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"Down the river -- Oswego, N.Y." Circa 1901, the steam tug Charley Ferris on the Oswego River. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.
Below is the Oswego River flowing into Lake Ontario today. The small lighthouse and the ground it stood on are gone. In the 1901 photo there is a flag flying at right. I'm betting it is at Fort Ontario, top right in the photo below.
The 1901 photo is an idyllic scene. But one thing I noticed made me think, "No, oh hell no!"
What a cool picture. Pretty calm day from the looks of it. The schooner off in the distance is just ghosting along. The iron fastenings on "Charley Ferris" are really rusting thru the paint -- bleeding. I see the smokestack from galley stove (small pipe with cap to the left of the main smokestack) but I can't figure out what the pipe coming from the box forward of the wheelhouse leading up and thru the forward glass is. If it's for heat coming from the engine room, I'd think you'd have small deck grates in the floor of the cabin since it's above the engine. If it's a small outside wood or coal stove, the flue pipe is awful short and the smoke would hamper the vision for the man at the wheel ... unless they've removed the flue pipe because when the photo was taken it was summer?? Puzzling.
A terrific view of a less-familiar American shoreline (Lake Ontario). And busy! A tugboat, a two-masted schooner, a yacht, barges, rowboats, a jetty, railroad tracks, warehouses, and best of all: a lighthouse and a ship under full sail, both on the horizon. No automobiles.
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