• Home
  • About
    • Media
  • The Voyages
    • Map
    • North Hudson Voyage
    • South Hudson Voyage
  • Log
  • Themes
    • Lighthouses
    • Native American History
    • Shipbuilding
    • Towing
    • Sail Freight
  • Films
    • Seven Sentinels: Lighthouses of the Hudson River
    • Finding Lenapehoking
    • Naming Storm King Mountain
    • When the Lady Was a Lighthouse
    • The Little Red Lighthouse
    • History of Indian Point
    • RiverWise: The Journey Begins
  • Support
    • Sponsors
  • Contact
RIVERWISE
  • Home
  • About
    • Media
  • The Voyages
    • Map
    • North Hudson Voyage
    • South Hudson Voyage
  • Log
  • Themes
    • Lighthouses
    • Native American History
    • Shipbuilding
    • Towing
    • Sail Freight
  • Films
    • Seven Sentinels: Lighthouses of the Hudson River
    • Finding Lenapehoking
    • Naming Storm King Mountain
    • When the Lady Was a Lighthouse
    • The Little Red Lighthouse
    • History of Indian Point
    • RiverWise: The Journey Begins
  • Support
    • Sponsors
  • Contact

Captains' Log

Day One: Departing The Port of Rondout

6/20/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
Jervis McEntee, View on the Hudson Near the Rondout, n.d., Oil on canvas, 25 x 50 in., Collection of Richard Sharp
This beautiful Hudson River School painting by Rondout resident Jervis McEntee illustrates the mouth of Rondout Creek c. 1840 (note the tiny Rondout Lighthouse at the entrance to the creek - it was built in 1838). You'll note that the wide vista entrance to the creek is much different than it is today. Sloops and schooners were able to approach at a wider angle, allowing them to sail right up the creek.
Picture
Jervis McEntee, View on the Hudson Near the Rondout, n.d., Oil on canvas, 25 x 50 in., Collection of Richard Sharp
In this detail, you can better see the entrance to the creek and the lighthouse. The tall, full sails of a sloop propel it out toward the Hudson, where a steamboat and other sailing vessels go by. The two story Rondout Lighthouse looks tiny in comparison.
Picture
"Kingston Lighthouse," Hudson River Panorama, Wade & Croomes, 1845. Public domain.
Here is another view of the Rondout Lighthouse in 1845. The perspective is not quite the same, although you'll note the ferry landing at right and the inscription "Delaware & Hudson Canal" near the lighthouse.

The lighthouse was replaced in 1867 and the site moved slightly to the south. But as steamboat towing traffic increased, and the use of sloops and schooners decreased (but did not disappear) in the latter half of the 19th century, the mouth of the Rondout Creek needed "improvement." Deeper drafted vessels like larger passenger steamboats and the new screw-propelled tugboats needed a deeper river channel. Although Rondout Creek is a natural deep water port, the combination of tidal action and silt from spring floods had left the mouth of the creek shallower than desired. 

In 1877, the Army Corps of Engineers began a dredging and improvement project that included the construction of breakwater sea walls far out into the Hudson.  
Picture
Map of improvements to Rondout Harbor, Army Corps of Engineers, 1880. Hudson River Maritime Museum collection.
Where previously, shallower-drafted vessels could take a wide approach into the creek, they now were blocked by the installation of the breakwaters. Completed in 1880, with the dredge spoils dumped behind the walls, the "shallows" were now much shallower, and impassable by all but the smallest of vessels. The narrow approach made it much more difficult for sailing vessels to get in and out of the creek, and even some steamboat captains had trouble. 

In addition, the 1867 lighthouse - marked on the map above - was now well behind the entrance to the creek. Red stake lights were installed at each side of the mouth and on the north curve of the breakwater walls, but boatmen complained the lighting was inadequate. In 1915 the old lighthouse was replaced with a new one, right on the north point of the breakwater walls. 

As Solaris and Apollonia leave Rondout on the North Hudson Voyage, we will pass along those breakwater walls, still in place and still maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. 

Fair winds and bright sun - the adventure begins!
1 Comment
Victoria Landry link
6/11/2022 12:36:03 pm

Great bloog I enjoyed reading

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    This Captains' Log is kept by the captains and crew of Solaris and Apollonia and staff of the Hudson River Maritime Museum.

    Archives

    August 2020
    June 2020

    Categories

    All
    Albany
    Amusement Park
    Athens
    Bridges
    Catskill
    Catskill Mountain House
    Civilian Conservation Corps
    Classic Harbor Line
    Clearwater
    Cornell Steamboat Company
    Daily Summary
    D&H Canal
    Documentary Film
    Environment
    Fishing
    Hudson
    Hudson Athens Lighthouse
    Hudson-Athens Lighthouse
    Hudson River School Of Art
    James W Baldwin
    Juneteenth
    Kingston
    Lighthouses
    Marvel Shipyard
    Middle Ground Flats
    Mohican
    Native American
    Newburgh
    New York City
    Norrie Point
    NY
    Nyack
    Oral Histories
    Parks
    Ports
    Post-carbon
    Poughkeepsie
    Press Release
    Railroads
    Revolutionary War
    Riverkeeper
    Rondout
    Sail Freight
    Sailing
    Saugerties
    Saugerties Lighthouse
    Shantytown
    Shipbuilding
    Shipwreck
    Sloop Eleanor
    Solar
    Statue Of Liberty
    Steamboat
    Steamboat Landing
    Sustainable
    Tappan Zee
    Towing
    Tugboats
    USS Slater
    WWII

    RSS Feed

​Hudson River Maritime Museum
50 Rondout Landing
Kingston, NY 12401

​845-338-0071
fax: 845-338-0583

​The Hudson River Maritime Museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the maritime history of the Hudson River, its tributaries, and related industries. 
Header image "Breakneck Ridge" courtesy Jeffrey Pang.
Support the RiverWise project and documentary films! Your donations helps us bring the Hudson River closer to everyone.
Donate Now

RiverWise is sponsored in part by: 

Picture
This event was made possible by a sponsorship from the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area.

Solaris is sponsored by:

  • SunCommon
  • Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union
  • The Ellen and Sam Phelan Family Foundation 
  • Sustainable Energy Systems / Solar Sal Boats ​
  • Ann Loeding
  • David Eaton

Apollonia is sponsored in part by:

  • Daley Family Foundation
  • Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union
  • Ann Loeding
  • Home
  • About
    • Media
  • The Voyages
    • Map
    • North Hudson Voyage
    • South Hudson Voyage
  • Log
  • Themes
    • Lighthouses
    • Native American History
    • Shipbuilding
    • Towing
    • Sail Freight
  • Films
    • Seven Sentinels: Lighthouses of the Hudson River
    • Finding Lenapehoking
    • Naming Storm King Mountain
    • When the Lady Was a Lighthouse
    • The Little Red Lighthouse
    • History of Indian Point
    • RiverWise: The Journey Begins
  • Support
    • Sponsors
  • Contact