I thought I would break the monotony of this here weblog by posting a fascinating article about ice-boating (on the Hudson if you like) in the early years of the country---Oliver Booth is credited with first introducing the ice boat to the states in 1790. The original ice boats were used in the 1600's in the Netherlands to transport... things... along the rivers. Oliver first sailed his ice boat on the Hudson River in NY, like in the lithograph printed by Currier & Ives. Ice yacht clubs were started here and there, but they didn't start ice boat racing as a "pro" sport until the time of the Virginian... 1861-ish. :) Within the decade they also found racing trains to be a boatload o' fun! (Did you see the train in the lithograph?) I find it so amazing that these "water" craft could reach speeds of around 100mph! People could actually die by crashing into things, such as rocks, while riding their ice boats down the river! You can see from the lithograph that ice boats had a couple of thin beams on the sides, which acted kind of like ice skates or something, and there was a third part sticking out in the back that was the rudder apparatus. I think it would be super fun to ride on one of those things, but it would also be really scary since they go s'darn fast!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures, as I do. One day when you've had many iceboating adventures on the Hudson River you can tell all of us about it as we cuddle up around the fireplace and listen intently to the midnight ride of [your name here].
4 comments:
I can just see the Dutch skating down the canals on their ice-boats. That's fun. I do enjoy the pictures... We really should go ice-boating someday, and wear lots of pillows so we don't get hurt so badly. Snort.
I can just see you skating around the Dutch canals...
I'm trying to look on the bright side of winter, since it's pretty much already here and I generally greatly dislike it. Rrrrr...
Just watched my two favorite YouTube music videos: Jackson 5- Dancing Machine and BeeGees- Stayin' Alive. Aw, yeah! :)
WELL...? lemme drop my 2 cents in that.
We could ice boat in the bay this winter with a cup of cocoa? Hey if you're down lemme know.
was that tran on skates? it l;ooked like it was railroading over the lake?
You certainly choose peculiar methods of disturbing monotony, Claire.
Post a Comment