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Page 93 Half again as much speed and more were claimed by fast Hudson River day boats like MARY POWELL or the big overnight boats of Long Island Sound. Lesser craft made inflated claims, with performance helped by wind, river currents or tides, perhaps. John H. Morrison wrote in his History of American Steam Navigation in 1903, "Men of experience in such matters know that the number of passenger steamboats able to obtain a velocity of 18 miles per hour for one or more hours in not five percent of the whole number, and when you reach 22 or 23 miles an hour, then you can almost count them on the fingers of both hands." Morrison noted one example verified without tides or currents. "It must not be forgotten that there was a race on Lake Erie in 1901 where over 21 miles an hour was made through the water. This leaves a very small margin for many of the eastern boats." Morrison was referring to the lakes' most celebrated race. Detroit's new 300-foot day steamer TASHMOO was not showing her best speed on her river run to Tashmoo Park and Port Huron. Her owners, the White Star Line, offered a $1,000 challenge to any ship that could beat her out on the open lake. CITY OF ERIE of the Cleveland & Buffalo Line took the bait. Over a 94-mile course from off Cleveland to Erie, PA, in a run of four hours and nineteen minutes for both on June 4,1901, the ERIE won by only forty-five seconds! The maiden voyage of a new lake ship was another favorite demonstration of speed. On the first trip of each new night boat of the Detroit and Cleveland Steam Navigation Co., her time would be clocked between the Michigan Central grain elevators just below Detroit and the harbor entrance at Cleveland. This was a course of 105 miles, of which some 20 miles has a 2-1/2 mph Detroit River current to help (or slow river traffic to hinder). In 1867 the new R.N. RICE made the R. N. RICE Photo from Dossin Museum Collection Photo from Dossin Museum Collection