The old horse-powered skid railway, which pulled the steamboats out of the water inch by inch.

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by Jerry Aske with research by Gardiner Lane

Editor's Note:
The Shelburne Shipyard has a very old and interesting history. Shelburne resident, Jerry Aske, has lived some of this history, and is willing to share his knowledge for our readers. This is the first in a two-part series about Shelburne Shipyard. Part one consists of the early history which was researched by Aske and Gardiner Lane. Part two of the Shelburne Shipyard series will discuss the Aske family history of Shelburne Shipyard.

Old area maps reveal the presence of Indians on Shelburne Point long before the white man appeared. Their name for the Point was Quineska-Took, which translated into "long point," because the Indians thought the spike of land jutting into Lake Champlain resembled a man's forearm.

John Potter, one of the original grantees of Shelburne land, arrived to occupy his land in 1768. According to contemporary land records, Potter and a man named Thomas Logan were the first white men to settle permanently on Shelburne Point. Although their dwellings, undoubtedly small log cabins, have long since vanished, the names Logan Point and Pottier's [Potter's] Point persisted for many years.

The sheltered harbor in Shelburne Bay has been home to the Shelburne Shipyard since the early 1820s. But its story begins even earlier. In 1794 a Chittenden County legislator convinced the Vermont Legislature to resolve a boundary dispute between Burlington and Shelburne by awarding the whole of Pottier's Point to the latter. The pre-Revolutionary boundaries of Burlington included the tip of the Point, from about the southernmost edge of today's shipyard northward.

During the three years following the Legislature's decision a 100 acre tract of land on the end of the Point changed ownership four times before Nathan White bought the parcel for $900 in 1797.

Land records show that the Whites owned the land until 1828. That year they sold a parcel approximately 420 x 130 feet to Cornelius P. Van Ness, a stockholder in the Lake Champlain Steamboat Company. The Lake Champlain Steamboat Company may have leased the land from the whites before that date, because the steamboat General Greene was built between 1824-25 by the company.

In 1827 a stone shop was built to house the office, power plant, carpenter and machine shops. In addition, a ways was constructed for hauling boats for repairs. Van Ness transferred his ownership of the property to Isaiah Townsend in 1833. Townsend, also one of the original directors of the Lake Champlain Steamboat Company, had purchased the assets of the company in 1831. He then merged his newly acquired property and company with the Champlain Transportation Company.

The Shipyard remained the property of the Champlain Transportation Company for 113 years. As the Champlain Transportation Company prospered, more land was added to the Shipyard in a series of acquisitions. Storehouses, dwellings, and timber sheds were constructed, and the Shipyard began to resemble a small village. In the winter time, when the lake iced over and forced the ships back into the harbor, shipyard crews would do maintenance work on the hulls and machinery. On good days, when the temperature was not too severe, they would repair and paint the exterior, working from scaffolds erected on the ice. During inclement weather they would perform the necessary maintenance inside, where "donkey boilers" provided heat.

The steamboats built at the Shipyard were some of the finest and fastest on the lake. Beginning with General Greene, which was 75 feet long and cost $12,000 to build, the Shelburne Shipyard built 11 more sidewheel steamboats.

Ticonderoga, the last sidewheeler to be built on Lake Champlain, was preceded by two similar ships, Chateaugay and Vermont III. These marked a milestone for the Shipyard in that their hulls were made of iron.

Most of the wooden steamships built at the Shipyard during the 19th century were first stripped of any useable gear and machinery. Then the steamships were cabled to trees at the southern end of the harbor where the remains of their hulls are still visible beneath the water. Vermont III was converted to a freighter in 1945 and Ticonderoga, the sole surviving Lake Champlain sidewheeler, was transported to the Shelburne Museum in 1954.

A fire in 1910 destroyed the old stone shop and it was replaced in 1913 by the present shop building.

No more large vessels were built at the Shelburne Shipyard until 1942 when Jerry Aske's father leased the yard and joined the war effort against the Axis Powers.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the story of Jerry Aske's history of Shelburne Shipyard.