Images(5)

Steamboat Paddlebox Lunette

Maker Unknown Maker

Period1886

MediumCarved, painted, and gilded pine and oak

Dimensions39.5 × 79.5 in. (100.3 × 201.9 cm)

ClassificationsAdvertising, Business & Ornamental Artifacts

Credit LineGift of Henry F. Gelhaus, 1955

Object number1983.418

DescriptionA steamboat paddlebox lunette of two pine boards joined horizontally at the center. A deeply carved relief figure of an American Indian forms the central motif. The figure wears a thigh-length red tunic and black belt, with a red and black blanket draped over his left shoulder, and a red painted feather headdress over loose black hair. He holds a long bow in his left hand, with a quiver of arrows partially visible over his right shoulder. The Indian male is flanked on both sides by mirror image designs of elaboral carved foliate scrolls and flowers painted in shades of yellow ochre. A very deep blue has been used for the background, with a narrow band of yellow ochre along the bevelled arch edge.
Curatorial RemarksTwo historic photographs of the Point Comfort show it making a landing at the pier in Keansburg, Monmouth County, and as it appeared on the rocks near Esopus Island in the Hudson River shortly after its grounding on 17 September 1919. The paddlebox lunette appears in both images, quite clearly in the docking procedure view and not yet salvaged from the vessel in the wreck scene. A third snapshot taken in 1954 shows the lunette before being loaded onto a pickup truck. The Association also owns the paddlebox lunette from a sister ship named Keyport (accession number 2000.617), as well as its pilot house eagle (accession number 1983.419), a vessel also bought in 1913 by the Keansburg Steamboat Company.NotesThe paddlebox lunette originally adorned a side paddle steamboat named the Nantucket. The 629-ton vessel was built in 1886 in Wilmington, Delaware, for service on the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Company routes between the Massachusetts islands and the mainland. The Nantucket measured 190 feet long with a beam of 33 feet. It drew only 4.5 feet of water. In 1913, the vessel was purchased by the Keansburg Steamboat Company of New Jersey and renamed the Point Comfort after a spit of land jutting into New York Bay now known as Keansburg, Monmouth County. The Point Comfort ran on routes from the Monmouth Bayshore to New York City, and also in chartered excursion service as well as freight service when needed. During the fall of 1919, the vessel was engaged in transporting freight on the Hudson River. On 17 September, while running in fog, the Point Comfort ran aground on rocks off Esopus Island between Kingston and Poughkeepsie. She sank quickly, and was declared a total loss. The wreck was sold in place for $300 and eventually scrapped. But the boiler and other large parts that remained became an eyesore. They were removed in the early 1930s by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Even today, however, elements of the Point Comfort can still be observed at times of very low water in the Hudson River.

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