Evening star., 1948-11-28
Capitals Steamboat Era Ends
As Norfolk Line Closes Down
By George Kennedy

/ tnlct OF COlumpla, IN peIter Ga.
By George Kennedy
The Norfolk Washington steamer
has made It's last run-a victim OF
initiation.
! Steamboating on the Potomac
except for sightseeing and moon
light cruises and holiday excursions
dies with it, leaving few vestiges OF
water transportation to mourn
Washington's passing as port.
Liquidation of the Norfolk &
Washington Steamboat Co.. which
for 58 years shas operated passen-
ger steamers, was fortold in legal
notice Friday in The Stars classi-
/ fled columns. 1t called stock
holders meeting for December % at
the company's Norfolk Office to con-
sider a recommendation of the
board of directors that the corpo-
ration be dissolved.
| Approval of the recommendation
Is a foregone conclusion.
End of the Norfolk line, which
operated at a profit as long as it
had a boat to operate. is not due
to the auto-nor even to air trans
portation which makes the run tc
Norfolk in an hour.
Replacement Cost Responsible.
1t is due to the high cost of re-
placing equipment. In this case re-
placement would mean virtual re-
building of the company's last
steamer, the District of Columbia
which was badly damaged in col
lision with a tanker near Norfolk
October 81.
( No one feels worse about the END
of the company than Clarence F
Norment, jr., its president.
His father was president of the
line. AS a boy he used to spend
hours on the wharf Sketching the
boats He has been an officer of the
company for IS years and its presi-
dent for 10. The vice president, j
Allen Riordan. has been with the
company for As years and the treas
urer, Odell S. Smith, for so years
They all feel pretty blue about it.
! 1t is not only the end of an era
1t is the end of Washington as q
port except for barges bringing III
oil, sand and gravel and for the
fish boats from Crisfeld on the East
ern Shore.
Costs Multiply,
! Mr.. Norman yesterday told the
story IN terms of the costs of boats
The first two steamers built for the
company cost 100000 each. The
boats that replaced them cost S400,-
900 each. The District of Columbia
the last boat built for the company
by Pusey g. Jones of Wilmington
cost 100000. When postwar inquiry
was made of the Wilmington firm
about replacement of the two boats
taken by the Government during the
war, the answer was $3500,000 each
| There was no chance of making
such an investment, allowing fol-
depreciation, paying present costs
of coal and labor, and operating
at profit.
The Norfolk lines notice to stock
holders follows hard upon the an
nouncement of the Hudson River
Day Line that this was their last
year of. operation in New York. The
Hudson River nio:lt line passed out
before the war. There is passenger
service between Baltimore and Nor
folk, and the Long Island Soune
steamers ply from New York to Mar
ragansett Bay ports and Boston
Mississippi steamboating is largely
excursion business. Except for the
Great Lakes. the passenger steamer
operating on daily schedules has
practically disappeared on inlano
waterways.
I Chartered in 1890.
The Norfolk & Washington Line
was chartered in 1890 during the
Benjamin Harrison administration
The capital was largely provided BY
Washingtonians. The new company
bought sidewheeler, named it the
George Leary and began service
with Alexandria and Washington
stops on its northbound run ane
Old Point Comfort and Norfolk
stops southwark Two steamer.
were ordered built.
These were the Norfolk and tht
Washington. They went into service
the next year and the George Leary
was sold. In the following year OF
two the Newport News was built fol
the line and added to its feet as 6
standby boat, assuring daily service
in both directions even when one
boat was laid up for maintenance
In the 1900s the company operated
ferry service to Alexandria with
two steam ferries, the Woodbury.
named after Levi Woodbury., the
second president of the company
and the Callahan, named for Johr
Callahan, one of the lines early
general managers.
! While the lines service was veal
around, it was the summer business
of transporting people bound fol
Virginia Beach that was profitable
Railroads No Competition.
The railroads were never any
competition to u.s." said Mr.. Nor.
ment. You would have to go Soutf
to Richmond on the railroad ane
: then east to Norfolk. We had the
/ hypotenuse of the triangle"
In the old days the line carried
5 large quantities of seafood and pro
: duce to Washington, but passenge
! business always provided most o
I its revenue. The lines biggest yea
was 1907, when the jamestown Ex
position was held. A modern, all
S steel day boat-a sideWheeler which
!, was named the jamestown hat
been built for the occasion, and i
did enormous business that summer
The next summer the line tried II
continue the day line service bu
did not succeed. The jamestown
was sold to an Argentine firm.
A little later the two steamer
: with which this generation is famil
lar were ordered, the Northlanc
: which was delivered in 1909 and tn,
S Southland which arrived in 1911
Later the Newport News was addet
as a standby boat They were 30l