Tag: side-wheeler Winnisimmet

Photographed at City Point, VA, June-July 1864.

Gibson and Gibson, Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Union Army, 1861-1868 says: WINNISIMMET; sidewheel steam ferry; 276 tons. Chartered Aug 14, 1862, for unknown period but inclusive of mid-Sept, when she was reported as loading rail equipment at Aquia Creek, Virginia; Dec 17, 1862, for unknown period. Purchased by the Quartermaster Department on July 16, 1864, at Baltimore Maryland, for $25,000. Used in emergency sealift for the defense of Washington in the summer of 1864, embarking troops at City Point. Record indicates vessel was owned by the United States on Oct 15, 1864.

Wikipedia says: The Winnisimmet Ferry was a ferry between Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States, and Boston’s North End. Founded in 1631, when Chelsea was called Winnisimmet, it was the oldest ferry in the country. It ceased operations in 1917. The original ferry was started by Thomas Williams (alias Harris) on 18 May 1631. After Harris’ untimely death in 1634, William Stitson (who married Thomas’ widow Elizabeth) took over the ferry.

The Montgomery & Howard shipyard in Chelsea, Massachusetts, built passenger steamboats, pilot boats, and ferryboats. They built for the Winnisimmet Ferry Company, Old Colony Steamship Company and the Fall River Line.

A temporary ferry service under the same name began on May 15, 1990 during early Big Dig construction, running between Chelsea and Rowes Wharf in Boston.