The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-07
OLD TIME POWDER BOATS
EPECIMENS OF THE EXCITING
EXPERIENCES
Which Were Enjoyed BY the Crews
Which Manned Them.

y Which Were Enjoyed BY the Crews
Which Manned Them.
An Englishman with some such name
as Tennyson wrote a few verses once
about a Shalott woman floating down
river to a village called Camelot in
a boat. 1t is a pretty good poem, but
the voyage could not have been very
exciting, as the lady died on the way
down. Right here on our own Connec-
ticut there have been much more ex-
citing trips, although they, like the one
in the poem, took place some time ago.
The men who took these trips were not
apt to be bored to death, for they made
the journey in boats loaded with pow
der These boats were owned by COM
pany called the Douglass company, Of
Suff1eld, and there was quite a little
fleet of boats engaged in the trade. The
Y powder was made at the Hazard mills
In Hazardville and then trucked to the
Enfield bridge and put on the boats.
From there it was taken to Hartford
and loaded onto coasting vessels and
shipped to various cities along the
coast. 1t was hazardous business this
OF carrying few hundred tons of noisy
death in small boat, and the men who
worked on these boats never knew
whether they would make the next trip
In a boat or wagon drawn by black
horses. There was no railroad at the
time the carrying of powder was at its
height, and there was no competition.
Powder was carried on the river for one
hundred years, nearly, and the last
powder boat made it's trip in 1878. Since
that time only dangerous traffic on
the river is the carrying of Sunday
schools to Riverside for their desperate
annual picnics.
The trade of powder maker Is about
as short a way to the dim beyond as
there is in the guilds books, but it is
Cooks tour compared with the pleas
ure of spending a few happy days on
an old time powder boat. There have
been many serious accidents in Hazard
willie owing to the explosions of the
mills, but there was never an accident
on one Of the boats. The men who sail |
"a on them offer no explanation of this
TACT but just make their prayers bit
longer at night The four powder boats |
Of the Douglass company were fiat bot
toned affairs, able to carry many tons
II powder In their holds. The powder |
was taken on board the boats all done |
III nicely in kegs and barrels, the form
er holding twenty pounds and the lat
ter one hundred pounds. The inside OF
these was lined with tar so that there
could be no cracks left for the powder
IN sift through. The barrels were
treated In the same manner on the out
side.
IN spite of these precautions it was
common thing to find little heap
al powder on the floor of tn ehold after
the boat had been unloaded. Why these
did not explode is another question
that remains unexplained, If anything
heavy had been dropped on one of these
tiny piles there would have been no
window glass in the county where the
ker was dropped. When one of the
IS was being unloaded at Hartford
>-sne-time one man was standing on
the deck taking the kegs from the man
III the hold, and in turn passing them
to third man on a schooner which
Werewas lying alongside. The boat
had been nearly unloaded, and the men
were hurrying so that they could take
advantage Of a favorable breeze. AS
The kegs were taken on deck they were
lifted up and rolled along the rail I'M
iii the men on the schooner could take
them. AS one of the last kegs was roll
"a along hoop loosened and a thin
Iir1e Of black powder grains fell in front
# the moving key. There was not time
10 stop the key, and it rolled over the
powder, and there was bright red
Hame. The man rolling the key thought
that all was over with him but the
slllogy but there was no explosion.
rher was no reason why the two boats
we're not blown up and the whole river
'front.' Of Hartford wrecked. 1t was just
one of the queer freaks of powder and
] dash of divine Providence.
I There was an old wharf just below
he Enfield bridge, where the powder
,oats were loaded and the powder was
in from Hazardvile to this
,lace in big wagons with all canvas
.oyerers put over the whole load, to
;eep it from the eyes of the curious and
rom any possible harm. There was
title store house near the landing, !
vl,ere the powder was stored until some
IT the people VINO llVed near the wharf,
bought that they were living too reek :
ess an existence, and vetoed the mag
zine. After that time the powder was I
rawn in from the big magazines in
he valley at Hazarville. Often there I
vas powder enough on the wharf to I
l1in the town of Enfield, if anything
hould cause it to explode, but the men
rho handled the stuff every day and |
we'd with it did not fear it in the least
here is a steep hill on the on the road I
Aothe place where the wharf was, and |
was necessary for the drivers of the /
owder wagons to come down this hill {
j reach the dock. AT one time the v
Va boats that happened to be at En- t