Chateaugay and Captain Rockwell - Winnipesaukee PhotoPost Gallery

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Chateaugay and Captain Rockwell

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Boardwalk Bluesboy Senior Member Registered: December 2006 Location: Weirs Beach Posts: 97	The Champlain Transportation Co. built the steamboat Chateaugay at Shelburne Harbor in Burlington in 1888. Captain Ell Barnum Rockwell was skipper from 1891 to 1906. He was captain of the Vermont III from 1910 to 1928, when he died at St. Albans at the age of 98.
	· Date: Mon April 14, 2008 · Views: 6190 · Filesize: 68.2kb · Dimensions: 525 x 335 ·
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mcdude

Senior Member

Registered: July 2002
Location: Rock Haven Lake - West Newfield, ME
Posts: 5,361

Tue April 15, 2008 1:26pm

nice one bluesboy!

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Rattlesnake Gal

Senior Member

Registered: November 2003
Location: Central NH
Posts: 5,252

Tue May 5, 2009 7:37pm

This postcard is of the Chateaugay in service as an auto ferry, nearing the end of her career.

After World War I, steamboating felt the pinch of competition from automobiles. In 1925 she was cut down to an automobile ferry by removing all of her super structure forward and aft so that only a big square box was left amidships. However she still had her tall stack, walking-beam engine, and pilothouse, although the last item had been moved aft as close to the stack as possible. She carried automobiles on her open forward and after decks and remained in this service through the 1936 season, after which she was replaced by diesel-powered ferries. During her ferrying years she operated a long, hard season, and it is said that she was so tough that it took more than 8 inches of ice on the lake to stop her. In November of 1927, when northern Vermont was struck with a flood disaster that left most of the area cut off from the rest of the world by washing out bridges, railroads, and highways, Chateaugay was for two weeks the only contact and supply line that the area had for bringing in food and all other needed supplies. For 16 days she ran steadily, day and night, in this emergency service-alone, because all the other boats had long since been laid up for the winter.

Finally when time again caught up with this grand old steamboat and she was tied up for the last time, her machinery was removed and sold for scrap. For the following two seasons she was used as a clubhouse by the Burlington Yacht Club. It would just be a matter of time before she would be scrapped altogether, but then events took a turn that gave the old Chateaugay not just a new lease on life, but a whole new career.

Excerpt from Farewell Old Mount Washington by Edward H. Blackstone

The Legacy of the M/S Mount Washington