During the maple sugar season of the spring of 1858, a well-to-do farmer,
of western New York, whittled out a spiral or augur-like screw-propeller,
in miniature, which he thought admirably adapted to the canal. He soon
after went to Buffalo, and contracted for a boat to be built, with two of
his Archimedean screws for propulsion by steam.
Although advised by his builders to substitute the common four-bladed
propellers, he adhered to his original design, and with one propeller at
either side of the rudder--called "twin-propellers"--she was soon ready for
duty. She is the vessel known to history as the _Charles Wack_.
She carried three-fourths cargo and towed another boat with full cargo, and
made the trip from Buffalo to West Troy in seven days, total time,
averaging two miles per hour. But she returned from Troy to Buffalo, with
half freight, in four days and sixteen hours, net time; averaging three and
one-twelfth miles per hour, without tow.
This initiated the series of steamers from 1858 to 1862, and, with others
that soon followed, created a general enthusiasm in behalf of steam
transportation, which led to a trip through the canal that fall, on a
chartered steam-tug, by the Governor of the State, the Canal Board, and
other notables, and with public receptions, speeches, &c., at different
cities along the route.
That boat was soon followed by the _S. B. Ruggles_, a first-class steam
canal-boat, built by the Hon. E. S. Prosser, of Buffalo, with a first-class
modern propeller, and with double the engine capacity of the former.
The _P. L. Sternburg_ soon followed, and was a first-class boat, with
modern twin-propellers, but with less engine capacity than the _Wack_.
The same season there were some local steamers built to run regularly
between different cities on the line of the canal.
The following season of 1859 was the most active year the Erie Canal has
ever known in regard to steam.
The _C. Wack_ was sold to Mr. Prosser, who took out her Archimedean
propellers, and substituted a modern propeller, and doubled her engine
capacity, and reproduced her as the _City of Buffalo_.
The _Gold Hunter_ was produced by the Western Transportation Company, of
Buffalo. She was a short, oblong tub, with a square, box-like bow, and
rounded stern, designed only to carry machinery and coal, and was to be
recessed into the stern of ordinary horse-boats by cutting away an
equivalent space therefrom. She was designed to make a trip on the canal,
and be immediately transferred to another boat for return trip, thus to
avoid the usual loss of time at the termini of the canal. She was abandoned
after a brief trial.
The canal-boat _Niagara_ had the Cathcart propeller supplied, which
consisted of a union of the propeller and rudder by a universal joint in
the shaft, and so adjusted as to unite them for steerage purposes. This
design was tried on the steamer _Cathcart_, upon the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal, in 1858, and with considerable newspaper _eclat_.
The _Rotary_, of New York, was a new steamer for freighting purposes, with
a rotary engine and common propeller. This occupied but little space, and
worked prettily on exhibition.
The _Eclipse_, of New York, was new, and had oscillating propeller engines.