The Brown Boat Line
by: Tom King
The date was March of 1917 and George Brown had just received the big news that he had been anxiously waiting for. The Clayton-based boat builder had been awarded the U.S. Government contract for carrying the mail between Clayton and Alexandria Bay, which had been held previously by the Thousand Island Steamboat Company. The new contract was to come into effect on July 1st of that year, so George set to work enlarging his motorboat, Just Brown, to handle the extra workload. This was just the opportunity that George wanted to expand his business into a major player in the local tourist industry.
George William Brown was born in Canada in 1863 but moved to the US as a young man. He married Minnie Porter of Clayton, NY, in December of 1891, and they had three children: two sons, Millard and Gregory, and a daughter, Ruth. The Brown family lived in a house at 307 Mary Street in the Village of Clayton for many years. George passed away in Clayton on February 8, 1939.
After George was awarded the mail contract, the Brown Boat Line grew considerably. Three more motorboats were built and added to the fleet, and they were named Just Brown II, Just Brown III, and Just Brown IV. Another larger excursion boat, the twin-screw yacht, Dauntless, was purchased in 1921. The operation was based at the Clayton waterfront and used the docks that were near the Silver Moon Tea Room. In addition to running the mail route between Clayton and Alexandria Bay, the Brown Boat line offered three-hour tours through the Thousand Islands on the smaller boats, and an all-day trip to Kingston on the Dauntless.
L: The Brown Boat Line operated from Clayton’s waterfront, near the Silver Moon Tea Room; [Photo from author's collection.] R: The Brown Boat Line fleet, minus the Just Brown II – [Photo is from the book Images of America – Clayton by Verda S. Corbin and Shane A. Hutchinson.]
According to the 1925 New York State Census, Millard had become the manager of the boat line and George was listed as a boat builder. In that same year, George’s other son, Gregory, was listed as a purser, presumably employed by the Brown Boat Line. Records for the Just Brown II, from the Bowling Green State University’s Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, indicate that Millard P. Brown assumed ownership of the vessel in 1927. It is believed that the ownership of the other boats in the fleet was transferred to him around that time as well.
L: Brown Boat Line advertising brochure circa 1925 [Photo from author's collection]; R: Excerpt from the 1925 Clayton Chamber of Commerce booklet with two different references to the Brown Boat Line [Photo from author's collection]
Tragedy struck the Brown Boat Line on July 12, 1928, at about 3:30 in the afternoon, when the Just Brown caught fire and was totally destroyed while on her daily mail and passenger run from Alexandria Bay to Clayton. The cause of the fire was traced back to an engine problem – apparently the motor had stalled a couple of times and when the captain went to adjust the carburetor it backfired and sent a huge fireball through the cockpit of the boat. Fanned by a stiff breeze, it didn’t take long for the boat to be fully engulfed in flames.
One woman on board died as a result of the accident and many other passengers were seriously injured. Several local residents sped to the scene of the fire and helped to rescue the passengers from the stricken vessel and ferry them to shore. Quite a few of the people had to be plucked out of the water after they abandoned the burning boat. The incident occurred between Murray Island and Maple Island, about 200 yards off Grenell Island. There were twenty-three people on board at the time of the fire, including two crew members. Only one woman escaped uninjured, while the rest suffered varying degrees of burns or other types of injuries. The captain of the vessel that day was Freeman Rusho, a seasoned Riverman, and the purser was Clarence Humiston, who was George Brown’s son-in-law. The flaming motorboat was towed into deeper water, away from nearby boathouses, where it sank to the bottom.
In the late 1920s, George’s son, Gregory, became the proprietor of the restaurant that was near the Brown Boat Line docks. He changed the name from Silver Moon Tea Room to Gregory’s Restaurant and offered a menu of home-cooked meals to his clientele. There was also dancing at the establishment, and it was advertised as “The Newest and Liveliest Place at the River.”
An advertising postcard for Gregory’s Restaurant, formerly the Silver Moon Tea Room. [Photo from author's collection]
The restaurant has changed hands several times since the time Gregory operated it. It was called Vincent’s for a while and then, I believe, The Golden Anchor. The current dining establishment in the beautifully revitalized building at 428 Riverside Drive is DiPrinzio’s Kitchen.
In March of 1929, it was announced that four of the Clayton-based boat lines were going to merge and operate under the name Yacht Edith Lines. The four boat line companies involved in the merger were the Brown Boat Line, the Miss Clayton Boat Line, the Spray Boat Lines, and the original Yacht Edith Lines.
Millard Brown was the owner of the Brown Boat Line at this time, while Haas and Consaul operated the Miss Clayton Line. Cuppernall and Marshall were the men behind the Spray Boat Lines and W.D. Lantier was the owner of the Yacht Edith Lines. Ten of the largest and most modern tour boats operating in the Thousand Islands would comprise the fleet of the new tour company and there were plans to add a few speed boats as well. Stuart Ormsby, a businessman from Watertown, partnered with Mr. Lantier to finance the new company, which was capitalized at a quarter of a million dollars. Mr. Lantier was named president, H.F. Ward, of Gananoque, was named vice president, C.M. Ormsby, of Clayton, was named secretary, and Stuart Ormsby was named the treasurer. The U.S. Government contract for carrying the Mail and Express between Clayton and Alexandria Bay, which had been held by the Brown Boat Line, was to be taken over by the new Yacht Edith Lines.
With the merger of the four boat lines completed, and the Brown Boat Line no longer in operation, the tour boats that weren’t included in the deal were disposed of. The Just Brown II was sold to the Combined 1000 Islands Boat Tours in Alexandria Bay and was renamed Maxine II and then Uncle Sam II. The Just Brown IV was renamed Gloria and changed hands a couple of times before ending up in Gananoque operating as one of the Island Wanderers.
L: The former Just Brown II, renamed Uncle Sam II by the Combined 1000 Islands Boat Tours of Alexandria Bay – used with permission of BGSU University Libraries'; M: The former Just Brown IV, renamed Gloria, at the far right, on the hard with the rest of the Island Wanderer fleet in Gananoque; R: The Dauntless, acquired by the Brown Boat Line in 1921, was the largest yacht on the River operating a regular passenger schedule between Clayton and Alexandria Bay at the time. [Photos from author's collection]
The legacy of the Brown Boat Line still lives on today, even though its boats haven’t plied the waters of the St. Lawrence River for close to one hundred years. The old yacht Dauntless, once the pride of the Brown Line, was salvaged by a local boat builder after she was retired and had the engine and most of the metalwork removed. The old boat was then towed to deeper water and set ablaze. It burned to the waterline and sank to the bottom of the river midway between Washington and Round Islands, in about fifty feet of water. The wreck was discovered by divers in the 1970s and is still a popular attraction for the underwater crowd today.
The wreck of the Dauntless, along with many others in the river, has been documented and modelled in 3D by the St. Lawrence River Historical Foundation (SRHF). An excerpt from the group’s website contains their mission statement:
“The St. Lawrence River Historical Foundation (SRHF) has worked with 3D Shipwrecks.org as part of their mission “to create a database of 3D models of all Great Lakes shipwrecks that can be viewed by the public and professionals to study and enjoy these historical maritime sites in the region. The public can visit these sites from the comfort of their homes and appreciate the wealth of our maritime heritage preserved in the waters of our Great Lakes. Academics and professional resource managers will be able to quickly investigate these sites to evaluate the potential historic significance of features of the sites. By periodically repeating the survey and modelling process they will be able to assess the risk of losing the data to natural site deterioration.”
(https://www.ti3ds.com/p/dauntless.html)
The two images above detail the wreck of the Dauntless and show a screen capture of the 3D model of the wreckage – used with permission of the St. Lawrence River Historical Foundation. [Photos courtesy of St. Lawrence River Historical Foundation (SRHF) (https://www.ti3ds.com/p/dauntless.html)]
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people who assisted with the preparation of this article:
[1] Karen Wand, for sharing her old newspaper clippings from the era with me and for offering her proofreading and editing prowess.
[2] Mark Sprang, the Archivist for the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes at Bowling Green State University, for allowing me to use the image of the Uncle Sam II and the database entry for the Just Brown II.
[3] Kathi and Dennis McCarthy, for allowing me to use the images of the sunken Dauntless wreck from the St. Lawrence River Historical Foundation’s “Thousand Islands 3D Shipwrecks” webpage. The link to the website is https://www.ti3ds.com/p/dauntless.html.
By Tom King
Tom King and his wife Marion have lived in Milton, Ontario, for the past 37 years, where they both worked and raised their family of three children: Kris, Mike and Becca. Tom has captured the history of the tour boat industry as well as giving us the best spider story in the past 17 years!
Editor's Note: Read more articles by Tom King here in our new format for TI Life, and more articles on our old site. Thank you, Tom King. Your ability to capture the boat line stories of our River has brought history alive!
