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It can be taken that, five years later, when the Carthage Ice Yacht Club was formed in January, 1881, the community was much like that just described. Of the men who formed the club we have details about only one, Moses W. Collyer. The details are available because he and William E. Verplanck wrote a book called "The Sloops of the Hudson" (G.P.Putnam's Sons, New York (1908)). A photograph from the book shows Mr. Collyer. (93A5) In the book, he says, "Moses Collyer was born on the banks of the Hudson River in the town of Red Hook. His father, John L. Collyer, was the captain and owner of a North River packet sloop that sailed from upper Red Hook Landing, now known as Tivoli, to New York City in the 1830s. He carried farmers' produce and passengers to the city and general merchandise on the return trip." (Verplanck & Collyer, p.74)
John Collyer prospered and was running two packet sloops, the "First Effort" and the "Perseverence," when the Hudson Railroad took away his dock facilities at Red Hook. The two sloops drew ten to twelve feet of water and carried fifty to two hundred tons of cargo. Each had been sailing a regular two week schedule to the city and return when the railroad interrupted the business.
After doing various things to make a living, John Collyer again started in the sloop business in the spring of 1865 with the "Benjamin Franklin" out of Poughkeepsie. Moses joined the sloop that year as a cabin boy. The sloop "Benjamin Franklin" is shown at Low Point in a photograph from the book.(93A4) They carried crockery and earthenware from Foster's Dock at Poughkeepsie in the spring and fall to ports along the Hudson. In between they ran to Albany and to Long Island Sound in the lumber trade. The sloop would sail to Albany and wait in turn for a lumber cargo. The rate was from $2.50 to $3.00 per thousand [board feet] for delivery to various ports on the Sound.
The sloop also carried coal from Rondout to various mansions, such as the Livingston's, the De Puyster's, and the Clarkson's, north of Tivoli. A cargo of coal delivered in the summer was enough to heat a mansion through the winter.
Moses, with his brothers Frank and Robert, sailed the "Ben Franklin" until 1877. Moses left her to join the schooner "Iron Age" and then became the captain of the schooner "Henry B. Finnerman" in the spring of 1878.
In 1880 Captain Moses Collyer made one of the fastest round trips of the era in the schooner "Henrietta Collyer" (Verplanck and Collyer, p. 54). She was built in Nyack for the iron trade. She left the Manhattan Iron Works, which was at 140th Street and North River, at six PM with a fresh south wind and flood tide. Fourteen hours later, at eight o'clock the next morning, she was at Catskill, 115 miles up the river. She had run up light. By noon that day, the schooner was loaded with limestone and got underway with a northwest wind. After fifteen hours, at three o'clock in the morning, she docked at the Iron Works.
At some point Captain Collyer bought the house that was formerly the rectory of St. Mark's Church in Carthage Landing (Hasbrouck, p. 471). He also acquired the sloop "Mohican" which had been built in 1837 at Peekskill (Verplanck and Collyer, pp. 63-64). She was 68 feet long, and her beam was 25 feet. Under her quarter-deck, which extended almost to amidships, there were a dozen berths. Her timber and planking were of locust and white oak. Captain Collyer had her sunk in front of his house to serve as a breakwater and dock. According to Norman Tardiff the "spine" of the "Mohican" can be seen south of the Chelsea Yacht Club at especially low water.
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