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HISTORY OF TRUMANSBURG.—Continued.Although two miles away, Trumansburg may be considered as being practically on the lake, and until the Geneva, Ithaca Sayre railroad was built, all the shipping was by boat, and as for many years its interests were so inimately connected with that of lake navigation a brief history of steamboating on the Cayuga might not be uninteresting. Immediately following Fulton’s successful experiment on the Hudson the steamboat became common to all Fthe navigable inland waters, and the growth of steamboating from 1810 to 1820 might be likened to that of the telephone 60 years later. It effected a complete revolution, opened up new routes from the East to the West, every inland lake was used as a link in chain which was to bind the country by ties of common interest. The old stage route via Binghampton, Owego, Ithaca and Geneva was a popular thoroughfare from New York City to all the country lying west of Seneca Lake and stage proprietors and shippers were quick to see the advantage of a shorter route and saving of time by connecting Ithaca with the Auburn and Canandaigua Turnpike at Cayuga. To this end in 1820 the steamboat “Enterprise” was built. This boat was about 100 feet long, very strongly built, with high straight sides and full lines; she was provided with a high pressure engine and a log boiler set in brick work. A log boiler was simply a shell some twenty feet long and two feet in diameter without flues or tubes. Wood was the fuel and sufficient to to- make the trip through the lake and back was a load for the boat when she started, but wood was cheap and although the Enterprise was slow compared with modern boats she was reasonably certain of making the round trip in two days which was a vast improvement on sailing with contrary winds or the. tedious and laborious poling along the beach. The Enterprise served her time and when she had outlived her usefulness as a steamboat was sunk and used as a dock near the present breakwater at Ithaca. In 1825 the Talemakus was built by Phelps Goodwin on an entirely new plan, there being no frames in the hull of the boat. They called it the basket plan. The planking was double, the first course standing nearly vertical to the keel to which they were bolted ; the second or outside courses were laid fore and aft as at present and at every intersection with Vertical planking were treenailed (pronounced trunnelled) with wooden pins split and wedged at each end, thus forming a truss of great strength. The Talemakus was provided with a condensing or low-pressure engine of what was known as the “steeple pattern” and although an improvement on the Enterprise both in size and speed was very far from being rapid. About this time the DeWitts became interested in steamboating and in 1830 in connection with the old company built the “DeWitt Clinton.” This was also a “basket” boat and the largest and most powerful yet built; the Erie Canal having been opened trade on the l^kes had increased enormously, and towing canal boats was an important part of the business. Up to this time no boat had run expressly for passengers, all boats did towing and landed their passengers by means of small boats, and it was not until 1840 that any attempt was made to land at a dock, in fact it was not done at all landings until compelled to do so. The mode of landing was for the steamer to approach the shore as closely as possible, slow up, load the passengers and baggage into the small boat which was lowered into the water, a line was attached to the steamer by the aid of which the boat was forced ashore in a line diagonal to the steamers course, the line being paid out by a hand in the boat, on reaching the shore the passengers were bundled out and others taking their place the steamer was put under full headway and the boat hauled aboard; it was hurried work and many accidents occured in which some lives had been lost and complaints became so numerous and pressing that the Legislature passed an act compelling all passenger steamers to come to a dock and make fast before any persons were allowed to go on or off; this of course necessitated the building of docks at all landings. In 1840 the “Simeon DeWitt” the largest boat ever built on the lake up to the present time (1888) was put on as a regular passenger boat; she was also the
Newspaper Details
The Free Press
Trumansburg, New York, US
Sat, May 05, 1888
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
IA, USA 15 Mar 2025
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