Canal Steamers Project 3

This is a Carlotta in 1921.  I’m curious about the large structure on the after deck.  Is that cargo being carried?

Here’s a Carlotta 13 months later, looking the same except that large stern structure is missing.  The 1913 MVUS shows a steam tug Carlotta 56′ x 13′ x 5′ built in Boston in 1879, but registered in Buffalo as of that date. 

Aimed at canal passersby, this billboard

was located in Little Falls, most likely above lock E-17.  Steam tug George E. Lattimer was built in 1899, 59′ x 16′ x 7′ in Buffalo.

This view of lock E-17 shows a formidable structure, especially without trees on Moss Island.

I had to throw this photo in.  I took it in October 2014 of the 1901 formerly steam-powered  73′ x 15′ x 9′ fish tug Urger at the same location slightly different angle, showing a tree-covered Moss Island and virtually no windows in the powerhouse to the right of the guillotine lock door. 

Jumping back nearly a century, with lots of steam and drama, Geo. E. departs the lock and the rockpile that was Moss Island back then. 

Steamer Merchant tows a string of barges round a bend, which I believe is somewhere west of Brockport. 

From Roger N. Benson:  “A third-class wood steamer Lily was built in 1882, hailed from Buffalo NY.  Lily was 103′ x 22′ x 9′. She was registered for the Barge Canal on May 13, 1922.” Those dimensions make her a fairly large tugboat for the Barge Canal. 

The rails would likely have come from the Lackawanna Steel Plant, which that same year was acquired by Bethlehem Steel.   The area of the plant is currently the site of a wind farm called Steel Winds.

Here an eastbound Lily approaches lock E-11.  Interestingly, since the caption says the covered automobiles are Maxwells, they would be coming from one of the Midwestern plants, obviously not the original Tarrytown NY plant. Maxwell was declining at the time and as of 1922 would just have been taken over by Walter P. Chrysler, before he created the Chrysler Corporation.

I have to end with this photo I took in October 2014;  it’s the same photo of Urger as above, just with the golden morning light color restored.

Thanks to the Canal Society of New York for use of these photos;  the two versions of the Urger photo, WVD.