The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-07-13
NEW CLERMONT
LAUNCHED
Replica Of Fulton's First
Steamboat Goes Into
the Water.
MANY NoTABLES AT CEREMONY


In connection with the Hudson
Fulton celebration next fall a replica
of the Clermont, Fulton's first steam
boat has been constructed, and on
! Saturday it was launched at the Mar
iners Harbor yards at Port Richmond,
Staten Island.
There we're between two and three
thousand persons and the U. s. S.
Wasp waiting at the Port Richmond
pier, and as soon as the persons who
were to do the important things had
climbed up the stairs into the stand
at the prov of the new Clermont,
Capt. ]. W. Miller, who is to have
charge of all the naval parades in con-
nection with the celebration walked
to the edge of the platform in his
white duck and blue and gold lace un-
iform and the launching ceremony
was begun.
As she rested on the ways the Cler-
mont, with her 159 feet of length and
her eighteen feet of beam, would have
looked like nothing else so much as a
good sized canal boat but for the coat
of fresh gray paint that covered her
sides. She was dressed with flags
from stem to stern. Fluttering above
the heads of the officials was the
Union Jack studded with sixteen
stars, the number of States in the
Union when her original first ploughed
the Hudson. Aft was an American
flag with the same number OF stars on
the blue field.
Capt. Miller announced to the
throng that time and tide we're the
most necessary elements for success
full launching and that he wouldn't
risk the chance or losing the tide by
saying anything more than that Rob-
ert Fulton illustrated the fact that
when the hour arrives for new in
vention the man comes with it.
The Rev. Charles A. Cassidy pro-
nounced the Invocation.
Then Gen. Woodford said a few
things about Capt. Miller, intimating
that he had been the backbone of the
proposed celebration for the last three
years.
After that Ehen e. Olcott presented
the original Clermont bell, used in
those days as means of gathering in
the passengers who were disposed to
daily at the pier, and Mrs. r. B. Bow
ler, daughter of Capt. Miller, sound
ed half a dozen taps on it to the ac-
companied of tremendous cheering.
Then the big moment had arrived aud
Mrs. Arthur Taylor Sutcliffe, great
granddaughter of Robert Fulton, came
into the limelight to perform the
christening. She gripped in her white
gloved hands the filigreed silver bot
tie containing water from well from
which Fulton drank on the old Liy-
ingston place at Clermont- on H hudson,
where Fulton made the first stop in
the maiden trip of his vessel and where
he won his bride, Miss Harriet Living
stOn, daughter of his patron and bene-
factor. Mrs. Sutcliffe gripped the
bottle and waited.
Workmen were saving away at the
blocks and hammeripg in wedges to
start the new Clermont down the
ways. But even when all was done
she didn't stir. Then they brought
up crane from the shops and gave
the PROV a gentle glide. Still no
glide. The big steel arm lowered over
the head of the sponsor, but she held
her ground. Finally when few more
pushes had been administered she be-
gan to move. Whack went the bot
tie against the prov and the :" / name
thee Clermont' uttered by Mrs. SUIT
cliffe was drowned in the shrills of the
tug whistles, the, boom Of guns from
the United States steamship Wasp
and the boots from the police boat
sirens.
At the same time basket under
the Union Jack opened and dozen
carrier pigeons shot into the air, got
their bearings after a few circlings
and started off toward Manhattan.
1t was at exactly 2.3S that the birds
started on their trips, and fifteen
minutes later the first one got to its
home cote on. West Eleventh street,
New York. Others went to Peekskill
and the rest to Athens, N. Y. Every
pigeon carried bit Of white ribbon
on which was printed an extract from
one of Robert Fulton's essays saying,
Z" Industry will give abundance TO
virtuous world, and call mankind to
one unbounded feast Of harmony and
BY August 1st it is expected, the
will be installed in the new
Clermont. Like her predecessor she
is to have two masts but no bowsprit
or figurehead two cabins, forward and
aft. The uncovered engine with Its
copper boiler is to be amidships and
the paddle wheels are to be without
protection. She isto start out from
the landing place from which the orig
inal left and she will tie up at the
same pier in Albany that the first
Clermont used.