Bruce Moseley,  a town historian for Hamilton, sent these photos along from a rainy Sylvan Beach. Note that this dispatch is chronologically out of order, not that it matters for our purposes of documenting the journey.

Rain, of course, could not dampen the spirits of those welcoming the flotilla on the east end of Oneida Lake. In my opinion, it only brightens the colors.

A line formed to tour Seneca Chief.

These photos capture the rich interior colors of the vessel. I imagine such a bright interior may have helped the humor of early 19th-century canal travelers on rainy days as well.

Looking at these sleeping quarters, I can’t get Charles Dickens’ impression of bunks on a canal boat out of my mind. Read it here: “Charles Dickens wrote: Going below, I found suspended on either side of the cabin, three long tiers of hanging bookshelves, designed apparently for volumes of the small octavo side. Looking with great attention at these contrivance (wondering to find such literary preparations in such a place) I described on each shelf a sort of microscopic sheet and blanket; then I began to dimly comprehend that the passengers were the library, and that they were to be arranged edgewise on these shelves, till morning.” I also mentioned that Dickens’ perception here.

Of the many accomplishments of the Buffalo Maritime Center’s Seneca Chief bicentennial project, one that most inspires me is the gathering of the waters, as explained here.

Many thanks to Bruce for contributing these photos. Today Seneca Chief will be in Schenectady, completing the canal portion of the voyage and then transiting onto the Hudson for the final portion of the journey to New York harbor. We are actively looking for correspondents to document the entire voyage of the flotilla.  Photos and stories can be sent to this email address: canalsocietyofnysphotos@gmail.com