Navigation in Early Days

The first steamboat to ply the waters of Lake Ontario was the steamer Ontario. In the summer of 1817 she made her first appearance in Oswego and as she entered the harbor the inhabitants of the village were out in force to greet her. In fact long before she was in sight the black smoke from her stacks could be seen as she approached and attracted many.

The Ontario was a 400 ton boat, built at Sackets Harbor and the first steamer West of the Hudson river. She was a wonderful machine in her day and in the office of the City Clerk is preserved a faithful sketch of the old craft that was the pioneer in steam boating on our great lakes. The development in steam craft was not particularly rapid but in the fist twenty years there were many improvements, nevertheless. In 1839 the steamer United States was built at Ogdensburg and was one of the leviathans of her day. The engines were built for her by William Avery, of Salina, and transported overland to be placed in the hull.

Captain Elias Trowbridge brought the steamer out and in connection with the steamer Great Britain formed a line running from Lewiston on the Niagara river to Ogdensburg. The steamers drew of such a draught of water that they could not come up the river and passengers and freight were landed in the lower harbor. Both steamers were brought prominently into public notice during the Patriot War. When the “boys” crossed the St Lawrence river to Prescott, occupying the old stone windmill on the point, they were invested by British troops and a gunboat.

Captain W. S. Malcolm, the United States Marshal, was deputized to cross over the river in the steamer United States and bring over any who wished to return. The men in the windmill declined to take advantage of the offer. Standing near the wheelhouse, Captain Malcolm ordered Foster the wheels man to starboard his helm and return to Ogdensburg. Just as the steamer was changing her course, the British gunboat fired, the ball passing through the wheelhouse, cutting off the head of poor Foster, the wheels man. Captain Malcolm stepped in and standing over the dead body of Foster brought the steamer to Ogdensburg and ran her aground on a sandbar in the Oswegatchie river.

During the year 1837 or 1838 a well dressed and handsome young stranger made his appearance in town and his good clothes and fine appearance attracted attention as he walked about town. About the time the steamer Great Britain was firing up, preparatory to leaving port on her trip to Lewiston, the man had carted to the steamer a trunk he had purchased at a store here. Placing the trunk aft near the upper cabin, he made his way to the hill at the foot of Montcalm street. When the steamer had rounded the pier and was just laying her course up the lake, the trunk burst into flames. Upon examination it was found that an internal machine had been arranged inside the trunk with the intentions of blowing up or burning the steamer after the trunk had been stored with others in the hold. The trunk being identified as the one purchased, the young stranger was arrested. His name was Letts and upon conviction he was sent to Auburn prison. Owing to ill-treatment of a brother by the British Government.

Letts, for revenge connected the plot to blow up the steamer and the scheme would probably have worked had the trunk been placed in the steamer’s hold. The blowing up of Brock’s monument near Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, was charged to Letts. The latter’s trial took place in the Market building in Water Street.

The steamer Oswego, owned by L. B. Crocker and others, was brought out in 1836 and commanded by Captain W. S. Malcolm. In May of that year she was caught in a heavy snowstorm and went ashore up the lake, but was released without serious damage. The snow was unusually heavy at that time and did much damage to orchards by breaking down trees.

The steamer Telegraph, Martha Ogden, William IV and Gore were trading at this port in the year 1836. One morning the Telegraph came into port with numerous bullet holes through the cabins. When the news spread that the Telegraph had been fired upon by Canadians there was great excitement. There was a great display of aurora borealis during the summer of 1835 and when the Texans fought at Alamo many were certain that the signs in the heavens had foretold the battle.

The Patriot War stirred the people along the frontier and there was intense excitement in this city. There was an old cedar mill opposite the packet landing in the East end of the lower bridge and rumor had it that the Patriots had cannon stored there.

Colonel Worth, who had a detachment of soldiers quartered in the old United States Hotel, which stood where the State Normal school is now located, was directed to make a search for the guns. When the soldiers marched to the mill, men, women and children lined the way and hooted and pelted the soldiers. Colonel worth afterwards said that if it had not been for the women and children he would have ordered his men to fire. Nothing was found in the mill, but some time afterwards Captain W. S. Malcolm, Deputy United States Marshal found a cannon in a barn at Minetto.

The marine railway was built at the foot of West Second street by Sylvester Doolittle, who came here in 1837. Mr. Doolittle was a man of great energy and ability, who in the latter years of his life built the Doolittle House and developed the Deep Rock mineral water spring. Grasping the possibilities of a new era in steam navigation, he built a propeller after the Ericsson design and called her the Vandalia. She was launched in 1842, was of 150 tons capacity and was the first boat of her kind to navigate the Great Lakes.

Captain Rufus Hawkins was in command, she was loaded and started for the West, stopping at ports en route to “wood up’” Her appearance excited no little curiosity, and the comments upon her appearance were many and adverse. The Buffalo papers were particularly severe, devoting much space to a description of the strange craft and ridiculed her. This is an extract from one of them: “An Oswego craft passed up the lake yesterday, one of the curious strange thing emanating from the brain of an inhabitant of that village, hoping with this thing, a float with a kitchen stove in her stern compartment, to do all the business of the West." But time has proved the correctness of the theries of “reckless” Sylvester Doolittle. The business of the West is now moved by propellers, the largest having a capacity of from six to seven thousand tons. Within a few years Mr. Doolittle brought out four more of the style of Oswego humbug” as the Buffalo Courier designated the Vandalia. In the year 1842 there was launched, sideways, from the dock just North of the office of J.B. Farwell & Company the steamer Lady of the Lakes. The steamer Oneida was built in a yard near where the D. & H. trestle now stands. The little steamer Clinton,, Captain J. C Hugunin, ran from Oswego to Port Ontario, sometimes extending the trips down the St. Lawrence.

At Selkirk, the seaport of Port Ontario, there formerly stood a lighthouse. There is one there still, but the lantern is always dark and the place is used as a hotel. Farm produce from Sacket Harbor and the northern part of the state was brought here by many little sailing craft for shipment to Syracuse, Utica, Albany and New York. With a fair wind they dotted the lake and made a pretty picture as they came along wing and wing.

In 1845 the United States revenue cutter Jefferson was built at this port. The hull was iron brought here in form by the contractors from Pittsburgh, put up and riveted together. She was a propeller and after several years of service on the lake she was ordered by the Government to San Francisco. Passing through the Straits of Magellan she was caught in one of the deceptive currents, carried upon the rock-bound coast and lost.

The first shipwreck upon the lakes which there is record was the loss of the Barque Griffin, belonging to the Jesuits in the straits of Mackinaw 1656. The first dispatch schooner Lady of the Lakes, sailed from Sackets Harbor after the war of 1812 and was never again heard from. At the taking of York, (now Toronto) the party, under command of Captain Zebulon Pike, U.S.A entered the port after capture. The place had been mined and nearly all the invaders killed, including Captain Pike. In 1807, while exploring the far west, Captain Pike discovered Pike’s Peak, and hence his name. Under a fine monument at Sacket Harbor rests all that is mortal of this daring and valorous son of Mrs. J. Fenimore Copper author of “the Pathfinder,” was a midshipman in the fleet on Lake Ontario in 1812.

In 1842 the steamer Express- a new boat- Captain H. N. Throop, ran daily between this city and Kingston. The steamers Lady of the Lakes, Capt J. J. Taylor and St. Lawrence, Captain J. Van Cleve ran from this city to Rochester and Lewiston daily excepting Sunday. Bronson & Crocker were the agents, Between this city and Chicago the same year the propellers Vandalia, Captain Rufus Hawkins; Chicago Captain R. L. Robertson, Oswego, Captain D. H. Davis carried passengers fare, cabin and found (food) for $15 each.

In the earlier 50’s a larger and better equipped line of boats was put on the routes and they were largely patronized by Southerners. These boats were: Bay State, Captain J. H. Ledyard; Northerner, R. F. Child; Ontario, H. N. Throop; New York, R. B. Chapman; Cataract, J. B. Estes Niagara; J. J. Morley.

The New York was built at French Creek. During the Rebellion she was taken to New York, and sold to the United States Government and used as an exchange boat for prisoner war near Richmond Va. General J. E. Mulford in command at the time, was a well known lumber merchant of Oswego prior to 1861. After the close of the war the New York became a coasting steamer and only a few years ago was destroyed by fire in the harbor of Nova Scotia. Other crafts of the day have long since passed away. They were all “wood burners.” |In the early fifties there were no tugs and it required great skill to bring a sailing vessel into port. The first tug was the O. S. Howard, a side-wheeler, built by the late A. C Mattoon. The coming of the tug revolutionized shipping in the river and schooner, canal boats and packets were moved quickly and conveniently from place to place.