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7 Oswego was a city of 2,700 people at the time and its business and professional men were fully aware of the benefits that would come to it with reliable direct steamboat connections with Lake Erie and the upper lakes. The new steamer was an experiment. Their faith in her ultimate success was strengthened by the reports made in the local papers on the successful trial and voyage of CLARION.(12). The Oswego papers followed the construction of the new type of steamboat closely and pointed out that the new steamer and others to follow in her wake would put Oswego in a position to compete successfully with Buffalo for the western trade. Stated the OSWEGO PALLADIUM of 2b March 18^-1:'there is no place in the Union which will derive such immediate and extensive advantages from the invention of Mr. Ericsson as Oswego. It is affirmed by one of our first forwarding merchants, that with the aid of this propeller, goods from New York by the Oswego route can be delivered at Cleveland, Ohio, at less cost than the actual charges which must be advanced upon freight In this transportation from New York to Buffalo. In the cheapness of transportation for the Western trade, the Oswego or Ontario route has always had a very great advantage over the inland or Buffalo route.A very clear admission was made of this by the general combination of forwarders last year in stating the charges by the Oswego route to be four dollars per ton less than by the inland route. The latter route however, has always had a great advantage over the Oswego in speed, and certainty in reference to time. The freight vessels from Oswego bound to the Upper lakes were all schooners. From Buffalo, a large proportion were steamers. The prevalent winds upon the lakes are Westerly. Perhaps in the season of navigation they are from that quarter more than two - thirds of the time. While therefore the descending passage from the Upper lakes to Oswego was usually as quick as was desirable, the ascending was often tedious and dilatory. This was a serious objection to Western merchants desirous of receiving their goods at early dates. They 'were desirous of dispatch and certainty and to obtain them submitted to heavy charges beyond those demanded on the Oswego route. But with the Ericsson propeller applied to our lake vessels, the Welland Canal becomes navigable for steam vessels and freights from New York by the Oswego route can be delivered at Cleveland as soon ur sooner than they can be delivered at Buffalo.This, while the Oswego route will continue to enjoy all the ad- vantage of its superior cheapness, it will equal the inland route and surpass it in speed.1 Buffalo did not look upon these pretensions with equanimity. The press there took up the issue and in a short time the editors of the papers in both cities were slambanging one another with vitriolic editorials rich in sarcasm. The BUFFALO JOURNAL labeled the new steamer another Oswego Humbug. The OSWEGO PALLADIUM answered this slander on 21 April 18^+1 by confidently predicting that this valuable improvement in steam power would transfer the forwarding business from Buffalo to Oswego and freely predicted the speedy ruin of that city. The new steamer was launched in the summer. Her owners with an eye to the western trade, named her VANDALIA, after the former capital of Illinois. VANDALIA was completed in November. She was a twin screw vessel 91 feet long, 20.17 feet wide and had a depth of hold of 8.25 feet.She measured 13819/95 tons and had the full form of the Welland Canal schooner. The engine and boiler were placed as far aft as they could go. The engine was of the high - pressure vertical type with two cylinders, each 1^ inches in. diameter, with a 28 - inch stroke. The cylinders rested on a base plate placed on a timber bed on top of the main keelson. The piston rods worked out of the cylinder heads on crossheads that moved in fore - and - aft guides and carried crossarms extending athwartships on each side to pins to which the upper ends of the connecting rods were attached. It was placed on the center line of the hull with the cylinders See P. 10