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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Flocking back to the pond for their 145th season, Swan Boats at the Boston Public Garden make their grand return on Saturday.
With a grey overcast overhead, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and her two sons took the first ride of spring, looping around the lagoon.
According to the Swan Boats, the business began back in 1877 when it introduced the new kind of vessel called the catamaran, a paddle wheel arrangement that was foot propelled.
The founder of the Swan Boats Robert Paget allegedly came up with the idea from watching the opera Lohengrin, which tells the medieval German story where a knight of the Grail crossed a river drawn by a swan to defend the innocence of a princess.
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These days, the fourth generation of the Paget family run the Swan Boats nearly a century and a half later, preserving Robert's vision all those years ago. The oldest boat that the business has is 112-year-old, while the youngest comes in at around 29-years-old.
WBZ's Mike Macklin reports.
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