Steamer Chateaugay

Hi, Cap'n Bill & steamboating colleagues:
Yes, Horace W. Corbin [See previous as to his relationship to Gen. George Custer] according to my records here tore the engines from the CHATEAUGAY and VERMONT for scrap. Corbin sold the former to Capt. Leander on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, to replace the MOUNT WASHINGTON, destroyed by fire in 1939. As you say the hull was loaded onto flat cars and hauled away. She appeared as a diesel powered boat not in any way resembling her original form. There's a poetic paragraph about the old CHATEAUGAY.

"How many precious sundowns, now tht they are gone, will glide again over Champlain's waters in memory? Not a few as they gaze out on the lake at sunset in the days to come will see a phantom steamer round the breakwater, her prow carefully parting the water, her flag rippling against a ruby sky. A plume of white will suddenly float up beside the stack. Again the motherly moo of the CHATEAUGAY announces she is safely taking the last load home."

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

RE: The Steamer Chateaugay

Bill et al,

RE: The Steamer Chateaugay.

Mostly what I know about the Chateaugay was learned in the past year or so. In 2005 I became interested in Steamboats, Fulton’s North River in particular. The Steamers Chateaugay and Mount Washington surfaced as I did additional researched on steamboats in NH.

Growing up in NH I was somewhat familiar with the MV Mount Washington on Lake Winnepesaukee. I was told by my father that the Mount Washington II was fabricated from the hull a boat (the steamer Chateaugay) that came from Lake Champlain in Vermont. The story goes that the boat was purchased in the 1939 time frame. It was dismantled after which the 203 ft long steel hull (everything else was scrapped) was cut into 20 sections, loaded on rail cars and transported from Lake Champlain to Lake Winnepesaukee. Once it reached Paugus Bay the hull was welded back together and fitted with steam engines and propellers instead of the side wheels. A new superstructure was also added. I haven’t ever been able to confirm, but my grandfather and his Amoskeag Machine Co. were supposed to have been part of the crew that helped put the hull back together. In the early 80's the hull was again cut midship so an additional 24 ft length could be added.

The original Mt. Washington steamer looked quite similar to the Chateaugay. It was lost in a fire at the Weirs docks on Winnepesaukee in Dec of 1939. I believe that the fire started in the adjacent train station.

The links below will show the remains of the Steamer Mount Washington at the Weirs docks. The other two have a little history on the Chateaugay/Mount Washington II.

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=4555&cat=15014&sort=1

http://www.lwhs.us/steam-mtwashhistory.htm

http://www.cruisenh.com/2006/about/history.html

If you ever get to NH and the Winnepesaukee area I suggest that you take a cruise on the Mount. It's a beautiful cruise, especially in the Fall foliage time. ENJOY!

PS: Dale, again Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge and resources.

Pete Baker
West Hurley, NY

Hi, Pete:
Your information and links are even better. I have no real 'steamboat knowledge.' I only know where to run here in the 'dusty boxes,' files etc. and dig, dig, dig. Steamboat history is far from being precise. I just like sharing what little I know and have. Lesson is this: Look carefully in all of those old boxes, envelops carefully. Keep your resource reference books available for quick use.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Pete, Cap'n Bill, Lin & steamboating colleagues:
Okay, an E=Mail from a 'shy poster' here asking where the poetic paragraph about the Str. CHATEAUGAY came from I posted earlier above. There's more fine poetic writing and prose out there about steamboats than one could imagine. In fact, a vitual anthology could be researched and printed. One of the first was our own late, great Capt. Fred Way in his PILOTIN' COMES NATURAL describing his first views of the beloved QUEEN CITY. His intro leads all in steamboat literature. But there are others if we dig long enough and deeply.

The CHATEAUGAY piece comes from the pen of Fred Copeland. I don't know if Copeland was a real 'steamboater' or not. His senses caught the mystery of a large steamer in motion. I post the first part below linked to the last paragraph in a previous posting on the subject. How many on this web have been in the same 'set and setting' as Copeland aboard a steamboat or steamship? Read and weep with nostalgia.

"When the days are gray and bitter in November one could still enjoy the CHATEAUGAY with more comfort than a Sunday drawing room, for she had deep, soft carpets in the salon...chairs in front of the rows of observation windows fore and aft. Sometimes before the leaves fell an early snowstorm would float like a curtain over Tremblau Point.

On the last trips...night often settled down...The CHATEAUGAY showed us her comradeship then. The tremor of each stroke of the walking beam parted a reliant pulsing, the fires gleamed with bright confidence, being of fine coal in the roomy stoke hold, the big shaft revolved across the carpeted way of the lower deck. Colchester Light would blink and flash its reassuring flame to the North, and Jupiter lift its motion-less beam in the South..."

What more need be said? You either 'get it or you don't' as Capt. C.W. Stoll used to say. More fine steamboat poetry and prose are much needed at this time. Have hope. Be of good cheer.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick