two hours behind schedule for Metropolis. A new crankshaft was manufactured and fitted to Commonwealth in the "remarkably short time" of ten days, and she resumed service on or about the 18th. In October and November 1855, the essayist Henry David Thoreau made a couple of voyages aboard Commonwealth to New York City. Of the second, Thoreau remarked that while the weather was "so windy inland", the vessel had "a perfectly smooth passage" and himself "about as good a sleep as usually at home." In June 1857, a woman reportedly fell overboard from Commonwealth at the New London wharf, and could not be extricated from the water for half an hour, during which time the buoyancy of her hoop dress was said to have saved her from drowning. In August 1858, Commonwealth suffered a collision with the schooner Sea Lark, but only minor damage was done to either vessel. In early 1859, the Norwich & New London Steamboat Company attempted to negotiate a larger share of the proceeds with their partner, the Norwich & Worcester Railroad. With the failure of these negotiations, the Steamboat Company announced its intention to replace Commonwealth with an inferior vessel on the expiration of their existing contract. Commonwealth consequently made her last run from Allyn's Point on Monday, January 2, 1860. A few days later, she was sold to the New Jersey Steamboat Company (Stonington Line), which placed the vessel on the New York to Stonington, Connecticut, route. Commonwealths most serious accident in terms of human cost occurred on the morning of December 19, 1860, about 5am. While waiting for daylight, to pass safely through Hell Gate, a defective plate in Commonwealths steam chimney burst, allowing steam into the starboard fireroom. When the firemen opened the door to make their escape, a gust of wind diverted the steam into a group of passengers on deck. A family of four from Dublin, the Blakes, were all scalded, the mother so badly she was not expected to recover. A young colored waiter who ran out on deck at the same moment was fatally scalded by inhalation. Two other passengers were also scalded. At an inquest held two days later, the cause of the explosion was determined to be corrosion of the steam chimney, and an accidental finding returned. Civil war era, 1861–1865 With the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, the U.S. government requisitioned