Riverside Park, "Half Moon", "Clermont" and "North River" steamships, history and naval parade 1909

September 25, 1909
After luncheon I scampered over to Riverside Park to see the commemorative naval parade. The ideal weather, the magnetic crowds, the great beauty of the natural setting -I sat upon the park slope, tree-shaded, and lookt athwart the noble river to the stately Jersey hills -the warships in gala array, saluting with their guns, amid clustering craft, graceful "Half Moon", that moved like a swan upon the water, and the interesting "Clermont", as they approached the water-gate, with music and huzzas, for the reception ceremonies, - all made an animated and memorable pageant.
The "Half Moon" and "Clermont" were approximately facsimiles of the originals or so intended. The "Clermont" however, resembled more the old "North River", the first "Clermont" of the trial trips and voyage up the Hudson in August, 1807, being a third smaller. It was later extended and rechristened "North River". This remodeling has caused some confusion. It is true that Fulton somewhere mentions that "my first steamboat on the Hudson's River was 150 feet long, 13 feet wide, drawing 2 feet of water, bow and stern 60 degrees". Yet he probably had in mind his first registered steamboat and not the trial boat. In Chancellor Livingston's agreement with Fulton it is expressly stipulated that the vessel shall not exceed 120 feet in length. Col. Beckwith, who was familiar with the facts, gives the length as about 100 feet. M. Michaux, a French botanist and careful observer, who was a passenger on the initial return voyage from Albany, says in his account, made at the time, that it was about 25 metres or 82 feet long. The festival boat that is masquerading as a copy of the "Clermont", is it would seem, a copy of the "North River". The spectacle would have been still more interesting, the contrast with the huge ocean steamers and warships of today still more pronounced, if the dimensions of the original, smaller boat had been followed. This perhaps is of minor importance, but significant. The "Clermont" and "Half Moon", so-called, were undoubtedly the compelling features of the celebrations.