History
The steamboat Ticonderoga is America's last remaining side paddlewheel passenger steamer with a vertical beam engine. Commissioned by the Champlain Transportation Company, the Ticonderoga was built in 1906 at the Shelburne Shipyard on Lake Champlain.
The Ticonderoga measures 220 feet in length and 59 feet in beam, with a displacement of 892 tons. Her steam-powered engine is fed by two coal-fired boilers and could achieve a maximum speed of seventeen miles per hour. Her full crew numbered twenty-eight, and included the captain, pilots, mate, deckhands, engineers and firemen to operate the boat. The purser, stewards, freight clerk, bartender, hall boys, cook, waiters, scullion and mess boys attended to passengers and freight.
Initially, the Ticonderoga served a north-south route on Lake Champlain. Daily, she docked at Westport, New York, where she met the New York City evening train. The next morning she carried travelers and freight northward to St. Albans, Vermont. In addition to passengers, the Ticonderoga transported local farm produce, livestock and dry goods on a regular basis; and during both World Wars, ferried U.S. troops between Plattsburgh, New York, and Burlington, Vermont. She also operated on the east-west run from Burlington to Port Kent, New York, and had