Second Steel Ship

To the Editor:

I read with a great deal of interest of the progress which is being made in building the new ship “Buckeye State” at the shipyard, but I must take exception to the following statement which appears in the article, to wit:

“The ‘Buckeye is the second ship ever built in Ogdensburg.”

On the contrary, there have been many ships built there. Older residents than I am can doubtless recall many ships which may have been built in Ogdensburg beyond the recollection of the writer.

After the War of the Rebellion and until some time in the 70’s, there flourished a line of 21 passenger and freight boats under the name of the Northern Transportation Company with headquarters at Cleveland, Ohio. Philo Chamberlain of Cleveland was president, George A. Eddy of Ogdensburg was superintendent and my father, N.W. Howard, was supply agent. At least one of this fleet, the Oswegatchie, was built at the shipyard and was christened by my father. I believe other ships of the same line were also constructed there. These boats plied between Ogdensburg, Chicago and intermediate ports, a boat leaving Ogdensburg and Chicago every day at noon during the season of navigation.

Early in the 80’s the shipyard passed into the hands of the George Hall Company and was known as the St. Lawrence Marine Railway Company. During the period under the Hall ownership the tug “Mary P. Hall” was built from designs made by Arthur Wood, then superintendent and if my memory serves me correctly, the tug “Pandora” was built there for the Daly Dredging Company. Before Arthur Wood became superintendent of the St. Lawrence Marine Railway Company, he did some ship designing on his own account and built for Captain David H. Lyon the car ferry, “Armstrong,” on Lighthouse Point. My recollection also tells me that he built the steam pleasure yacht “Lancet” for Dr. J.H. Brownlow and the pleasure yacht “Rawson” for James W. Parker, although my memory may be faulty with respect to these last two vessels.

In any event, many a good ship has plied the waters of the inland lakes and the St. Lawrence River with Ogdensburg as her port of hail, and I am in hope that these random recollections may stir interest among the “old timers” to brush up their memories and tell us of additional ships hailing from Ogdensburg, which were built by Hugh Miller or Galen Persons, in the days that are gone.

John C. Howard

505 Edgewater Avenue

Dunedin, Florida

Editor’s Note: Mr. Howard is right, many other ships have been built in Ogdensburg. But the Buckeye State is the second steel ship built here. The word seek was missing in the article he writes of.

(Caption)

The skill of Ogdensburg shipbuilders has been shown once more in the Buckeye State which like the Empire State was built at the St. Lawrence Marine Repair and Dock Corporation here.