The photo below comes from my friend and fellow CSNY board member, Bruce Schwendy. This will be the view over the bow of Seneca Chief as it travels hundreds of miles in the next five weeks or so. To the left, that’s tugboat C. L. Churchill, about to become the most widely recognized 33′ tugboat in New York. The tugboat will be standing in for “four fancifully-caparisoned grey horses,” explained below the photo.

As departure day approaches, it seems fitting to read an excerpt from the account of the actual departure of the original Seneca Chief roughly 200 years ago by Col. William Leete Stone.

“Every thing being prepared, the signal was given, and the discharge of a thirty-two pounder from the brow of the terrace announced that all was in readiness, and the boats under way! The Seneca Chief, of Buffalo, led off in fine style, drawn by four grey horses, fancifully caparisoned, and was followed by the Superior, next to which came the Commodore Perry, a freight boat; and the rear was brought up by the Buffalo, of Erie. The whole moved from the dock under a discharge of small arms from the Rifle Company, with music from the band, and the loud and reiterated cheers from the throng on the shore, which were returned by the companies on board the various boats. The salute of artillery was continued along from gun to gun, in rapid succession, agreeably to previous arrangements; and, in the short space of one hour and twenty minutes, the joyful intelligence was proclaimed to our citizens.”

Click here for the rest of the narrative from eriecanal.org. More on coverage of the journey from 1825 can be read and seen in an earlier Dispatches post here.

Of course, the driving force in this project is the Buffalo Maritime Center and their vision.