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TELESCOPE Page 124 waves a iL er Senator Clay died within days of the tragedy. Authorities began investigating steamboat racing in the Hudson River and soon placed an official ban on the practice. In point of fact, though, the engineer of a beam-engined vessel would often tinker a bit with the engine if a rival boat in the same line threatened to humiliate his.* Two other vessels named for the Senator were to be found in our Lakes. One, of 301 tons, was built at Black Rock, New York in 1826 and abandoned in 1835. The second, 221 tons and built at Milan, Ohio in 1849, ran for only a few seasons, but got into history. General Winfield Scott chartered it and another steamer to move troops from Buffalo to Fort Dearborn. Scott, affectionately known to his soldiers and associates as '"'Old Fuss and Feathers" must have been appalled to learn that cholera had broken out in the Clay as it steamed up Lake Erie. The little flotilla had to put in at Fort Gratiot (Port Huron) to bury its dead, treat its ailing and rest the others. Once ashore, those who were *Beam engines had their valves set by the builders, and cutoff could only be adjusted at a shipyard. A determined engineer could introduce a wood or metal wedge, even a newspaper on one occasion, between the "'wipers" of the admission valve gear to force valves open a bit longer and perhaps swipe an extra, crucial, RPM or two out of the able to do so demonstrated their American resourcefulness by taking off over all con- venient hills to search for fortune in fields and forests. So ended this expedition. The Henry Clay saga ended in the Lakes in 1851 when this vessel ran up on the east side of Long Point and was lost. It reportedly carried some store of gold and silver coins, and thus may be the source of some searching under- water. I'd had enough; four vessels were found and none could have reached Dixie. Two had been unhappy ships, unlike the steam- boats of song. Convinced that Southern steam- boat men would never have named a vessel for so ardent an abolitionist as Henry Clay, I turned to imagination and the drawing board determined to create the image of a white and gilt Ohio-Mississippi steamboat worthy of so illustrious a name. From various songs I inferred that my dream steamboat should have an ample top deck and space aboard for music and dancing. One song confirms it a steamer via lyrics which mention a steamboat engine. Since I learned of the practice I have grown suspicious that this sort of jiggery-pokery, in addition to the iced condenser and the wiper seated on the exhaust valve stem, enabled the beam-engined City of Erie to come from behind and nose out our Tashmoo.