The Brooklyn daily Eagle of February 10,1895, carried a story about
the old sloop Emperor, which was riding peacefully at anchor for its
sixty-sixth winter in Port Jefferson harbor.
This once famous craft
had an interesting history, extending back to the good old days when
such property was considered valuable, and anyone with money was
eager to invest it in such a boat.
In the spring of 1828 Capt.
Caleb Kinner of Port Jefferson contacted with Zephaniah and Israel Hallock,
ship builders of Derby, Conn., to build him a vessel which would be a
fast one. How well they succeeded is shown by the Emperor's record.
At
this time Elisha Bayles was the boss calker on long Island and of
course was sent for by the Hallocks to work on the new sloop. Elisha
with his son Alfred and brother Lloyd rowed across the Sound in a
yawl boat and up the Housatonic river to Derby a distance of 40
miles. Imagine anyone rowing such a distance today! They calked and
rigged the sloop and assisted in its launching.
The sloop was at once
taken to Port Jefferson where it was placed on the route between
Port Jefferson and New York as a packet where it remained in
service for 30 years. When the boat started running it was the only
means of communication with the metropolis with the exception of a
stage coach than ran twice weekly and carried the mail. There was no
railroad on Long Island when the Emperor was first placed on the
packet line, and she was considered as great an innovation as the
railroad, when it came later.
Sail would be set at 10o'clock in the
morning in Port Jefferson harbor, and with a good stiff breeze the
boat would be at her wharf in New York before sundown. She carried
passengers as well as freight, and was well patronized by the
residents of Port Jefferson and vicinity.
Travel was cheaper in those
days than at the present time, and the fare on the packet to New
York
was 50 cents, while those who dined at the captains table were
charged a shilling a meal.
Four years after the line was established
the cholera epidemic broke out in New York and it was necessary to
make extra trips to accommodate the many passengers who were fleeing
from the city. Many times the Emperor had 60 passengers on board with
a cabin only 20 feet square.
The emperor was a fast boat and was
never beaten by any sailing vessel of her size and was always a
money maker, from the day she was launched.
In the summer of 1895, she
was sold complete with sails, rigging, etc. for $100. Her usual good
luck went with her, for her new owner cleared that amount the first trip.
We
can imagine the success a sloop of this kind would have on this
route today, and the numbers of people who would be glad to pay
several times the fare charged on the old Emperor, for the novelty of
a trip down the Sound in a sailing vessel.