Post by Grubb.
The side-paddle-wheel passenger steamer moored on the grounds of the Shelburne Museum is one of two remaining in this country.
For a boat that only ferried people across Lake Champlain it is quite impressive in an excessive Gilded Age sort of way. An ornate dining room and cushioned observation chairs for a trip over a lake only fractionally larger than a Maine pond?
I thought of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the first American transpo king, who got his start ferrying people from Staten Island to Manhattan and then moved on to steamboats before creating a railroad empire. Outside of an eponymous university, how little we know of the man, as opposed to the anti-Semitic Henry Ford (infamous for his misuse of the print medium) and the insufferable Elon Musk (overly exposed on Twitter). Okay, so I’m a romantic pining for the Gilded Age when one didn’t have to put up with big money incessantly mouthing off.
Hello! Hello! It’s the 21st century calling! We’ve got some problems here! (But the “Gilded Age” series is coming back for a new round of twittery.)
And one of the problems with the 21st century is that lamentable television series!
My mom said she rode on the Ticonderoga before it was retired. It travelled up and down Lake Champlain so was more of a cruise ship than a ferry. The lake is the 12th largest in the US, 107 miles long, 400 ft deep. Not a pond in Maine is even close.
Wow. I didn’t realize the lake was that long. We only drove a small portion of it.
How long would the trip take for your mom? Did she ride it all the way into Canada?
So when I say “only fractionally larger” I guess I’m talking one-hundred to one!
“Gfubb” is short for “Grubb ffing-up”.