Ticonderoga

The steamboat Ticonderoga is America’s last remaining side paddlewheel passenger steamer with a vertical beam engine. Commissioned by the Champlain Transportation Company, she was built in 1906 at the Shelburne Shipyard on Lake Champlain. The Ticonderoga measures 220 feet in length and 59 feet in beam, with a displacement of 892 tons. Her steam-powered engine, fed by two coal-fired boilers, could achieve a maximum speed of seventeen miles per hour. Her full crew numbered twenty-eight and included the captain, pilots, mate, deckhands, engineers, and firemen to operate the boat, while the purser, stewards, freight clerk, bartender, hall boys, cook, waiters, scullion, and mess boys attended to passengers and freight. Initially, she served a north-south route on Lake Champlain, docking daily at Westport, New York, to meet the New York City evening train and carrying travelers and freight northward the next morning to St. Albans, Vermont. In addition to passengers, she transported local farm produce, livestock, and dry goods regularly, and during both World Wars ferried U.S. troops between Plattsburgh, New York, and Burlington, Vermont. She also operated on the east-west run from Burlington to Port Kent, New York, and had a brief career as a floating casino. When more modern ferries made her obsolete, Ralph Nading Hill persuaded Electra Havemeyer Webb to buy her, saving her from the scrap heap. In 1955, she was hauled on specially laid tracks across highways, over a swamp, and through woods and fields to reach her permanent mooring on the museum grounds. Much of her interior has been restored to its original grandeur, including the captain’s quarters, dining room, and promenade deck, and she was named a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

Shelburne, Vermont · United States