Boston’s Swan Boats – Operatic Grandeur
The 149th season of the Swan Boats in the Public Garden Lagoon opens on Saturday, April 18, Patriots Day weekend, and runs daily through September 7.
The iconic boats were create by Irish immigrant couple, Robert Paget and his wife Julia (Coffey) Paget, who launched them in 1877 as a pleasant way for Bostonians to enjoy the city’s botanical park.
A boatbuilder by trade, Robert developed a catamaran propelled by foot pedals to sail around the quarter mile lake. He designed a swan to cover the captain pedaling the boat, an idea inspired by the popular Wagner opera, Lohengrin, featuring a dashing knight who arrives by swan boat to rescue a lady in distress. The boats were an immediate success.
“The swan-gondolas that sail so gracefully on the bosom of the lake are beautiful and picturesque additions to the scene,” wrote The Boston Globe on June 16, 1877, while advocating for the boats to operate on Sunday, the Sabbath.
Robert died in 1878, and for the next 36 years Julia, with four children, kept the business thriving before passing it on to her son John, who passed it to his son Paul.
Today, the Swan Boats are managed by Paul and Marilyn’s daughter Lyn and her cousin Phil, both fourth-generation members of the Paget family. The current fleet of Swan Boats consists of six boats, the oldest of which was built in 1910. The boats are powered by a single driver who pedals while sitting atop a paddle wheel and steering with two ropes connected to a rudder. Each boat holds about 20 passengers and weighs about 6,000 pounds.
The Swan Boats are being added to the Boston Irish Heritage Trail, a collection of public landmarks that chronicle the illustrious history of the Boston Irish dating from the 17th century to the present.
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