In the meantime the guests on the Clermont (she carried invited guests only on this trip), finding the river air somewhat chilly, gathered in the cabin, where, by the flickering light of a "candle in its high protecting glass," they discussed "the popular Salmagundi papers," speculated "on Mr. Irving's forthcoming Knickerbocker's History of New York," and finally "began to ply Mr. Fulton with questions about the steamboat and what had led up to it." They also sang "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonny Doon," a favorite song with Fulton.
Twice on the way up the river the Clermont stopped for fuel, one of the deck hands awakening the echoes with the big tin horn on each occasion to let the wood-yard men know that she was about to land. Then, just twenty-four hours after leaving New York, she cast anchor before the home of Livingston. The distance she had covered was 110 miles. She remained here until the next day, and it is noted in the histories that during the evening Livingston and a party of friends boarded the Clermont, where, in a congratulatory speech, he announced the engagement of his niece, Miss Harriet Livingston, to Robert Fulton.
Leaving the next morning at 9 o'clock, the Clermont reached Albany at five in the afternoon. In her run to that city the Clermont had averaged just under five miles an hour, regardless of wind and tide.
While neither freight nor paying passengers had been carried on the trip up, the boat was now advertised as a packet. Thereupon a number of men came on board for a passage to New York, and when one of these tendered the money for the trip, tears came into Fulton's eyes. For more than twenty years he had hoped against hope, and now he saw the fruition of his work.
"Although the prospect of personal emolument has been some inducement to me," he wrote to an intimate friend, "yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting on the immense advantages my country will derive from the invention."
On her return to New York the Clermont began her career as an Albany packet, with regular dates for leaving each end of the route. She was advertised in the Evening Post, of New York, on September 2, 1807, as follows:—
"The North River steamboat will leave Paulus Hook Ferry on Friday the fourth of September, at six in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Saturday at six in the afternoon.
"Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided.
"The charge to each passenger is as follows:—
| Time | |||
| To Newburgh | $3 | 14 | hours |
| To Poughkeepsie | 4 | 17 | " |
| To Esopus | 4½ | 20 | " |
| To Hudson | 5 | 30 | " |
| To Albany | 7 | 36 | " |