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Sale boat and Canal boat(they had it all)
The shipwrecks were found in Burlington Harbor, Vermont in 1980. The boats were equipped for sailing.
The tractor trailer of the Erie Canal
By Bob Cudmore
The canal schooner was the tractor trailer of the Erie Canal according to historian and tugboat captain Art Cohn. Cohn visited Amsterdam and Canajoharie this month as part of the legacy tour of the replica canal schooner Lois McClure and its companion tugboat.
The Lois McClure, built for the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, was launched in 2004 and named in honor of a major contributor to the project.
The original canal schooners were constructed to take advantage of the first widening on the Erie Canal that took place in 1862 during the Civil War,
Cohn said, “The boat that you’re on is a replica of a boat that would have been built literally that year to accommodate more freight to go through the system. And we know this because we’ve located two of these boats, exact examples, both built in 1862, intact and on the bottom of Lake Champlain.”
The shipwrecks were found in Burlington Harbor, Vermont in 1980. The boats were equipped for sailing.
Cohn said it took some time to convince established historians that these canal boats were actually used as sailing vessels. There is a 1900 postcard photo showing a canal schooner sailing on Lake Champlain.
The boats sailed when traveling on Lake Champlain and wide rivers such as the Hudson and St. Lawrence. The schooners did not sail on the canals.
The boats sailed from lake ports to the entrance to the Champlain Canal. There the masts were lowered, sails either stowed on board or on shore and teams of horses began pulling the schooners through the canal system.
Cohn said, “These boats were highly engineered to be able to fit the locks primarily and the canal prism of their time.”
Canal schooners, like the tractor trailer trucks on the road today, essentially carried all kinds of freight: lumber, bricks, building materials, coal, agricultural products and manufactured goods.
The schooners did not carry passengers on the canals. That was the job of the packet boats, Cohn said. The packet boats were a tremendous convenience in the early years of the Erie Canal, cutting down the travel time between Albany and Buffalo.
The railroads, however, took the passenger business away from the packet boats very quickly in the nineteenth century. So quickly, Cohn said, that packet boats disappeared before the age of photography.
The canal schooners hung on into the early days of the Barge Canal when the canal no longer had a towpath for horses and mules. Then the schooners moved through the canal pushed by companion tugboats lashed to their sides.
Cohn said he and the crew love taking the Lois McClure and its tug to stops around the canal, “If you look around today you can hear the kids, the parents the grandparents, all looking at this boat and asking the same questions. They’re in wonderment of a boat that in her day, the people wouldn’t have given it a second look. Today she’s a rock star.”
The Historians with Bob Cudmore on local and Public Radio and the WWW and in print every weekend Daily Gazette
The 2023 Go Fund Me needs your contribution https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast U.S. Mail 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.
Wednesday, May 3, 2023-From the Archives- August 7, 2020-Episode 330-Margaret Weitekamp chairs the space history department at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. She is author of “Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program.”
In addition to serving as the department chair, Dr. Margaret A. Weitekamp curates the Museum's social and cultural history of spaceflight collection, more than 5,000 artifacts that include space memorabilia and space science fiction objects. These everyday mementos of the space age—which include toys and games, medals and awards, buttons and pins, as well as comics and trading cards—complete the story about spaceflight told by the Museum's collection of space hardware and technologies.
Thursday, May 4, 2023
The cannon at Fairview Cemetery
A large cannon that marks the veterans’ plot at Amsterdam’s Fairview Cemetery was forged during the Civil War. City historian Robert H. von Hasseln did extensive research in federal archives and local newspapers on the history of the gun.
Friday, May 5, 2023-Episode 473-Bob Cudmore provides a Focus on History podcast with topics including an eccentric philosopher, the Demskys of Eagle Street, Amsterdam’s agile mayor Burt Deal and how boxing flourished in 1930s Amsterdam. Dave Greene remembers how he met boxing great Jake LaMotta.
Bob Cudmore "History stories from The Mohawk Valley"
Email [email protected]
Historian Episode #500 coming this Fall
Keeping history alive during the pandemic with Jim Richmond from Saratoga County History Roundtable, plus the impact of Spencer and Katrina Trask on Saratoga Springs.
Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, May 2, 2023
A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Some of the storms could produce small hail. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 53. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight
A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. West wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Wednesday
Showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. High near 50. Calm wind becoming east around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Mohawk Valley News Headlines, Tuesday, May 2 , 2023
Daily Gazette
To subscribe https://dailygazette.com/subscribe/
Paper-Paper, On-line and e-edition
When Credibility Matters
Jury selection begins in Schoharie limo crash trial
SCHOHARIE — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of the limousine operator whose alleged criminal activity played a role…
https://dailygazette.com/
RecorderNews
Montgomery County to buy ambulance to supplement providers, SAVAC head says money could be better spent on direct support to agencies
https://www.recordernews.com/
Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day
https://www.leaderherald.com/
View all episodes
By Bob CudmoreThe shipwrecks were found in Burlington Harbor, Vermont in 1980. The boats were equipped for sailing.
The tractor trailer of the Erie Canal
By Bob Cudmore
The canal schooner was the tractor trailer of the Erie Canal according to historian and tugboat captain Art Cohn. Cohn visited Amsterdam and Canajoharie this month as part of the legacy tour of the replica canal schooner Lois McClure and its companion tugboat.
The Lois McClure, built for the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, was launched in 2004 and named in honor of a major contributor to the project.
The original canal schooners were constructed to take advantage of the first widening on the Erie Canal that took place in 1862 during the Civil War,
Cohn said, “The boat that you’re on is a replica of a boat that would have been built literally that year to accommodate more freight to go through the system. And we know this because we’ve located two of these boats, exact examples, both built in 1862, intact and on the bottom of Lake Champlain.”
The shipwrecks were found in Burlington Harbor, Vermont in 1980. The boats were equipped for sailing.
Cohn said it took some time to convince established historians that these canal boats were actually used as sailing vessels. There is a 1900 postcard photo showing a canal schooner sailing on Lake Champlain.
The boats sailed when traveling on Lake Champlain and wide rivers such as the Hudson and St. Lawrence. The schooners did not sail on the canals.
The boats sailed from lake ports to the entrance to the Champlain Canal. There the masts were lowered, sails either stowed on board or on shore and teams of horses began pulling the schooners through the canal system.
Cohn said, “These boats were highly engineered to be able to fit the locks primarily and the canal prism of their time.”
Canal schooners, like the tractor trailer trucks on the road today, essentially carried all kinds of freight: lumber, bricks, building materials, coal, agricultural products and manufactured goods.
The schooners did not carry passengers on the canals. That was the job of the packet boats, Cohn said. The packet boats were a tremendous convenience in the early years of the Erie Canal, cutting down the travel time between Albany and Buffalo.
The railroads, however, took the passenger business away from the packet boats very quickly in the nineteenth century. So quickly, Cohn said, that packet boats disappeared before the age of photography.
The canal schooners hung on into the early days of the Barge Canal when the canal no longer had a towpath for horses and mules. Then the schooners moved through the canal pushed by companion tugboats lashed to their sides.
Cohn said he and the crew love taking the Lois McClure and its tug to stops around the canal, “If you look around today you can hear the kids, the parents the grandparents, all looking at this boat and asking the same questions. They’re in wonderment of a boat that in her day, the people wouldn’t have given it a second look. Today she’s a rock star.”
The Historians with Bob Cudmore on local and Public Radio and the WWW and in print every weekend Daily Gazette
The 2023 Go Fund Me needs your contribution https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast U.S. Mail 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.
Wednesday, May 3, 2023-From the Archives- August 7, 2020-Episode 330-Margaret Weitekamp chairs the space history department at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. She is author of “Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program.”
In addition to serving as the department chair, Dr. Margaret A. Weitekamp curates the Museum's social and cultural history of spaceflight collection, more than 5,000 artifacts that include space memorabilia and space science fiction objects. These everyday mementos of the space age—which include toys and games, medals and awards, buttons and pins, as well as comics and trading cards—complete the story about spaceflight told by the Museum's collection of space hardware and technologies.
Thursday, May 4, 2023
The cannon at Fairview Cemetery
A large cannon that marks the veterans’ plot at Amsterdam’s Fairview Cemetery was forged during the Civil War. City historian Robert H. von Hasseln did extensive research in federal archives and local newspapers on the history of the gun.
Friday, May 5, 2023-Episode 473-Bob Cudmore provides a Focus on History podcast with topics including an eccentric philosopher, the Demskys of Eagle Street, Amsterdam’s agile mayor Burt Deal and how boxing flourished in 1930s Amsterdam. Dave Greene remembers how he met boxing great Jake LaMotta.
Bob Cudmore "History stories from The Mohawk Valley"
Email [email protected]
Historian Episode #500 coming this Fall
Keeping history alive during the pandemic with Jim Richmond from Saratoga County History Roundtable, plus the impact of Spencer and Katrina Trask on Saratoga Springs.
Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, May 2, 2023
A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Some of the storms could produce small hail. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 53. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight
A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. West wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Wednesday
Showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. High near 50. Calm wind becoming east around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Mohawk Valley News Headlines, Tuesday, May 2 , 2023
Daily Gazette
To subscribe https://dailygazette.com/subscribe/
Paper-Paper, On-line and e-edition
When Credibility Matters
Jury selection begins in Schoharie limo crash trial
SCHOHARIE — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of the limousine operator whose alleged criminal activity played a role…
https://dailygazette.com/
RecorderNews
Montgomery County to buy ambulance to supplement providers, SAVAC head says money could be better spent on direct support to agencies
https://www.recordernews.com/
Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day
https://www.leaderherald.com/