HISTORY OF THE HORSE FERRY

The very fragile horse-powered ferry or "teamboat" in Burlington Bay is the only known surviving example of a once-common North American vessel type. The idea of using draft animals to propel boats is an old one.

In the 4th century A.D. Roman inventors designed an ox-driven warship, and experiments in animal power were carried out in Europe during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The first documented use of teamboats in North America was at New York City in 1814. Once introduced, they caught on very quickly and were employed at numerous short-distance river and lake ferry crossings.

Horse boats remained popular until the middle of the 19th century, but were eventually phased out of service.by the increasing use of steam power. The last horse-powered vessel in North America ceased operation in the early years of the 20th century.

Lake Champlain's long, narrow shape created the need for many ferry crossings between Vermont and New York, crossings that were ideally suited to horse ferries. The earliest record of a teamboat on the lake is in a charter granted by the Vermont Legislature in 1821 to Charles McNeil and Henry Ross. The charter granted them permission to operate a ferry between Charlotte, Vermont and Essex, New York. In the following years other boats were built and employed between Chimney Point (Vermont) and Port Henry (New York). Basin Harbor (Vermont) and Westport (New York), and between Alburgh and Swanton, both in Vermont.

The use of horse ferries on the lake appears to have peaked in the 1830s and 1840s, after which time they were gradually replaced by other types of watcrcraft. Records suggest that the last horse ferry on Lake Champlain was retired around the time to the Civil War.