The Wreck of the Steamboat John Jay

The Wreck of the Steamboat John Jay. Lakes to Locks Passage. , Tourists and visitors to the Lake George area relied on steamboats to get to Hague from Ticonderoga or Caldwell. The journey was always relaxing and enjoyable, until the evening of July 29, 1856, when the John Jay left Cook's Landing at 6:00 p.m. with 80 passengers aboard. A half-hour into the trip, as the craft passed Friend's Point, flames and suffocating smoke suddenly billowed from her fireroom. The woodpile had caught fire and was burning out of control. The tiller ropes burned making it impossible to steer the craft. Captain E.S. Harris tried to make for shore, but the John Jay slammed into the rocks just south of Harbor Islands and nearly capsized. Distraught passengers jumped overboard, clung to chairs, life preservers, tables – anything that would float., Its hull destroyed, the John Jay slid back into deeper water, where it sank. Six people drowned and rumors still [obscured] of others who were never found. With the pandemonium and smoke, no one on board, including the captain, realized the shoreline was mere yards away. A plank or two strung between the ship to the ledge of a nearby rock would have allowed frantic passengers to scramble ashore. After this incident, everyone called the ledge Calamity Rock., The John Jay at Cook's Dock. The John Jay, named after wheeler-dealer and Supreme Court Judge John Jay, was constructed in 1850. It measured 142', weighed 250 tons, and had a powerful 75 horsepower engine that enabled it to cruise at speeds up to 13 miles per hour, a rapid pace for the time. "Steamboat John Jay departing southward from Cook's Landing” by W.R. Miller courtesy of Russell Bellico., Caldwell Village, New York Woodcut by W.R. Miller from Geason's Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, 1854. Courtesy of Russell Bellico, Detail Map of Lake George drawn and published by S. R. Stoddard, 1893., Hague Steamboat Landing Steamboats made daily stops at this landing carrying passengers to Ticonderoga to connect with Lake Champlain [obscured] or south to catch the train at Caldwell (now Lake George Village). Artwork courtesy of the Hague Historical Museum., Funding for the development of the partnership for Lakes To Locks Passage has been provided by New York State through the Department of Transporlation Scenic Byway Program and Empire State Development as part of Governor George E Pataki's Lake Champlain and Lake George Waterfront Revitalization Initiative.