. In other words, “it don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing.” the famous Seattle boat builder, George Pocock said rowing is a “symphony of motion. rowing well is nearing perfection.” 1 that symphony of motion has been played over and over again during the past two centuries as boat design and equipment, including oars, have been improved upon to make the most of the mechanical advantages advanced by new shell building methods and materials. Crew shells made of wood are rarely seen now that tough and lightweight composite-fiber has replaced old materials, including paper. 2 Indeed, it is all the more remarkable that 19th century competitive rowers on the Hudson and elsewhere on the east Coast and in england were as successful as they were in covering a measured distance, considering the boat design and equipment of the period. In addition, 19th century races were typically at distances of four and five miles with a turn, and winning times for these events were surprisingly good, especially when considering the mid-point turn. Unlike today’s boats, early boats could also generally row through choppy river conditions and the rolling wakes of other vessels which crowded in and sometimes, intentionally and unintentionally, interfered with a given race. early racers used four and six oared Whitehall fishing and yawl-boat skiffs or other pulling boat designs. Somewhat more slender boats evolved with lapstrake construction, although these boats continued the use of a fixed seat and oars that were set between two pins on the gunwales.

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One early race on the Hudson in December of 1824, off what is now the Statue of Liberty, featured a four oared tender from an English frigate and an American crew rowing a Whitehall gig named the American Star. 3 The New York watermen in this early race were said to have won handily due to the important difference in the rowing styles of the two boats.

“The British oarsmen pulled by throwing back their whole bodies, as though they were towing a man of war, while the Americans sat erect as though they were part of the boat and pulled only with their arms, thus working by short strokes.” 4 (Today, the latter style would be anathema to any coach. Modern rowing stresses a style that focuses on leg drive followed by shoulders, back and finally, arms to complete the stroke.)

Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, amateur clubs were organized in New York City and crews from towns further north on the Hudson such as Haverstraw, Peekskill, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie entered numerous races in those cities throughout the period.

In Poughkeepsie, a crew in a six oared boat known as the Washington (after a club by that name) was successful in several regattas in New York, Newburgh and their home town. On June 27, 1837, the Washington defeated eight other boats at Newburgh. Two days later, a large crowd gathered at a hotel in downtown Poughkeepsie to congratulate the Washington’s oarsmen on the “brilliant performance of our club in beating the entire field at Newburgh.” Just after the race, spectators on the steamboat Emerald even took up a collection and gave it to the oarsmen for their fine showing. 5 Two months later, a five mile race was held at Poughkeepsie with a first place purse of $200, a very handsome sum for its day - made even more impressive considering that the race occurred during the panic and recession of 1837. Perhaps to forget hard times for a few hours or to put down a wager in the hopes of making some extra cash, people poured into Poughkeepsie on steamboats, yachts, carriages, and wagons. Thousands of spectators crowded the hillsides and piers along the waterfront and jammed the railings of steamboats and the Highland ferry to see the five mile race. The starting line was opposite the foot of the present Main Street, and the course ran north to a sloop anchored in the river opposite what is now Quiet Cove State Park. Again, it was the crew of the Washington that defeated all rivals and was awarded first prize. The unofficial time was between 30 and 31 minutes, a respectable six minute 74

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average mile in a boat without sliding seats that relied on sheer upper body strength. 6 rowing continued to grow in popularity throughout this period. By September of 1839, a newly formed “Poughkeepsie Amateur Association” announced a regatta for sixes and fours with the first prize in each category being a new boat valued at $300 and $225. 7 And as interest in amateur rowing rapidly expanded during this period, so did an enthusiastic following for professional rowing and the emergence of such well known heroes as Josh Ward of Newburgh, James Hemill of Pittsburgh, the Biglin brothers of Newburgh, and many others. these scullers were widely known and covered in general readership and sports papers alike.

Josh Ward dominated professional sculling for many years and when he wasn’t competing in single sculls, he often joined his brothers or others in four oared crews.

A two day regatta on September 5th and 6th, 1860 again brought thousands of people to Poughkeepsie. Arrangements for the regatta were begun a month earlier, and ward committees were formed to solicit funds for the event. the regatta included single and double scull races as well as fours and sixes racing. On the usual five mile course, a Poughkeepsie crew in a boat called the George Shaw defeated crews from Brooklyn and New York. the winners used the first spoon oars seen in Poughkeepsie which were made by George Polk who operated a shipyard on what is now a parking lot in northern Waryas Park. (Spoon oars grabbed the water more effectively than the flat blade oars in use at that time, and their design was a breakthrough in equipment efficiency.)

Although the 1860 regatta was a success and local backers wagered a great deal of money, a Poughkeepsie Eagle editorial disapprovingly noted that “one day with its excitements would do very well, but two days for a quiet town like Poughkeepsie was rather too much.” 8 Despite the editorial comment, racing continued in Poughkeepsie for both fun and profit. Josh Ward and Jim Hamill in 1862 raced for a $2,000 purse which went to Hamill.

But the Eagle’s wariness proved justified when in 1865 a match race with a $6,000 purse was held in Poughkeepsie between the Floyd Fields and a boat called the Samuel Collyer rowed by the Biglin brothers for a New York sponsor. Again, Poughkeepsie’s population swelled by thousands of people as spectators poured into town by the train-load along with • reflections on a river

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gamblers, pick-pockets, three-card-Monte con men, and outright thugs.

Security police from New York were employed for the race day, but they were significantly outnumbered and helpless to stop much of the thievery that was rampant.

Following the same five mile course as in previous regattas, the Floyd Fields tried to surge ahead in the final half mile, but was cut off by the New York boat and prevented from taking the lead. Mayhem followed!

A foul was claimed by the crew of the Floyd Fields, and the referees hastily left the waterfront in order to make their decision in private. But a crowd of gamblers determined to achieve the right outcome stormed the hotel room where the referees were deliberating and threatened to shoot them if the New York boat was not declared the winner. Not surprisingly, the gamblers’ opinion prevailed.

Adding to the outrage was a fight later that day on the corner of Main and North Water Streets where Thomas DeMott was accidentally killed after accusing William Stevens (the stroke of the Floyd Fields) of throwing the race. In the aftermath of this disastrous race of 1865, the city took a collective breath and went on with business a little wiser than before.

Three years later, another amateur rowing association, the Shatemuc Boat Club, was formed by three dozen well known Poughkeepsians including Harvey Eastman, John Roosevelt, Aaron Innis, O.H. Booth, and W. A. Collingwood. Their first club house outfitted for shells was an old canal boat that eventually sank at their dock; however, a new clubhouse was built at Upper Landing in 1870 near the old Highland ferry slip. 9 By 1879, however, active membership in the Shatemuc Club had dwindled to such a low point that, late in the year, the facility at Upper Landing was turned over to James Reynolds who, with other interested sports enthusiasts in the community, organized the Apokeepsing Boat Club which featured competitive and recreational rowing. Eventually, the Apokeepsing club relocated to a new waterfront location by barging the clubhouse from Upper Landing to the foot of Church Street at the north end of what is now Kaal Rock Park where it continued to be a popular recreational rowing center into the early 1920s.

Professional rowing was still very popular in America at the same time that the Apokeepsing Club was being established, and some of the top pros were equally well known internationally. Match races for large 76

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purses were planned and promoted in england and Australia as well as in the United States. Professional rowers had managers and committees which raised money, determined the host community for a given race, set the race rules, and handled the publicity much like the promoters of prize fights today. tremendous public and not so public wagering took place and contributed greatly to the excitement and anticipation leading up to the many showdowns that were generally touted as “world championships.” Josh Ward, Walter Brown, Charles Courtney, Jim teneyck, and Jim Hamill were some of the well known professional scullers who raced at Poughkeepsie.

But perhaps one of the best known professionals of all was edward “Ned” Hanlan from toronto. His first professional appearance was in 1874 and he remained unbeatable until 1884 when he was defeated in Australia for the world championships by William Beach. So popular was Hanlan that prior to race day in Melbourne, he gave rowing demonstrations before a crowd of forty thousand spectators.10 Hanlan and a few other of these professionals achieved great celebrity status and were true world figures in addition to being great rowers.

In time, their competitive years behind them, several professionals, including Courtney, teneyck, ellis Ward, and Hanlan, went on to coach college crews at Cornell, Syracuse, Pennsylvania, and Columbia respectively. After bringing his last Columbia crew to the Poughkeepsie regatta early in the 20th century, Hanlan dropped out of rowing and returned to toronto where he died in 1908. (At his death, there was a tremendous outpouring of grief throughout Canada. On the day of Ned Hanlan’s funeral, the toronto street cars stopped running, and the stock exchanged closed. So many people clogged the streets of the funeral procession that the hearse could barely get through.) 11 By the time the first Intercollegiate rowing Association race was held on the Hudson at Poughkeepsie in 1895 between Columbia, Pennsylvania and Cornell, professional rowing was finished, and the IrA regatta was to become the pinnacle of rowing in America for the next 45 years.

With time out for two World Wars, the famous regatta was last rowed in Poughkeepsie in 1949 before moving on to Marietta, Ohio and then Syracuse, New York. (It is now a two thousand meter race rowed at Camden, New Jersey.)

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The “Poughkeepsie Regatta,” as the IRA event eventually came to be known, attracted as many as 100,000 people to watch three races on one day each year. The main event was the four-mile eight-oared varsity race from Crum Elbow to a point about a quarter of a mile south of the present Mid-Hudson Bridge. A 60 car observation train on the West Shore Railroad followed the progress of each race. Other spectators watched from the rocky cliffs of Kaal Rock and Reynolds Hill (at Upper Landing), or from just about every kind of floating craft imaginable. 12

Boats of all kinds came out on Regatta day to get a close up view of the race.

Dutchess County Historical Society Collection

Most impressive was the means of informing spectators along both shores which crew was leading after each mile. As the race progressed, aerial bombs were detonated to correspond with the lane number of the leading crew (for example, if the crew in lane 3 was leading, 3 aerial bombs were shot off).

In preparation for the races, the college crews came to Poughkeepsie two or three weeks ahead of time to get used to the river. 13 In time, too, substantial boat houses were built for Washington, California and Cornell crews along the waterfront at what became known as “Regatta Row.” Navy, Wisconsin and eventually, Rutgers occupied buildings at what was then Hudson River State Hospital property. Columbia also built an impressive stone boat house across the river from the hospital property, and other crews took advantage of existing waterfront structures on both sides of the river.

In 1931, nine crews entered the varsity eight race which Navy won in a little under nineteen minutes. In 1940, the Junior Varsity race was run in pitch dark and a naval vessel had to train a spotlight on the finish line in order for the crews to know where to go and for the judges to see who won. Washington, it is said, won by eight lengths, although it is not clear how they determined the winning margin.14 78

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Historic photo of the Cornell boathouse, now owned by Marist College. following renovations undertaken by Marist between 2004 and 2009, the building is once again a functioning boathouse on the first floor level with second floor space reserved for campus meetings and events. Dutchess County Historical Society Collection.

Also from Washington was George Pocock, the boat builder who eventually set the standard for wooden racing shells that went fast across the water. (In the mid-1930s, at the Poughkeepsie regatta, Pocock noticed that all 30 shells were his own design.)15 His classic Hudson river boat was extremely sturdy and had a lip outside along the top of the gunwale like a piece of molding. Its function was to “encourage” river water to spray away from instead of slopping into the boat.

It was in Poughkeepsie too, that George Pocock picked up a helpful boat-building idea.While strolling on Main Street one evening, he noticed a window dresser preparing one of the large displays for a window of the luckey Platt Department Store. He tapped on the glass and asked if he could see a new kind of staple gun that the window dresser was using to mount the display. Upon closer examination, Pocock realized that he could use a stapler to fasten the decking on the bow and stern of his shells prior to the final assembly of the finished product and thus save a • reflections on a river

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Regatta Program 1923. In 1923, the University of Washington became the first western school ever to win the IRA Regatta. In the following years, western schools would become a dominant presence in intercollegiate rowing. Dutchess County Historical Society Collection.

great deal of time tacking the fabric to the frame. 16 The Poughkeepsie Regatta was suspended during both World Wars, and after WWII times had changed for spectators and rowing itself. Most spectators now came by car for just a few brief hours, and the Varsity eight event was dropped from four miles to three. There was also increasing disappointment among the coaches when conditions on the 80

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Hudson were less than ideal. With the races now shortened, the great straight, four mile Poughkeepsie course was no longer as important; plus it was becoming much more difficult locally to raise the funds for the buildings, docks, equipment, and personnel necessary to organize the regatta. But in its day, Poughkeepsie was to rowing what Indianapolis, Louisville, Wimbledon, and St. Andrews are to their respective sports today.

Rowing, however, did not stop in Poughkeepsie with the final IRA in 1949. The next important chapter in the City’s rich rowing history began the same year; and ironically, it led to more rowing on the Hudson than ever before. Spearheaded by the Junior Chamber of Commerce and encouraged with the help of local service and fraternal organizations seeking a way to hold on to the IRA legacy, the idea of scholastic rowing (or in those days,”schoolboy’ rowing”) caught on. In 1950, the “Mid Hudson Schoolboy Rowing Association” was chartered, and that first year saw crews established for Poughkeepsie, Arlington and Roosevelt high schools.

The Rowing Association solicited equipment, located coaches and gain-

1952 Poughkeepsie High School “Schoolboy” rowers. School rowing programs were established in the 1950s to hang on to the Hudson river’s rowing tradition despite the departure of the famed IrA regatta in 1949. Dutchess County Historical Society Collection.

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ed permission to operate out of the old IRA area known as Regatta Row - all to establish a foothold in the expanding sport of scholastic crew. In the first year too, the Association began the annual “Mid Hudson Invitation Regatta” which was staged on the second Saturday of May each year for 50 years. (This tradition ended in 2000, when the second Saturday of May was given over to the annual state championship races on the Fish Creek at Saratoga Lake.)

Early Mid Hudson organizers and supporters included W. Wendell Heilman, Roy Kinsey, John Kuhn, Guy Torsone, Edson Rider, Bob Hatfield, Dick Rivenburg, Swede Lindmark, Emil Tschudin, Herbert Haight, John Smith, Jim Ryan, Walt Callahan, Frank Bub Sr., and the Bub brothers: Frank Jr., Dick and Ronny. Frank Jr. went on to lead the Poughkeepsie Rowing Club for a decade until the club folded in the mid-1960s. Ronnie also coached, as a volunteer, at Highland High School’s first crew season in 1959.

In the early 1950s, the Mid Hudson Schoolboy Rowing Association arranged for the equipment and coaches while the local schools provided the rowers. But soon the local schools assumed the responsibility for the programs with the Association providing support and conducting the Invitation and Triangle Regattas. By the 1970s, women’s crew was introduced and became a central part of both local programs and regattas. The Invitation Regatta also grew in stature and by 1974, was one of the largest - if not the largest - one day regatta in the northeast. By then both men’s and women’s crew teams were flourishing, and the Invitation Regatta expanded to as many as 24 races for eight oared shells. By then too, the Mid Hudson Rowing Association (MHRA) had dropped “schoolboy” from its name.

In 1959, on the 350th anniversary of the Hudson and Champlain exploratory journeys, a great many events that year commemorated those occasions, including the Mid Hudson Invitation Regatta. Ten high school teams were entered for the Junior and Senior Varsity races. Heats were held in the morning for each category, and the six-boat finals went off late in the afternoon with undefeated Poughkeepsie High School varsity crew losing to the Kent School by a boat length after defeating them earlier in the day.

However, two weeks later, the members of the Poughkeepsie High School varsity crew boarded a train for Detroit and the National School 82

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boy rowing Association Championships. (Crew is that rare scholastic sport with a national championship.) the crew headed for Detroit included tim Mead, tony Smith, ted Occhialino, Bob Dietz, John Mylod, Bill Davidson, Gary Martoni, John Haight, John Watkins, Gene Motika, and David Simmons with manager Jack Dworak, coach Joe Catanzaro and trainer Ken Gearhard. the boat they used was a year-old Pocock and remarkably, the sixty foot eight oared shell was driven to Detroit atop a special rig on the car of robert Miller, an enthusiastic supporter of the Poughkeepsie High School crew.

Unfortunately, the Poughkeepsie oarsmen were not as successful in the championships as they had hoped after a mishap in the last quarter of the mile race when an officials’ launch edged too close to a crew from Nutley, New Jersey and forced it to lock oars with the PHS boat - thus effectively ending the PHS crew’s opportunity to cross the finish line in first place. Both crews then sprinted to a dead heat, third place finish only seconds behind the winner.

In spite of losing the championship, the sending of a crew to the Nationals in Detroit in 1959 was a signal that scholastic rowing on the Hudson had come of age. It was a testament to both the crew programs and community support in the 1950s that a public high school team could be sent halfway across the country to compete in a national championship. these days, in addition to races with traditional rivals in New York and New Jersey, local scholastic and club crews regularly compete in the nationals and in other races in Delaware, Philadelphia, Boston, Albany, Saratoga, and Canada.

But the 1950s were the make or break years for the early MHrA scholastic programs and hanging on to the Hudson’s rowing traditions was an important cultural touchstone for the community. Keeping the rowing tradition alive included bouncing back from a major fire in 1957 that destroyed the Washington boathouse and just about all of the high school equipment that had been begged and borrowed from the college teams as they departed after the final IrA regatta at Poughkeepsie in 1949. fortunately, insurance covered the cost of new Pocock shells for each school which arrived in time for the 1958 crew season. (these shells were treated as tenderly as week old puppies since they were the schools’ only boats.) By 1959, as the crew programs grew and space became tight, roosevelt High School moved from regatta row to the Wisconsin shell • reflections on a river

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house at the State Psychiatric Hospital property where they remained until a new community boathouse was opened in 2006.

In 1960, a fledgling rowing program began at Marist College and grew rapidly to be competitive with comparable college crews. A new boat house was built adjacent to the old Washington house and over the intervening years, the Marist crew has grown to be a formidable competitor in its division. The Marist’s men’s and women’s crews have established themselves as a force in their conference, winning many championships in such races as the President’s Cup Regatta on its home waters and in regattas on the road as well. (Marist has also competed in England’s Royal Henley Regatta and defeated some of the top crews in the world.)

From the 1970s to the present, rowing at Poughkeepsie has burgeoned to include not only Marist College, Vassar College and the original three participating high schools but also Spackenkill High School, Our Lady of Lourdes High School, Rhinebeck High School, Wappingers Central School Crew Club and two adult clubs: the Mid Hudson Rowing Association and the Hudson River Rowing Association. A new boat house now houses the seven high school programs and the two adult clubs.

Funded primarily by New York State and the Dyson Foundation, on land essentially donated by Vassar College, the new, state-of-the-art rowing facility includes training “tanks,” five bays for shells and equipment and docks long enough to launch and land several shells at a time.

The 1970s also saw, finally, the very fortunate inclusion of women in scholastic and college crew programs. With this new beginning, the program participation numbers soared across all rowing levels and added greatly to Poughkeepsie’s rowing traditions. Ironically, old timers in the community speak wistfully about “bringing back” the old IRA Regatta; but today, there are more people rowing and more opportunities for people to row than ever before in a full range of boats including singles, doubles, fours, eights, quads (four rowers each with two oars), trainers, rough water boats, and sleek racing shells.

Certainly, it is true that far more rowers are seen by far fewer spectators than in the days of the Poughkeepsie Regatta, but part of the reason is that rowing and racing have changed significantly. The races are shorter and often run early in the morning to take advantage of better rowing conditions when the river is most likely “rowable.” (Boats designed for speed are less forgiving than the older shells and are more likely to take 84

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on water in rougher conditions later in the day.) Yet with any luck, the new Walkway Over the Hudson will help to develop a larger fan-base for regattas 200 feet below.

today, rowing is enjoyed by a larger and more diverse group of enthusiasts than at any time in the sport’s history. Photo by rick longworth, Mid-Hudson rowing Association.

In the past 175 years of rowing and racing at Poughkeepsie, the last 50 years have seen the greatest concentration of effort in terms of developing programs and acquiring equipment and facilities to advance the sport of rowing.

Sure, there are far more people here now than there were those many years ago when professional rowers were plying their trade; but the focus is also very different. Countless volunteers have given of their time, energy, expertise, skill, leadership, moral support, and money to make it possible for others to row and to grow. from the unflagging dedication of coaches to the magic of a star-lit early morning row; from the mundane tending of organizational paperwork to the inevitable frustration of those “what might have been” competitive disappointments --- the efforts of scores of individuals have helped thousands and thousands of people learn to row. And those lessons last a lifetime. the music plays on.

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Author’s interview of George Pocock in his Seattle boatbuilding shop (September 5, 1975).

2 Six oared paper boats were produced in the mid-19th century by the Waters and Balch company in Troy, New York. In fact, in the first IRA regatta at Poughkeepsie in 1895, the Pennsylvania crew used a paper boat from Troy. On race day the boat was damaged by the wake from a spectator’s vessel, and the regatta was postponed for two days to allow for repairs.

3 Robert F. Kelley, American Rowing (New York, 1932), 19.

4 Ibid., 20.

5 “Glory Enough for One Day” Poughkeepsie Eagle (July 1, 1837).

6 Race times are difficult to match year to year due to variables in wind, tide and current conditions. Near shore currents can be going one way when mid-river current is going the opposite direction. In 1932, the lanes were put in the middle of the river to give all crews the same chance. IRA races were usually scheduled for late afternoon rather than being based on the tides and were subject to unpredictable water conditions.

7 Poughkeepsie Eagle (September 14, 1839).

8 Edmund Platt, The Eagle’s History of Poughkeepsie from the Earliest Settlements 1683 to 1905 (Poughkeepsie, NY, 1905), 170.

9 Ibid., 222.

10 Robert F. Kelley, American Rowing (New York, 1932), 44.

11 Ibid., 46.

12 Frank V. Mylod, “The Regatta: As I Remember” Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book Vol. 83, 2001-2002, 61.

13 Ibid., 61.

14 Husky Crew: 1940-1949. Washington Rowing Foundation, www.huskycrew. com/1940.htm 15 Author’s interview of George Pocock in his Seattle boatbuilding shop (September 5, 1975).

16 Ibid.

1

Sculler Bill Davies with “eights” in the distance. Photo by Rick Longworth, Mid-Hudson Rowing Association.

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DCHS Yearbook Encore Editions are selected, republished articles from past issues going back to 1914, appearing exactly as they were published at the time. As a result you may find outdated language and perspectives that are not as informed or inclusive as we enjoy today, all of which offer opportunities to learn. Despite the impressive numbers — 6 linear feet, 12,000 pages, 7 million words, thousands of illustrations — the value of DCHS Yearbooks is found not only in its scale, but in the depth of thinking behind each word and illustration.

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