HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
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proceeded very slowly; and there was plenty of time for the passengers to dress and walk down to the river before the boat reached the dock. In those primitive days the passengers were taken to the steamboat in a yawl, as the former did not make landings at the dock." Whale dock is located a short distance north of Main Street landing. It is so named because the whale ships, •that were sent out from Poughkeepsie many years ago, were moored at this point. This business was conducted largely under the patronage of Nathaniel P. Talmadge. Many a DUCHESS County youth signed the shipping papers, and cured his love for the sea by a long whaling voyage. The first ship sent out came back
Jewish Synagogue.
at the end of three years with a large stock of oil and whalebone, but the subsequent voyages were failures, and the business was finally given up. A fearful accident occurred at the drawbridge spanning the creek at New Hamburgh, on the 6th of February, 1871, occasioned by the colliding of a special oil train going south, and the Pacifie express train going north. The axle of one of the oil cars broke just before reaching the drawbridge, which threw the car from the track, and caused it to project sufficiently to be struck by the locomotive of the express train. The latter, locomotive and all, was instantly thrown from the track the water on the east side of the bridge. Several of the oil into
Dutchess County Historical Society
