, A Souvenir" (1892) published by
the Gillespie Brothers Originally,
Shady Side was owned by the Morrisania Steamboat Company, and ran passengers to upper Manhattan and the
Bronx by way of the
East River. Later the vessel was used on routes to
Stamford, Connecticut and
Fort Lee, New Jersey, with stops at Shady-Side, Guttenberg, and Tilly Toodlum. Her final trip to Harlem was made on July 4, 1880, after the new elevated railroad made route uneconomical. From the beginning,
Shady Side was involved in stern competition with vessels of other companies. The
Shady Side was the fastest boat of the Morrisania Steamboat Company, and frequently raced against the
Sylvan Dell, which was the fastest of the Harlem Line. In 1875, as part of this sparring, the
Sylvan Dell had a piece of oak strapped to her to prevent
Shady Side easily passing. Captain Longstreet, superintendent of the Morrisania line, took control of
Shady Side in response one morning in April 1875 and swung her around in such a way as to knock the beam off
Sylvan Dell. This caused cheering from passengers on
Shady Side but was condemned as dangerous horseplay by
The New York Times. Later that month, Captain Longstreet's license was revoked for thirty days as a result, and the captains of both the
Shady Side and
Sylvan Dell—Charles G. Tennant and William Weatherwax, respectively—were censured, Tennant for remaining at the helm while Longstreet took over and Weatherwax for continuing to operate the
Sylvan Dell after complaints had been raised about the beam. In 1881, it was reported in
The New York Times that the police intended to buy her for the
24th precinct, and that "she cost $83,000, was sold to the steam-boat company for $58,000, and the amount now ask for her is $38,000. It will cost about $3,500 to fit her up, and the Police flag can be transferred to her in the early Spring." The mortgage on
Shady Side was foreclosed on in 1881, but she continued in service as a passenger vessel after being sold. In August 1882,
Shady Side was again undercutting fares on a different route, between New York and
Yonkers, again charging five cents against a standard fare of twenty cents for a single ticket. The two firms that ran the
Chrysteneh, the
Riverdale and the
Caroline A. Peene began blocking docks that the
Shady Side wanted to use and casting away her lines. There were reports of passengers being assaulted, and at one point a fence and a locked gate were erected to block access to the
Shady Side, over which passengers clambered. The other operators believed
Shady Side must be running at a great loss and would not be able to continue, while the operator of the
Shady Side, Walter H. Shupe, manager of the Columbia Line, said they were acting within their rights and that they had taken the matter to the Yonkers Police Court. It was reported in several papers that this strategy was so popular that in September
Shady Side's owners hired a larger boat, the
Americus, which had a capacity of 1,500 passengers, to keep up with demand, and that the
Americus was owned by a secret society numbering 800,000 members called the "Sons of Columbia", who chartered the
Americus for sixty days at $160 per day. In June 1883,
Shady Side had been working on the
Delaware River between
Wilmington and
Philadelphia, running a loss, when the captain took her from the wharf. A 'wanted' notice was run on the front page of
The New York Times on the assumption she had been taken to New York. In later service, either from 1886 On the morning of October 21, 1894, in very heavy fog, at least four ships ran aground in New York. Of these, the largest was the wooden
side-wheel steamer Drew, carrying 150 passengers.
Drew ran aground on
Washington Point at about 7:40 a.m., tearing a hole in the
starboard bow. Passengers were able to disembark by
gangplank and when the tide rose,
Shady Side towed
Drew off the rocks and back to dock.
Later years Around 1921,
Shady Side came into the ownership of
Marcus Garvey, running under the
Black Star Line.
Shady Side was abandoned on the mud flats at
Fort Lee, New Jersey in 1922 when the Black Star Line collapsed as its owners were convicted of mail fraud. == Later vessels ==