Friday, December 11, 2020

Secrets of the Deep

In 2013, Gossips recounted the story of Young America, the propeller boat that collided with the paddlewheel ferry George H. Power while the two boats were racing in the channel near the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse. The accident took place on September 3, 1905. 

This morning, a reader told me that a river survey team recently at work may have come upon the wreck of Young America. Sonar revealed the keel of the boat right where it went down in the channel near the lighthouse.

Three women who were passengers aboard Young America were drowned in the crash, and the mayor of Hudson, William S. Hallenbeck, was among those who had to be rescued from the sinking boat. The story of Young America, as told in contemporary newspaper accounts, is found in this Gossips post: "The Anniversary of a Tragedy." 
COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

5 comments:

  1. Interesting! That keel must already show up in the DEC's year's-old sidescan radar imagery which is viewable online. Too bad I don't know what to look for. I guess something keel-shaped.

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  2. Is that a bridge or a causeway in the background of the upper photo? If so was that on our side of the river? I can't place it.

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  3. Nick, That bridge is still there today. You pass by it driving down to East Jesus heading to point where everyone fishes.

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  4. Steve, that is exactly what I thought at first but this bridge looks like it has a quarter mile worth of structure on either end of it. I always heard that bridge was just to get workers over the tracks by foot? In addition we are viewing the bridge from an almost perpendicular perspective which seems like it would place the wreck further south and east? Ill have to go down later and take a look.

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  5. That's because the rail across the surviving trestle remained elevated between the trestle and the shed.

    The unloading of rail cars took place at the shed's second story, not at ground level.

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