Note 80 — Chapter V
Reading edition
A newspaper-slip in the scrap-book of the author has the following:
“The traveler of today, as he goes on board the great steamboats St. John or Drew, can scarcely imagine the difference between such floating palaces and the wee-bit punts on which our fathers were wafted 60 years ago. We may, however, get some idea of the sort of thing then in use by a perusal of the steamboat announcements of that time, two of which are as follows:
[“Copy of an Advertisement taken from the Albany Gazette, dated September, 1807.]
“The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler’s Hook Ferry [now Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Saturday, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided.
“The charge to each passenger is as follows:
“To Newburg dols. 3 , time 14 hours.
„ Poughkeepsie „ 4 , „ 17 „
„ Esopus „ 5 , „ 20 „
„ Hudson „ 5 1∕2, „ 30 „
„ Albany „ 7 , „ 36 „
“For places, apply to William Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtlandt Street, on the corner of Greenwich Street.
“September 2, 1807.
[“Extract from the New York Evening Post, dated October 2, 1807.]
“Mr. Fulton’s new-invented Steamboat, which is fitted up in a neat style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a Packet, left here this morning with 90 passengers, against a strong head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour.”