Citizens Steamboat, Troy, New York

I came across two of these identical slips of paper in a recently purchased large lot of U.S. covers that I invested in. Both have the same blue, double circle date stamps with the same Dec. 23, 1913 date at center, the same vertical midline seam in the paper, and the same manuscript initials verso (R P J / B S), both penned by the same hand.
I've heard about this steamboat company before and have seen postcards of some of their vessels, and for all I know, these may not even be philatelic in nature (passenger ticket receipts would be one guess that comes to mind).
Anyone have a clue what these are all about?

This caught my attention while I was searching for something else on SCF. I'm an alumnus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, so your post perked my eyes up.

A web search about the subject led me to a couple of links about the steamboat company, which was one of many that ran ships between New York City and Troy, or stopped at Troy between NYC and Albany.

I agree, though it is a guess, for what it's worth, that they are tickets for a ride on the steamboat. The customer would buy a ticket for a trip on the ferry from a ticket agent. A simple date-stamping device on a slip of paper would be an easy and inexpensive way of creating tickets without printing costs. The writing on the reverse would be made by a member of the ships crew when the passenger boarded, validating / cancelling the ticket as having been used. The letters may be the initials of the crew member, an indicator of which boat they were traveling on, or both.

Here are a couple of resources to pursue if you are curious to follow up.

Hudson River Maritime Museum . There was an article on the burning of one of the steamships ... they probably have files about the steamship companies, and artifacts. They accept some research requests online, and they have a library and archives in Kingston, NY. If you don't want to keep the slips, they might like to have them donated.

A historical database of paddle steamers on the Hudsonmakes reference to the Citizens company and its successor.

The archives at RPI probably have some information. I found reference to a research paper written about the Citizen's Steamboat Company that is in their collections.

I would be curious to see if you learn any more about them.