Steamboats

"Baltimore Steam Packet Co. Bay Line, 1911. Pass Mr. John F. Auch, Frt Traf. Mgr-–Philadelphia & Reading Rwy, until December 31st unless otherwise ordered. John R. Sherwood, president & general manager. No. 1726. Not valid unless countersigned by W. W. Erdman or myself. Florida." According to Wikipedia, "The Baltimore Steam Packet Company , nicknamed the Old Bay Line, was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962 that provided overnight steamboat service on the Chesapeake Bay , primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia." The steamer Florida , which is pictured on the pass, was a propeller-driven, steel-hulled vessel built by the Maryland Steel Company in 1907. For another illustration of the ship, see Steam Packets on the Chesapeake: A History of the Old Bay Line since 1840 (Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1961), by Alexander Crosby Brown, p. 82. John F. Auch was a freight traffic manager for the Philadelphia and Reading Railway , which later changed its name to the Reading Railroad and was immortalized as one of the railroads featured on the Monopoly game board. Compare this pass with an Adirondack Steamboat Company Pass, 1897 :

"Adirondack Steamboat Co. Pass E. D. Bennett, G. Supt., Bennington & Rutland Railway, until December 31st, 1897, unless otherwise ordered. George Sweet, president. No. 1932. American Bank Note Co., N.Y."

"The Columbia National Bank. No. 4159. Columbia, Penna., May 21, 1876. Pay to the order of C. J. Nourse, Jr. One and 80/100 dollars. $1.80. To Importers & Traders National Bank of New York. S. W. Shoch, Cashier. United States Internal Revenue, Two Cents. 2. National Bank Note Company, New York." Mouse over the image above to see an enlargement of the vignette of steamboats and sailing ships in the upper left-hand corner.

For more information, see the full version of this check:

See also the back of this pass (below). "New Jersey Steamboat Company. 1870 Season. People's Line. Not transferable. New York, April 5, 1870. Pass [W. J. Pierrepout & J. Bredt?]. Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburgh R.R. Subject to the conditions on the back hereof. No. Rgd. Jno. C. Hewitt, G.T.A." John C. Hewitt was a general ticket agent for People's Line Steamers.

See also the front of this pass (below). "I hereby accept this free ticket, and assume all risks of accidents, losses and injuries, both to person and property, on the route of this Company, while using it whether occasioned by negligence of its agents or otherwise." "This ticket is invalid unless signed by the individual named thereon, and, if presented by any other person, is to be taken up by the Clerk."

"Hudson River Day Line Pass, 1899. E. D. Bennett, G.S., Bennington & Rutland Ry. E. E. Olcott, general manager. 412." E. D. Bennett, the general superintendent of the Bennington & Rutland Railway Company, also received a pass from the Adirondack Steamboat Company in 1897. The boat pictured on this card is the side-wheel steamer New York See below for some other steamboat passes and tickets from the Adirondack Steamboat Company/ (1897), Baltimore Steam Packet Company (1911), New Jersey Steamboat Company (1870), and Reading Steamboat Company .

"Steamboat Mary, Wrightsville and Columbia, Pa. B. D. Beittel , Columbia, Pa." An early postcard of Steamboat Mary, which evidently ran on the Susquehanna River between Wrightsville, York County, and Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The card dates to the first decade of the twentieth century (circa 1907, based on the postmark of another copy I spotted elsewhere on the web). In the background is the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge , a steel truss bridge that was built in 1896. It carried railroad and automobile traffic over the river until it was dismantled in 1963.