One of America’s most historic ships, which spent most of its career traveling between New York City and Southampton, England, will serve as a kind of metaphor for our times when it’s hauled to Florida, loaded with explosives and purposely sunk.
It’s just one of several historic vessels with ties to New York State that have recently been abandoned for lack of funding.
Half Moon
In 2015, citing financial hardships, the Board of Directors of the New Netherlands Museum moved the Half Moon replica ship from Albany to the City of Hoorn, The Netherlands. The ship was built in Albany in 1989 by the New Netherland Museum, but failed to find a supporting home port in America.
A replica of the Halve Maen, which Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name in 1609, was open for school and public tours and was visited and sailed on by tens of thousands of students.
It returned to Albany in 1989 with plans, and the support of then Governor George Pataki, to establish itself permanently on the Albany waterfront. Those plans never came to fruition and were dropped after 9/11.
The City Council of Hoorn voted to adopt the Half Moon for inclusion in a 17th century historic site under the management of the Westfries Museum. It is currently moored at the Dutch port of Enkhuizen.
Lois McClure
After only 20 years of service, the replica sailing canal schooner Lois McClure was retired by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in 2022.
The original Lois McClure was built in 1862. The replica was initiated in 2001 and launched in 2004 with the goal of better understanding the region’s unique nineteenth century sailing canal schooners, which allowed travel on the region’s narrow canals and sailing on open waters.
The boat was originally set to be dismantled, but has since been donated to the Canal Society of New York for display on land at the Port Byron Erie Canal Heritage Park. It spent last winter at the Beacon Bay Marina in Cayuga, NY. This spring, the Lois McClure was moved to a wall along the Seneca River in Seneca Falls, NY.
On October 8th, it was moved to a long disused dock in Montezuma where it was lifted out of the water for a move to Port Byron Park where it will be mounted on a cradle in the old enlarged Erie Canal in front of the Erie House tavern.
The Lois McClure served as floating educational space for the museum, engaging the public in the history of Lake Champlain and the canals through immersive experiences and educational activities.
The replica schooner went on 14 tours, traversing 15 waterways and over 9,200 miles, visiting 315 ports in Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Quebec, and Ontario, and welcomed over 312,000 visitors on board.
Day Peckinpaugh
The Day Peckinpaugh was the first canal motorship ever built and was the only one that remains. Rescued from the scrap yard in 2005, in 2009 the New York State Museum was awarded a $3.1 million federal transportation grant to make mechanical upgrades.
Great efforts were made by the Canal Society of New York State, and many others, to save and preserve the ship, but after spending thousands to make her seaworthy, the state decided to abandon the project despite its being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The motorship sat in the Waterford flight canal channel for years and New York State has now moved ahead to auction it off for the scrap value. The winning bidder will need to remove the ship. The state has made it clear that the Waterford drydock is not an option.
Urger
The historic canal tugboat Urger, originally named H.J. Dornbos or Henry J. Dornbos, was built in 1901, purchased for service on the New York State Barge Canal system in 1922 and was in regular use until the 1980s.
The Urger, described as “the flagship vessel in the New York State Canal Corporation‘s fleet” as late as 2013 was reactivated in 1991 “to educate school children and adults about the importance of New York’s historic Canal System.” The tug was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
In 2018, the Canal Corporation retired Urger again, leaving the tug in the drydock at Waterford with hopes of moving it to a visitor center in Montgomery County as an onshore exhibit.
In September 2021, the tug was towed to the Corporation’s maintenance shops at Lysander, Onondaga County, where it remains abandoned.
SS United States
Earlier this month the SS United States Conservancy transferred ownership of the SS United States to Okaloosa County, Florida in order to convert the ship into the world’s largest artificial reef. The Conservancy had failed in its effort to raise $500,000 to help cover the costs of preservation and relocation from its pier in Philadelphia where it has sat virtually abandoned for decades.
The SS United States was launched in 1951 as the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States, and still holds the transatlantic speed record, achieved on her maiden voyage using only two-thirds of her power. When she landed at Southhampton, some 70,000 people were on hand to witness its arrival.
The ship transported presidents, stars of stage and screen, heads of state, tourists, members of the armed forces, and immigrants until the advent of the jet age forced her retirement in 1969.
Notable passengers included four U.S. Presidents (Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and a young Bill Clinton), plus Marlon Brando, Coco Chanel, Sean Connery, Duke Ellington, Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe, and John Wayne.
Designed as a top-secret, convertible troop carrier and Cold War weapon, she could transport 14,000 troops 10,000 miles without refueling. The vessel is widely considered the pinnacle of American post-war maritime engineering and a symbol of her namesake nation.
Part of the deal also includes funding from the county to support the Conservancy’s establishment of a land-based museum that will provide visitors an opportunity to learn about the legacy of what’s been called “America’s Flagship.”
It is expected to take more than a year to complete the necessary environmental remediation of the historic ocean liner and an additional six months to a year to arrange for the sinking of the vessel.
The exact location offshore has not been determined, but it is expected the nearly 1,000-feet long ship will attract marine life, technical divers and anglers.
John Warren contributed to this essay.
Illustrations, from above: SS United States rusting away in Philadelphia (courtesy Wikimedia user Chuck Homler); Replica Halve Maen moored at the Dutch port of Enkhuizen; Lois McClure en route to Beacon Bay Marina in Cayuga (Kevin Rivoli, The Citizen); Tug Benjamin Elliott maneuvers the Day Peckinpaugh into the Canal Corporation drydock at Waterford in May 2013 (Der Vogel); Tugboat Urger abandoned in Onondaga County, 2022; and the SS United States arrives in New York Harbor, New York City, 1952.
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