The Victorine: A Well Known Hudson River Sloop by Charles T. Keppel and Nathan A. Lyons Built in Piermont, New York in 1848, the Hudson River Sloop Victorine was soon acquired by the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring . For nearly fifty years she was used by the Foundry to bring in raw materials and to deliver the finished products for which it became famous: artillery , major parts for steam engines used by ships and locomotives and, particularly during the Civil War, Parrett guns for the Union Army. During most of her years with the Foundry , the Victorine was commanded by Captain David Lyons cf Cold Spring. During one of his trips from Cold Spring to New York, Capt. Lyons sai led the sloop south in three hours and forty minutes, a passage that gave Victorine her reputation as one of the fastest sloops on the Hudson. She cou ld even hold her own with some of the fast private sailing yachts whose wealthy proprietors chose to give her a race. However, before describing the Victorine further, it would be good to see where this type of river vessel came from, and how it became adapted for the particular needs of the Hudson River. When the Dutch first settled in what was then called New Amsterdam, they soon recognized that water transportation was the easiest and most economical for both people and heavy goods . They started by building one-masted cargo boats like the ones they had known in Holland, then called sloeps. They found, however, that these drew too much water for the smaller harbors along the rivers and bays, and the old moveable sideboards needed for sailing on the wind were not as useful as the built-in and adjustable center-boards already being developed elsewhere on the East Coast. Also, the varying wind conditions found in different parts of the Hudson called for more specialized sail patterns. As the plans of the Victorine show, many years of sloop building had refined the 70ft hull to a broad beam of 25ft and a depth of on ly 6ft, plus a built-in centerboard which when needed could be dropped another 6ft for sailing on the wind . The mast was stepped well forward. With its top mast , it rose to more than 90ft. This enabled it to carry a large mainsail, one big jib plus a topsail. As refined , the nineteenth-century sloop cou ld carry ample cargo, get in and out of shallow harbors and sail well in good winds. Victorine sail and rigging plan . Courtesy Model Ship Builder. Drawing by P . Takakjian.
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Though the Victorine was used primarily to carry cargos for the prosperous West Point Foundary, many other sloops of its day, and for many years before , served as Hudson River ferries for people living all along the great ri ver. One such sloop of 1826 made regular trips between Ossining and New York City; it sailed south on Thursdays, and returned north on Mondays. One south-bound trip , on 18 March of that year, carried mostly farm products, listed on the sloop's records as: fifteen calves, two turkeys , six barrels of potatoes , one side of beef, ten bags of com , many chickens, sixty-three bushels of oats (New York had many horses to feed), two barrel s of vinegar and three of cider. The sloop captain, John Leacock, served as the shippers' agent, collecting payment for all this when it was delivered. On his return to Ossining , he brought back three passengers, two kegs of liquor, one chest of tea and a whole range of household items needed by local merchants for stock replenishment. The record shows that he collected freight charges of over twenty-four dollars for the north bound trip . Ossining was typical of many farming centers on both sides of the Hudson, and many sloops were engaged in trade similar to that described all along the river. For instance the harbor at New Hamburgh, south of Poughkeepsie was served by twenty-four sloops and seven schooners over a twenty-five year period. The captains along the river became recognized as valuable citizens both fo r their conduct of business affairs and the safe navigation of their vessels. Although sloops could often sail from New York City to Albany in twenty-four hours, owing to prevailing southerly winds the return trip could often take four days, and sometimes as long as a week. Naturally, times varied with the conditions. If wind and tide were particu larly adverse, the captains would lie at anchor until the tide turned. When Capt. Lyons made his record run from Cold Spring, in the Hudson Highl ands, he must have caught the ebb tide just right, and then been helped by a strong tail wind all the way south . He made the trip in a little more than half the time for just one tide of six- plus hours. Hi s average speed must have been better than ten knots through the water, plus the help of the tide. The Victorine had a carrying capacity of some 110 tons of cargo. All crew work aboard had to be done by hand . It was only later that small mechanical deck winches were installed . These were first powered by steam , and later by gasoline engines. These were especiall y important for the larger schooners used for ocean transport. The mechanical deck winches greatly reduced the size of crews needed, no longer calling for extra men for the old " hand haulers." Sloops of the size of the Victorine usually carried a crew of six , including the captain . Cargo handling, anchor raising and setting of the large sail s, all required hand work. Steering was by a tiller instead of a mechanical hand wheel. The large tiller was much better for the sometimes quick course changes made necessary by the various wind changes characteristic of the Hudson . Crew members also had to be ready to put reefs in the large sail s, sometimes needed for sailing before a strong tail wind . Usually, when under weigh, the men did all their work from the deck . Living quarters were in the bow and stem. Cooking was done on a stove located well away from the wood construction of the rest of the sloop . Not all trips for the Victorine were between Cold Spring and New York. Sometimes she had to deliver and pick up cargos in Albany or Troy . All progress was made by sail and Capt. Lyons had to know the peculiarities of the entire navigable length of the river. Captain Lyons not only had to steer clear of the shoals but also had to avoid being run into by the river steamers which, as they increased in number , became SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1987