This Fathers Day Is Gonna Be Steamy Up In The 1000 Islands!

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Barbara Ann, Pemigewasset2, Golden Eagle What year is it?

It’s your weekend Dads, you know that one day a year where you get to do what you want.Like spend all day in a hardware store, or just flop and have cheese doodles served to you while your kids tell you how wonderful you are. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Just kidding, that aint gonna happen. The real deal is you get to choose whats for dinner. OR, and here is the Win win, say, I want to go to the Antique Boat Museum.

THIS WEEKEND! – Barbara Ann, Pemigewasset, Golden Eagle

Force the kids to put down the Game Boy and go. Sure they will roll their little beauty eyes that are stabbing you. But once you are there, they will LOVE you all over again for being the best dad ever. And no matter how steamed up they all get for going to do one of “your boat things” they will thank you big time cause this week, at the Antique Boat Museum where you can see members of the Great International Steamboat Flotilla who are visiting the museum. And trust me, it took them a loooong time to there. So your drive aint nothing.

Golden Eagle, Iron Butterfly, Saucey

 

Steamboats visiting this week are Flying Cloud, Phoenix, Reciproca, Pemigewasset, Saucey, Golden Eagle, Iron Butterfly, Sunapee Zephyr, Barbara Ann, and Aurora Borealis.

ABM’s steam launch Geraldine

The ABM has two steam launches similar to those visiting in its collection. Ariel was built in Greenwood Lake, NY around 1884-5 and supposedly was part of the Shadow Lawn estate in NJ. Originally powered by Naphtha, Ariel is currently powered by a 1926 one cylinder Palmer engine. Geraldine was built in 1885 at Lake Winnipesaukee, NH for the US Postal Service. From the 1920s until World War II, Geraldine worked as a supply boat with an internal combustion engine. After acquiring her in 1969, Mr. Louis Allen outfitted Geraldine with her original 1886 Sisson triple expansion engine. Geraldine is one of no more than 10 steam launches with both hull and engine certifiably over 100 years of age.

ABM’s steam launch Ariel

So? when you show up, look all this up on your app, and you will look like the antique boat god that you are.

Golden Eagle’s engine

We will add, that up close and in person, these Steamboats are cool has all get out. Not that they can get out of there own way, but very very cool, all the fun is playing with the engine and just having a very calm ride. This is worth a visit and will slow the family down for a change!

13 replies
  1. Dan T
    Dan T says:

    Every now and then, I have to revisit The African Queen with Bogart and Hepburn. One of the best boat movies ever. Looks like a fun show!

    • Wilson
      Wilson says:

      I remember going to Ocean Reef ( Key Largo) once for an antique boat show…Jim Hendricks who also owned Thayer IV at the time insisted we ride over to his place in the African Queen…We got half way there and ran out of steam…We had to wait 30 or 40 minutes while he threw more charcoal in the burner and got it hot enough to make more steam, The funny part was we weren’t far off a sea wall and Hendick’s neighbors were all out sipping martinis and hollaring ” Want us to call the fire department, Jim ?” You just had to know Hendricks

  2. m-fine
    m-fine says:

    A steam launch would be a fun boat for cocktail cruises on the Erie Canal. In the 1000 islands, I think I would want something a bit faster. Well, I guess having a slow boat on the St Lawrence is not as bad as having one on the Niagara River.

  3. Greg Lewandowski
    Greg Lewandowski says:

    These boats are really cool and have great historical value. However, every time I think of stoking a fire aboard a boat, it gives me chills! These guys are a unique breed of boaters.

  4. WAYNESWORLD
    WAYNESWORLD says:

    THE SHOW AT ST MICHAELS IS ALSO A GREAT EVENT IF I COULD FIND SOMEONE DRIVING FROM BALTIMORE I WOULD LIKE TO GO, WAYNESWORLD

  5. Bill
    Bill says:

    I am a lover of steam engines whether a big traction engine running a saw mill, a locomotive or a boat there is a magic to steam almost as if they were alive. I have lived on lake Huron most of my life and can remember the long smoke trails from the frieghters on the horizon, there would be dozens of them hanging out there on a calm day. back in the day the Ford fleet was one of the few ships that had diesel engines. steam power changed the world

  6. Bilgerat
    Bilgerat says:

    Love the steam launches but the smell of burning wood in and around wood boats causes me concerns. I remember an old John Wayne movie where they were running out of firewood on a steam boat and had to chop up the boat for fuel. Convenient I guess but when the fuel is the same as the boat material, something seems wrong to me.

  7. Mark in Ohio(sometimes da U.P.)
    Mark in Ohio(sometimes da U.P.) says:

    Who can see a steam launch without thinking of the African Queen! Defiantly my favorite Bogart movie. Very neat boats. You have to admire people who have such beautiful boats only to build a fire in them just to go 3 mph.

  8. Floyd r turbo
    Floyd r turbo says:

    Launches are the only boats even close to the beautiful lines of a steamboat. You really have to know what you’re doing if your operating one…part engineer, part stoker, part captain, and part woodsman.

  9. m-fine
    m-fine says:

    I find it hilarious that people who burn gasoline for fuel fear burning wood. Here is a safety test:

    Take two 5 gallon buckets. Fill one with wood and one with gasoline. Get one of those long grill thermometers and try to light each one on fire. Report back on which fuel you think is safer.

    • Greg Lewandowski
      Greg Lewandowski says:

      I did something like that a long time ago. Objects involved were an old 50 gal. drum that I though had been purged of anything combustible and a cutting torch. The drum hit the rafters of the garage and I couldn’t hear for several hours. The amazing part is that I am here to tell the story. The wisdom of youth!

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