STEPHEN C. LYFORD, with Ichabod Bartlett, well-known lawyer, were the moving spirits of the group which started construction of the "Belknap" in 1832. Work progressed slowly, and one winter passed before the launching in June of 1833. The finishing touches were added after the boat was in the water. A contributing cause to the slow progress of the building was the fact that the project was so much larger in scope than any of the previous boat building attempts. The "Belknap" was ninety-six feet long, had a seventeen-foot beam, and was thirty-three feet overall.
Another cessation of building activity came when a Mr. Bell, of New York, who was directing the construction, was drowned by falling from the dam at Lake Village. Incidentally, this is the first drowning accident on Winnipesaukee of which there is record, and the date of June 12, 1832.
It is said that five or six miles an hour was the top speed for this craft. The "Belknap" is also said to have been very noisy, the sound from her exhaust being audible for several miles on a calm day. On July 9, 1834, the "Belknap" started regular passenger and freight trips on the lake, running between Lake Village, Meredith, Center Harbor and Alton Bay.
Possibly I have made this first Winnipesaukee steamboat seem a little too grand. The "Belknap" actually retained the scow type of construction, and its engine was taken from a sawmill. The boiler was set in brick, and the moving parts of the side-wheel machinery were exposed above decks.
There has been some dispute as to the claim that the "Belknap" was the first steamboat on the lake, and it may be that her rival for this honor suffers only from a lack of accurate records. Every definite bit of data gives the "Belknap" first place. In any event the "Jenny Lind," which some have held to be the first, was certainly the second steamer placed in service.
The "Belknap" has not only the distinction of being the first steamboat on Lake Winnipesaukee, but it likewise was the victim of the first steamboat "disaster." In October of 1841 the boat was coming down the lake between Six Mile and Birch Islands, towing a raft of logs said to contain between twenty and twenty-five thousand feet. A northeast wind was steadily rising, and with marked suddenness the overcast skies lashed the lake into full fury. Under fair conditions the steamer was able to make only two or three miles an hour towing such a large raft; and on this day, when the wind caught the raft in back of the boat, all headway was lost; and the raft swung by the steamer towing the now helpless "Belknap" toward the point of an island. Some claim that even then the wreck might have been averted had the engineer not mistaken a signal bell from the pilot house and sent the engine ahead when the signal was for reverse. Two or three minutes later the craft struck the rocks, filled with water, and settled on the shallow bottom. The log raft was cut away and every effort was made to release the boat; but in spite of all attempts the craft remained securely wedged. The machinery was removed, and the hull, containing only the brick foundation for the boiler, was left where it had struck. From the day of that accident the island where it occurred has borne the name of Steamboat Island.
No further attempts were made to operate steamers in regular passenger service until 1848-49, when the Winnipesaukee Steamboat Company built the "Lady of the Lake" at Lakeport.
