Night traffics of the harbor enfold the scene as the famous Pilgrim leaves her Hudson River berth in Lower Manhattan lo begin her overnight journey up Long Island Sound. Called the "Iron Monarch of the Sound," the palatial 380' side wheeler was the first in the Fall River Line to boast iron hull and electric lights. Launched in 1883, she was in service until 1913. Painting by William G. Muller.
The Nightboats of Long Island Sound By Edwin L. Dunbaugh When we were growing up in Glen Cove, Long Island, in the midthirties (which really was not so long ago to those of us who remember!), one of our greatest thrills was to put out in a small boat on a summer evening and sail out into Long Island Sound to watch the nightboats go by . At that time there were five overnight steamer lines between New York and various ports in southern New England. Only a few years earlier there had been many more, but by the mid-thirties most had succumbed to a combination of the depression and the automobile, and, though we did not suspect it at the time, the remaining lines were also soon to go. Typically each line operated two steamers. One sailed from New York at five-thirty or six in the evening and through the night plied eastward through the Sound,arriving at its destination about dawn th e following morning. The other steamer (sometimes an exact sistershi p but more often merely another steamer of similar size and style) would sail from the New England port in the evening and make its way to New York overn ight. Although the nightboats varied considerably in size, some of them, particularly those of the famed Fall River Line, were among the country's largest inland water steamers . The Commonwealth of the Fall River Line was, at 456 feet, roughly half the length of the White Star liner Majestic, then the largest liner in the world . In their interior appointments, the Sound steamers displayed the plush elegance of an earlier era. When we sailed out into the Sound to watch the nightboats go by, we usually encountered them so mewhere between Hart' s Island and Execution Light, which they passed shortly after seven in the evening. The steamers leaving their New York piers at fiveSEA HISTORY, SPRI G 1981
thirty or six wou ld move slowly up the crowded East River and through Hell Gate as far as Whitestone. Then at Fort Schuyler (Throgs Neck), they made a sharp turn to port to enter the open waters of the Sound and it was as they were making this turn that they first came into view. As soon as we first spotted the bow of a steamer poking past Fort Schu yler, we began competing to see who wou ld be the first to identify her. Our identifications so metimes changed many times as the steamer a pproached. Somehow the steamers appeared quite small from a distance and to be steaming along a fairly leisurely pace. But as the vessel came closer and bore down on us at close range, it suddenly loomed frighteningly large and seemed to be ploughing past at great speed . Sometimes the pilot would spot us and blow the whistle, which invariably made us jump. Then, leaving our little craft rocking helplessly in its wake, the steamer again quickly diminished in size as it sailed on up the Sound . Once we recovered our balance, we soon forgot the steamer that had passed and again focused on Fort Schuyler to see which steamer would come next. Usually the first to appear each night was the "Boston Boat,' one of the two large (about 400 feet) and rather bulky propeller steamers Boston or New York that operated on the Eastern Steamship Company's line between these two cities. These were the newest steamers on the Sound and, as the only ones built after the First World War, they followed the rather austere linear style popular in the twenties. To some, therefore, the Boston and the New York were the only "modern" steamers on the Sound, while to others, including myself, they were totally lacking in the grace and elegance of the older steamers.
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