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Show Hudson River Port Holds Celebration AN - Once Second in Importance to New York City. Washington. Hudson, N. Y., once a famous whaling base and second port In the state, recently celebrated Its sesquicentennial. "Despite a long sea-going tradition, ! the city of Hudson is no seaport," says the National Geographic society. "It lies 120 miles inland, between the Catskills and the Berkshires, on the east shore of the Hudson river. The site was chosen by an adventurous group of Quakers from Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, who sailed their ships up the river in 17S3, bringing families, supplies, and even portable houses with them. Two years later their' settlement was incorporated as a city, the third city in the Empire state, preceded only by Albany and New York. 'Sturdy vessels from Hudson ship yards pushed their bows through distant dis-tant seas. Rich cargoes of sperm oil and whalebone from the South Pacific Pa-cific ; seal oil, furs, and hides from the Falkland islands and Antarctic waters; rum, molasses, and sugar from the West Indies, were unloaded at the city docks. Thrifty farming communities for miles around brought their produce to Hudson warehouses. At one time an average of 15 ships a day cleared the harbor. Steam Succeeds Sail. "By the middle of the last century Whaling and sealing had declined, steam was succeeding sail, and freight cars were carrying Hudson valley produce pro-duce to New York markets. Hudson's industries still are profitable though perhaps less romantic. They include the manufacture of cement, ice tools, ginger ale, power presses, and knitted goods. "At the little village of Kinderhook, just north of .Hudson, Is the stately old home of Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States. Washington Wash-ington Irving used -to visit at Kinder-hook, Kinder-hook, and it was there that he knew the schoolmaster who is Ichabod Crane in the 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow.' The mythical Kip Van Winkle lived just across the river in Catskill village. It was high in the wooded Catskill mountains moun-tains that Rip found the ghostly crew of the Half Moon, playing at ninepins. Echoes from their game roll over the river in every thunderstorm. The new $3,000,000 bridge from Hudson to Cat-skill, Cat-skill, which was dedicated during the sesquicentennial celebrations, is named for Rip Van Winkle. "The wild Hudson river scenery seems to have awed both superstitious Indians and stolid Netherlanders, and inspired all sorts of weird river legends. Wicked goblins haunt the highlands, and there Is a spectre ship that sails the river against wind and tide, sure warning of a bad storm. "To river captains of colonial days the Hudson was measured by 'reaches' Seylmaker's reach, Fisher's reach, Clover reach. There were 14 'reaches' between New York and Albany. The first Dutch settlements were at river landings where boats could anchor. Hudson then was known as Claverack Landing, from the Dutch name for Clover reach. Historic Boats Pass. "A long procession of historic boats has passed through Clover reach; Henry Hudson's Half Moon, searching search-ing a passage to China, high-pooped Dutch traders loaded with fortunes iu beaver pelts, yachts of wealthy pat-roons pat-roons bringing Old world luxuries to New Netherlands, swift English frigates and outlawed pirate ships. "White-winged passenger- sloops, carrying car-rying enormous sails, made the trip from New York to Albany in seven days. Then Fulton's Clermont broke all speed records. With sails set fore and aft, and black wood smoke pouring pour-ing from its high funnel, the clumsy little steamer moved up the Hudson at five miles an hour. 'Safety barges,' towed by steam, but secure from exploding ex-ploding engines, suddenly became popular. pop-ular. In 1825, heralded by booming cannon, the first string of Erie canal boats floated down the river past the greeu hills of Hudson." |