What is the oldest steamboat still operating on the Mississippi?
Paddle steamer
The "Belle of Louisville" is the oldest operating Mississippi River-style steamboat and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Previously named the "Idlewild" and "Avalon", the "Belle" is based in downtown Louisville, Kentucky.
Whitehaven Ferry
The Whitehaven Ferry is a passenger and automobile cable ferry that crosses the Wicomico River in Whitehaven, Maryland, located to the southwest of Salisbury. The ferry is operated by the Wicomico County Department of Public Works and runs between the community of Whitehaven in Wicomico County to the north and Somerset County in the south. The ferry can carry a maximum of 6 passengers and 3 cars and has a weight limit of 10,000 pounds. The Whitehaven Ferry operates from early morning until the evening every day of the year except Christmas and is free. A ferry has crossed the Wicomico River in the area since 1687. The current ferry is believed to be the oldest continuously operating ferry in the United States. In 2012, the ferry was overhauled and refurbished.
Steamboats of the Mississippi
"Natchez VII" was built in 1869. It was long, had eight boilers and a 5,500 cotton bale capacity. In its -year service, it made 401 trips without a single deadly accident. It became famous as the participant against another Mississippi paddle steamer, the "Robert E. Lee", in a race from New Orleans to St. Louis in June 1870, immortalized in a lithograph by Currier and Ives. This Natchez had beaten the previous speed record, that of the J. M. White in 1844. Stripped down, carrying no cargo, steaming on through fog and making only one stop, the "Robert E. Lee" won the race in 3 days, 18 hours and 14 minutes. By contrast, the "Natchez" carried her normal load and stopped as normal, tying up overnight when fog was encountered. Despite this she berthed only six hours later. When Leathers finally dismantled the boat in Cincinnati in 1879, this particular "Natchez" had never flown the American flag.
Puget Sound mosquito fleet
The Washington State Ferries system now runs on many of the routes of the mosquito fleet, of which the fine steamer "Virginia V", newly restored, is one of the last remaining vessels. The oldest remaining vessel is the motor vessel "Carlisle II", built in Bellingham in 1917 and still in regular revenue service between Bremerton and Port Orchard for Kitsap Transit. Of the other little ships, Gordon Newell, one of their greatest historians, wrote:
As a modern reminder of the little ships, in 2001, Kitsap County inventoried all the many landings and docks of the mosquito fleet on Bainbridge Island and the Kitsap Peninsula, and developed the Kitsap County Mosquito Fleet Trail for bicycles and foot traffic. Presently, Kitsap Transit operates a passenger-only ferry between Port Orchard and Bremerton. The "Carlisle II" has been designated as a floating museum. It is one of few mosquito fleet-era ferries operating on Puget Sound today. It runs every half-hour beginning on the hour and half-hour on the Port Orchard side and 15 and 45 minutes after the hour on the Bremerton side. One-way fare is $2.00.
Steamboat
Built in 1856, PS "Skibladner" is the oldest steamship still in operation, serving towns along lake Mjøsa in Norway.
Biloxi Yacht Club
The Biloxi Yacht Club (BYC) is located in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA, on the shores of the Mississippi Sound. The BYC is a founding member of the Gulf Yachting Association, as well as the Mississippi Coast Yachting Association. Established in 1849, it is the fourth oldest yacht club in the United States.
SS Lansdowne
SS "Lansdowne" was a railroad car ferry built in 1884 by the Wyandotte Shipyard of the Detroit Dry Dock Company. It was used as a steamer from 1884 until 1970 between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River. At the time of its construction it was the longest ship on the Great Lakes at . It was a sidewheeler, and at the time of its retirement it was the last sidewheeler serving on the Great Lakes, although in 1975 the sidewheel ferry Trillium returned to active service at Toronto after many years in layup. "Lansdowne" was captained by Nick Saad from 1942 to 1969 until his retirement, when he was relieved by his son James Saad-Miller. Capt. Jim Miller was last to man her under her own power, when she blew the cylinder head of the port engine coming out of Detroit Slip on midnight watch in 1970. The engines were from an even older paddle steamer, "Michigan", built in 1878. Lansdowne was thereafter used as a barge, pushed by a towboat, until her final retirement.
Lower Mississippi River Museum
Motor Vessel "Mississippi" is the fourth United States Army Corps of Engineers' vessel to carry that name. It is a diesel-powered vessel with an all-steel superstructure. Powered by two 8-cylinder engines, each of 1860 horsepower, for extra maneuverability it used controllable pitch propellers which allowed it to generate a reverse thrust of over 70% in the forward direction. The four levels on the superstructure are the main deckhouse, second deckhouse, Texas deckhouse, and the pilothouse. It served as a towboat and inspection vessel until decommissioned in 1993. On September 26, 2007 it was moved to its permanent location on land at the museum.
Steamboats of the Columbia River
"Moyie" and "Sicamous" are the only surviving sternwheelers from before 1915. (No sidewheelers survive.) Neither is operational, and both are kept permanently out of water. They are preserved as museums. These are unique as they are both from the time of passenger-carrying steamboats in the Pacific Northwest. "Moyie" is said to be the oldest surviving vessel of her kind, and this is probably true.
Mississippi River
The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was built in 1856. It spanned the river between the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. Steamboat captains of the day, fearful of competition from the railroads, considered the new bridge a hazard to navigation. Two weeks after the bridge opened, the steamboat "Effie Afton" rammed part of the bridge, setting it on fire. Legal proceedings ensued, with Abraham Lincoln defending the railroad. The lawsuit went to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in favor of the railroad.
Missouri River
Boat travel on the Missouri started with the wood-framed canoes and bull boats of the Native Americans, which were used for thousands of years before the introduction of larger craft to the river upon colonization of the Great Plains. The first steamboat on the Missouri was the "Independence", which started running between St. Louis and Keytesville, Missouri around 1819. By the 1830s, large mail and freight-carrying vessels were running regularly between Kansas City and St. Louis, and many traveled even farther upstream. A handful, such as the "Western Engineer" and the "Yellowstone", were able to make it up the river as far as eastern Montana.
Paddle steamer
A few paddle steamers serve niche tourism needs as cruise boats on lakes and others, such as the "Delta Queen", still operate on the Mississippi River. In Oregon, several replica paddle steamers, which are non-steam-powered sternwheelers built in the 1980s and later, are operated for tourism purposes on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers.
USS "Wolverine" (IX-64), built in 1912 as the PS "Seeandbee", was the biggest passenger-carrying paddle steamer ever built, with a capacity for 6,000 passengers; it was converted to a training aircraft carrier during World War II. , also built in 1912 with a capacity for 6,000 passengers, operated on the Hudson River from 1913 until it was sunk in an accident in 1926. One of the last paddle steamers built in the U.S. was the dredge "William M. Black", built in 1934 and now a National Historic Landmark.
Sultana (steamboat)
In 1982, a local archaeological expedition, led by Memphis attorney Jerry O. Potter, uncovered what was believed to be the wreckage of "Sultana". Blackened wooden deck planks and timbers were found about under a soybean field on the Arkansas side, about from Memphis. The Mississippi River has changed course several times since the disaster, leaving the wreck under dry land and far from today's river. The main channel now flows about east of its 1865 position.
Mississippi River
The head of navigation on the Mississippi is the Coon Rapids Dam in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Before it was built in 1913, steamboats could occasionally go upstream as far as Saint Cloud, Minnesota, depending on river conditions.
Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum
A cornerstone of the Museum collection is its excursion boat, the "MV Madaket". The 1910 ferry was originally built on Humboldt Bay with five other similar boats designed to transport Eureka's mill workers to and from lumber operations across Humboldt Bay. Originally christened the "Nellie C" after a member of the Cousins family which built her, she served as a ferry boat from Table Bluff, Fields Landing, Eureka, Samoa and Arcata until 1972 when she was the last to be put out of daily use due to construction of the Samoa Bridge which made the commute faster by car. Now rebuilt and also the oldest operating passenger vessel in the nation still providing passenger service, she provides visitors the opportunity to see Eureka and the port from her decks, while experiencing a narrative of the history of the port and city and the founding and fortune of both and visiting her onboard tavern, the smallest licensed bar in California.
Steamboat
From 1844 through 1857, luxurious palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the North American Great Lakes. Great Lakes passenger steamers reached their zenith during the century from 1850 to 1950. The is the last of the once-numerous passenger-carrying steam-powered car ferries operating on the Great Lakes. A unique style of bulk carrier known as the lake freighter was developed on the Great Lakes. The "St. Marys Challenger", launched in 1906, is the oldest operating steamship in the United States. She runs a Skinner Marine Unaflow 4-cylinder reciprocating steam engine as her power plant.
Montgomery (snagboat)
Montgomery is a steam-powered sternwheel-propelled snagboat built in 1925 by the Charleston Dry Dock and Machine Company of Charleston, South Carolina, and operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. "Montgomery" cleared snags and obstructions from the Coosa, Alabama, Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint, Black Warrior, and Tombigbee Rivers until her retirement from the Corps of Engineers on November 8, 1982. She was restored in 1984 and again in 2004, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. "Montgomery" now operates as a museum ship at the Tom Bevill Lock and Dam Visitor Center in Pickensville, Alabama.
Natchez (boat)
Natchez has been the name of several steamboats, and four naval vessels, each named after the city of Natchez, Mississippi or the Natchez people. The current one has been in operation since 1975. The previous "Natchez" were all operated in the nineteenth century, most by Captain Thomas P. Leathers. Each of the steamboats since Leathers' first had as its ensign a cotton bale between its stacks.
Baltimore Steam Packet Company
The company owned 54 ships during its 122 years of existence, many being small cargo vessels. Originally, all of the line's steamboats were of wooden construction with side paddlewheels and used wood logs for fuel. The first boat with an iron hull acquired by the Old Bay Line was the "Georgeanna", in 1860. By the late 1870s, the company had acquired its last paddlewheel steamers: "Florida", "Carolina", and "Virginia". Later, ships would use coal for fuel until the 1930s, when oil began to be used. Beginning with the "Georgia" built in 1887, their ships used the more modern propeller or "screw" design. The "Georgia" also was the first Old Bay Line vessel to be equipped with electric lighting and steam heating. Passenger ships of the line provided large, lavishly furnished staterooms to accommodate passengers on the overnight trip. The "Alabama" built in 1892 represented the inception of modern shipbuilding and design for the Old Bay Line: the first vessel to have a steel hull instead of iron or wood and propelled by a four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engine, the same type engine that all of the line's later steamers would have. Notable Old Bay Line passenger vessels used in scheduled overnight service, with dates acquired and gross tonnages, were:
SS Appomattox
The "Appomattox" (Official number 116682) was built in 1896 in West Bay City, Michigan by the shipyard owned by master shipbuilder and successful maritime entrepreneur James Davidson who was known for his innovative wooden hulled ships. She was the largest steam powered bulk carrier ever to sail on the Great Lakes. She was built for the Davidson Steamship Company which was also owned by Captain Davidson; she was also one of the last ships he built. At an overall length of the "Appomattox" was one of the largest wooden ships ever built. Her hull was between her perpendiculars. Her beam was wide, and her hull was deep. She had a gross register tonnage of 2643 tons, and a net register tonnage of 2082 tons. She was equipped with a 1.100 horsepower triple expansion steam engine which was built by the Frontier Iron Works Company of Detroit, Michigan. Her engine was fueled by two Scotch marine boilers that were built by the Wickes Brothers of Saginaw, Michigan. They measured by
Steamboats of the Mississippi
Twain himself worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi for a few years. A steamboat pilot needed a vast knowledge of the ever-changing river to be able to stop at any of the hundreds of ports and wood-lots along the river banks. Twain meticulously studied 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of the Mississippi for two and a half years before he received his steamboat pilot license in 1859. While training, he convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him. Henry died on June 21, 1858, when the steamboat he was working on, the "Pennsylvania", exploded.
Mississippi Coast Yachting Association
Founded in 1947, the MCYA is composed of the seven members of the Gulf Yachting Association located in the Mississippi coastal counties of Jackson, Harrison and Hancock. It sanctions various yachting events, including interclub competition in Flying Scots, and serves to coordinate the association activities of its member clubs. One event, the Chapman Regatta is believed to be the oldest consecutively sailed interclub Team Racing contest in the United States. The teams consist of three boats from each of the seven Mississippi Coast Yacht Clubs. The regatta consists of four races sailed in Flying Scots, which are open sailboats that carry a mainsail, jib and spinnaker. This regatta involves a significant number of sailing enthusiasts from one end of the Mississippi Coast to the other, and it annually attracts many of the best sailors on the Coast.
Mohican II
Mohican II is a historic steel riveted hull excursion steamboat located at Lake George in Warren County, New York. She was built in 1907-08 for the Lake George Steamboat Company by the T.S. Marvel Shipuilding Company of Newburgh, New York. She measures in length, in beam, and depth of hold. She was designed for use on Lake George as an excursion vessel, has been in continuous use for over 100 years and is the oldest passenger vessel in the United States.
MS Lofoten
MS Lofoten (call sign LIXN) is a Norwegian passenger and cargo vessel owned and operated by Hurtigruten ASA. The ship was built in 1964. After MS "Nordstjernen" was retired from coastal service in 2012, MS Lofoten became the oldest ship in the current fleet still in operation. It operates cruises around the coast of Norway and sometimes in the Svalbard archipelago. The vessel was declared worthy of preservation in 2001 by the Norwegian Director General of Historic Monuments to preserve Norway's cultural heritage. She has been refitted several times—in 1980, 1985, 1995 and most recently in 2004.
New Orleans (steamboat)
New Orleans was the first steamboat on the western waters of the United States. Owned by Robert Fulton and Robert R. Livingston, and built by Nicholas Roosevelt, its 1811–1812 voyage from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to New Orleans, Louisiana, on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers ushered in the era of commercial steamboat navigation on the western and mid-western continental rivers.
Swan Boats (Boston, Massachusetts)
To this day, the design for the Swan Boat has changed very little. The boats have been periodically replaced throughout the years, and the current fleet operates with six boats. Each boat has kept the original design, with two pontoons, a brass seat atop a paddlebox concealed by a fiberglass swan, and wooden benches for passengers. However, more rows of benches have been added over the years. Five of the boats have six rows, each row holding about three to four adults, and the oldest boat has five rows, which seat two to three adults each. The boats range in age from roughly twenty to over ninety years old. The oldest boat in operation was built in 1918, and the newest was built in 1995.
Comet (1813 steamboat)
The steamboat Comet was the second steamboat to navigate the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. "Comet"s owner was Daniel D. Smith and she was launched in 1813 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, the "Comet" was the first of the Western steamboats to be powered by a horizontal high-pressure engine with its piston rod connected to a stern paddle wheel. Smith was the first to defy the steamboat monopoly in Orleans Territory granted to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton.
MV Mississippi
Motor Vessel "Mississippi" was a diesel-powered vessel with an all-steel superstructure. Powered by two 8-cylinder engines, for a total of 3720 horsepower, for extra maneuverability it used controllable pitch propellers which allowed it to generate a reverse thrust of over 70% in the forward direction. The four levels on the superstructure were the main deckhouse, second deckhouse, Texas deckhouse, and the pilothouse. It served as a towboat and inspection vessel until decommissioned in 1993. On September 26, 2007 it was moved to its permanent location on land at the Lower Mississippi River Museum in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Bellevue, Iowa
Historically, there were hundreds of river steamboats that stopped at the grand staircase that led from the higher Riverfront Park to the riverbank to transfer passengers and necessary goods. The Mississippi River still is an essential route of economical transport for freight (with barges frequently passing), but no longer regularly carries commercial goods or passengers. Towards the mid 20th Century travel by riverboat was no longer the best mode of transportation, and that aspect of travel diminished along Bellevue's banks. In the 21st Century there has been an uptick in leisure cruises on recreations of large historical steamships that act as cruise vessels on the Mississippi. With Lock and Dam No. 12 bisecting the river, these steamships occasionally stop to let off passengers to shop and eat at establishments along Riverview Drive as they wait to lock through.
Elissa (ship)
The tall ship Elissa is a three-masted barque. She is currently moored in Galveston, Texas, and is one of the oldest ships sailing today. Launched in 1877, she is now a museum ship at the Texas Seaport Museum. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
Steamboat
The use of steamboats on major US rivers soon followed Fulton's 1807 success. In 1811 the first in a continuous (still in commercial passenger operation ) line of river steamboats left the dock at Pittsburgh to steam down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and on to New Orleans. In 1817 a consortium in Sackets Harbor, New York funded the construction of the first US steamboat, "Ontario", to run on Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes, beginning the growth of lake commercial and passenger traffic. In his book "Life on the Mississippi", river pilot and author Mark Twain described much of the operation of such vessels.
Steamboats of the Mississippi
"Natchez II" was the first built for Captain Thomas P. Leathers, at Crayfish Bayou, and ran from 1845 to 1848. It was a fast two-boiler boat, long, with red smokestacks, that sailed between New Orleans and Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was built in Cincinnati, Ohio, Leathers sold it in 1848. It was abandoned in 1852.
President (1924 steamboat)
President is a steamboat that currently lies dismantled in Effingham, Illinois. Originally named "Cincinnati", it was built in 1924 and is the only remaining "Western Rivers" style sidewheel river excursion steamboat in the United States. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989, although these designations were revoked in 2011. Her home ports have been Cincinnati, Ohio; New Orleans, Louisiana; Vicksburg, Mississippi; St. Louis, Missouri; and Davenport, Iowa.
Mississippi River
The first steamboat to travel the full length of the Lower Mississippi from the Ohio River to New Orleans was the "New Orleans" in December 1811. Its maiden voyage occurred during the series of New Madrid earthquakes in 1811–12. The Upper Mississippi was treacherous, unpredictable and to make traveling worse, the area was not properly mapped out or surveyed. Until the 1840s only two trips a year to the Twin Cities landings were made by steamboats which suggests it was not very profitable.
USS Sovereign (1855)
"Sovereign" -- a side wheel steamer built in 1855 at Shpusetown, Pennsylvania -- operated on the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the years preceding the Civil War.
MV Mississippi
In 1984, the boat sank during a spring flood with heavy damage to her hull and superstructure, but she was raised and returned after repairs for the 1985 season. The theater operated until 2006. It was evicted from there by the City of Marietta and moved to Neville Island near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 17, 2009. The boat was of particular interest because it was the last of the Texas-deck sternwheelers. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 21, 1983. On the night of February 19, 2010, during severe winter weather conditions, the showboat "Becky Thatcher" sank at its mooring on Neville Island in the Ohio River. Demolition of the boat began on Monday, March 8, 2010. It was completely demolished and destroyed not long after that.
Okeehumkee
The Okeehumkee, also known as "Queen of the Ocklawaha River," was a river steamboat that provided transportation along Florida rivers in the late 19th century. The "Okeehumkee" was equipped with a paddle wheel positioned in the lower stern part of the boat which allowed it to traverse narrow and shallow rivers. The steamboat was the longest-serving craft of its type on the Ocklawaha River route, remaining in service for 43 years.
Katahdin (Lake Boat)
The Katahdin is a historic steamboat berthed on Moosehead Lake in Greenville, Maine. Built in 1914 at the Bath Iron Works, she at first served the tourist trade on the lake before being converted to a towboat hauling lumber. She was fully restored in the 1990s by the nonprofit Moosehead Maritime Museum, and is again giving tours on the lake. One of the very few surviving early lake boats in Maine, and the oldest vessel afloat built at Bath, she was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Blanche Douglass Leathers
Leathers earned her master's license in 1894. Then Leathers began her historic voyage as the first woman steamboat captain on the Mississippi. As the "Natchez" steamed away from New Orleans, tugs, ferries and freighters whistled in salute. Newspaper reporters interviewed her and she gave out autographs. She would make regular trips from New Orleans to Vicksburg and was the only woman captain of a large Mississippi river packet. Leathers said that she often managed the employees, performed boat inspections and then took over as captain when her husband needed. In 1896, the "Public Ledger" wrote that Leathers had taken command of the "Natchez". She worked on the river for 18 years and then retired in New Orleans after the death of her husband. In 1929, she came out of retirement and started piloting a steamboat, the "Tennessee Belle". The last time she renewed her pilot's license was in 1935.
Governor Stone (schooner)
Governor Stone is a historic schooner, built in 1877, in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She is the only surviving two-masted coasting cargo schooner built on the Gulf Coast of the United States, and is only one of five such surviving US-built ships. On 4 December 1991, she was added to the US National Register of Historic Places. One year later, the schooner was designated a US National Historic Landmark. She is presently berthed at Saint Andrews Marina in Panama City, Florida, where she is maintained by a nonprofit group. Sailing tours are regularly scheduled.
Maritime history of the United States (1800–99)
In 1859, the "Memphis and St. Louis Packet Line," which would later become the Anchor Line was formed, principally providing service to these two cities and points in between. The Anchor line was a steamboat company that operated a fleet of boats on the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, between 1859 and 1898, when it went out of business. It was one of the most well-known, if not successful, pools of steamboats formed on the lower Mississippi River in the decades following the American Civil War.
Steamboat
Five major commercial steamboats currently operate on the inland waterways of the United States. The only remaining overnight cruising steamboat is the 432 passenger "American Queen", which operates week-long cruises on the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers 11 months out of the year. The others are day boats: they are the steamers "Chautauqua Belle" at Chautauqua Lake, New York, "Minne Ha-Ha" at Lake George, NY, operating on Lake George; the "Belle of Louisville" in Louisville, Kentucky, operating on the Ohio River; and the "Natchez" in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating on the Mississippi River. For modern craft operated on rivers, see the Riverboat article.
Minnesota Centennial Showboat
Minnesota Centennial Showboat was a traditional riverboat theatre docked at Harriet Island Regional Park on the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The showboat contained an intimate jewelbox theatre that seated 225. The interior was decorated to keep in time with the Victorian Era style commonly associated with showboats. The Minnesota Centennial Showboat was run through a partnership with the University of Minnesota Theatre Department and the Padelford Boat Company. The showboat was a longtime tradition with the University beginning in 1958. The University Theatre utilized the showboat as a learning opportunity for its students to experience professional theatre. The showboat had its final performance in 2016.
Arabia Steamboat Museum
The museum debuted a new exhibit on November 22, 2013. It consists of the engine of the Missouri Packet, the first steamboat to sink in the Missouri River in 1820. The Hawleys excavated its engine in 1987, just outside the small town of Arrow Rock, Missouri. It did not yield many other artifacts, yet still inspired the Hawleys to continue their quest for sunken steamboats. David Hawley told "The Kansas City Star", "An engine like this has never been on display." He believes it to be the oldest extant maritime steam engine in the United States.
Arabia Steamboat Museum
The Arabia Steamboat Museum is a history museum in Kansas City, Missouri housing artifacts salvaged from the "Arabia", a steamboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1856. The 30,000-square-foot museum opened on November 13, 1991 in the Kansas City River Market. The partners of River Salvage Inc., who excavated the "Arabia" and opened the museum, claim to have the largest single collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world.
Visitors to the museum receive a 20-minute guided tour explaining its sinking and recovery. This is followed by a 13-minute film called "Treasures of the Steamboat Arabia", shown in the theater. Next, they view the artifacts on display, as well as an open preservation lab where staff members work on cleaning the many artifacts in storage. Finally, they walk a 171-foot-long full-scale reproduction of the "Arabia"'s main deck, where they can see archival footage of the excavation process and more information about its history, along with the original boilers, engine, anchor, and the skeleton of a mule. Also on display are the 6-ton stern and a reconstructed paddle wheel. The museum additionally offers a gift shop, snack bar, and meeting space.
Lone Star (towboat)
"Lone Star" came off the ways at Lyons, Iowa in 1869. Originally the boat was a wood burning side-wheeler, operated as a short-run packet. In 1890 she was remodeled and reconfigured as a stern-wheeler, for use as towboat. "Lone Star" was remodeled a second time in 1899 at the Kahlke Boat Yards in Rock Island, Illinois. In 1922 she was again altered, for use in dredging operations. On 21 April 1968, "Lone Star" was placed out of service. She was the last running and is now the last remaining intact wood hull paddlewheel boat that plied the Mississippi River.
Team boat
A ferry powered by horses and mules operated on the Mississippi River at St. Mary, Missouri as recently as 1910. The last known horse ferry remained in service until the late 1920s on the Tennessee River.
Iowa (steamboat)
A stern-wheel towboat named "Iowa" operated in the Mississippi 1921-1954; a contemporaneous dredge named "Iowa" also existed 1932-1956.
Comet (steamboat)
SS "Comet" was a steamship that operated on the Great Lakes. "Comet" was built in 1857 as a wooden-hulled propeller-driven cargo vessel that was soon adapted to carry passengers. She suffered a series of maritime accidents prior to her final sinking in 1875 causing the loss of ten lives. She became known as the only treasure ship of Lake Superior because she carried 70 tons of Montana silver ore when she sank. The first attempts to salvage her cargo in 1876 and 1938 were unsuccessful. "Comet" was finally salvaged in the 1980s when the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society illegally removed artifacts from the wreck. The artifacts are now the property of the State of Michigan and are on display as a loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The fate of her silver ore cargo is unknown. "Comet"s wreck is now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum.
Steamboats of the Mississippi
Vessels, on average, only lasted about five years due to the wooden hulls being breached, poor maintenance, fires, general wear and tear, and the common boiler explosion. Early trips up the Mississippi River took three weeks to get to the Ohio. Later, with better pilots, more powerful engines and boilers, removal of obstacles and experienced rivermen knowing where the sand bars were, the figure was reduced to 4 days. Collisions and snags were constant perils.
Millersburg Ferry
The Millersburg Ferry, also known as the Kramer-Crow Ferry, is the last operating ferry on the Susquehanna River. It crosses the river between Millersburg in Dauphin County and Buffalo Township in Perry County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The ferry was established in the early 19th century. The Millersburg Ferry crossing was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Its ferry boat is believed to be the last "wooden double stern-wheel paddle boat" to be operating in the United States. It is owned by the Millersburg Chamber of Commerce and operated by the Millersburg Ferryboat Association from May until October when water levels permit.
Osterville, Massachusetts
The Osterville Historical Museum, established in 1931, preserves the history of Osterville for all of those who love her, past, present, and future. The museum includes the largest collection of wooden boats in Massachusetts and is home to the Crosby Boats. The Crosbys are America's oldest, currently active, wooden boat building family. The Cammett House, the oldest house in Osterville, and the Captain Jonathan Parker House, owned by a 1820s coastal schooner captain, are also located on the museum campus. A series of boat shops includes the 1850 original Herbert F. Crosby boat shop. Every Friday mid-June to mid-September, the museum hosts the Osterville Farmers' Market.
Northwest Seaport
The tugboat "Arthur Foss", built in 1889, is the oldest wooden-hulled tugboat afloat in the United States. In 1898, in response to the Klondike Gold Rush, she transported barges full of gold-seeking miners and supplies up the Inside Passage to Alaska. There are no other Alaska gold rush vessels still operating today. She was cast by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio to play in its 1933 production "Tugboat Annie". In World War II, "Arthur Foss" journeyed south to join the war effort. Before the Battle of Wake Island began in December 1941, she was the last vessel to escape. After the war she was used in the timber industry until retirement in 1968.
Wapama (steam schooner)
Five American wood steamboats survive, although three are much smaller than "Wapama" had been. They are the "Virginia V" (1922) of Seattle; the "Sabino" (1908), a former Maine boat now operated by Mystic Seaport; "Minnehaha" (1906), of Lake Minnetonka, Wisconsin; "Nenana" (1933), an Alaskan stern-wheeler; and the railroad ferry "Eureka" (1890) a museum ship in San Francisco. The first three are screw steamers. The Steamer Virginia V Foundation undertook a $6.5-million stem-to-stern restoration of their charge, which lasted from 1995 to 2001.
Chautauqua Belle
The "Chautauqua Belle" is one of only five operating authentic passenger sternwheel steamboats left in all of North America. The other four vessels are the "Queen of Seattle", in Seattle, Washington; "Minne-Ha-Ha" at Lake George, New York, operating on Lake George; the "Belle of Louisville" in Louisville, Kentucky, operating on the Ohio River; and the "Natchez" in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating on the Mississippi River.
MV Enköping
The Enköping is a Swedish motor vessel, and former steam ship, that was built in 1868 at Oskarshamn. Over the years, she has operated under the names Östhammar, Skokloster, Arholma, Väddö, Glafsfjorden, Södra Skärgården and Soten. In 1948 she was converted to diesel power. In 1990 Strömma Kanalbolaget bought her, and she is now used for tourist services on Lake Malaren and in the Stockholm archipelago. According to her owners, she is the oldest passenger ship still in service in the Lloyd's Register of Shipping, and she is a listed historic ship of Sweden.
American Queen
American Queen is said to be the largest river steamboat ever built. The ship was built in 1995 and is a six-deck recreation of a classic Mississippi riverboat, built by McDermott Shipyard for the "Delta Queen" Steamboat Company. Although the "American Queen's" stern paddlewheel is indeed powered by a steam plant, her secondary propulsion, in case of an emergency and for maneuverability around tight areas where the paddle wheel can not navigate, comes from a set of diesel-electric propellers known as Z-drives on either side of the sternwheel. She has 222 state rooms for a capacity of 436 guests and a crew of 160. She is long and wide.
USS Sea Foam (1861)
However, the Flag Officer was delayed by operations on the Mississippi and, after learning of the strength of the Confederate works at Vicksburg, recalled Porter and the mortar vessels. In returning up the Mississippi River, "Sea Foam" ran aground on a sand bar below New Orleans and remained down river while her sister mortar boats supported Farragut's operations in the vicinity of Vicksburg during June and July 1862.
She did get into action again on the Mississippi in the spring of 1863 when Farragut dashed past the Port Hudson batteries to stop Confederate commerce across the Mississippi from the Red River.
Star of India (ship)
The 1863 "Star of India" is the fourth oldest ship afloat in the United States, after the 1797 , the 1841 "Charles W. Morgan", and 1854 , and is the oldest ship in the world that still sails regularly. Unlike many preserved or restored vessels, her hull, cabins and equipment are nearly 100% original.
History of Natchez, Mississippi
The city's prominent place in Mississippi River commerce during the nineteenth century was reflected by the naming of nine steamboats "Natchez", which traveled the lower river between 1823 and 1918. Many were built for and commanded by the famous Captain Thomas P. Leathers, whom Jefferson Davis had wanted to head the Confederate defense fleet on the Mississippi River. (This appointment never was concluded.) In 1885, the Anchor Line, known for its luxury steamboats operating between St. Louis and New Orleans, launched its "brag boat", the "City of Natchez". This ship operated for a year before being lost to a fire at Cairo, Illinois, on 28 December 1886. Since 1975, an excursion steamboat at New Orleans has borne the name "Natchez".
Baltimore (tug)
Baltimore is a preserved steam-powered tugboat, built in 1906 by the Skinner Shipbuilding Company of Baltimore, Maryland. She is formerly the oldest operating steam tugboat in the United States, but at present does not hold an operating license issued by the US Coast Guard, so is unable to leave her dock at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Key Highway, Baltimore. Her hull is not capable of operating on open water. "Baltimore" was built and operated as a harbor inspection tug, capable of acting as a municipal tugboat for city barges, as well as an official welcoming vessel and VIP launch, an auxiliary fireboat, and as a light icebreaker.
Delta Queen
The Delta Queen is an American sternwheel steamboat. Historically, she has been used for cruising the major rivers that constitute the tributaries of the Mississippi River, particularly in the American South. She was docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee and served as a floating hotel until she was bought by the newly formed Delta Queen Steamboat Company. She was towed to Houma, Louisiana, in March 2015 to be refurbished to her original condition.
MV Mississippi
Steamer "Mississippi" was built in St. Louis in 1882. It was used by the MRC for its spring and fall inspection trips from St. Louis to New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1919 it was renamed "Piomingo" after being transferred to what is now the Memphis District, where it served as a towboat for many more years.
Steamboats of the Mississippi
The first "Natchez" was a low pressure sidewheel steamboat built in New York City in 1823. It originally ran between New Orleans and Natchez, Mississippi, and later catered to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Its most notable passenger was Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolutionary War, in 1825. Fire destroyed it, while in New Orleans, on September 4, 1835.
Steamboats of the Yukon River
The last steamboat in regular service on the Lower Yukon River was the "Nenana", in 1954. The last steamboat in regular service on the Upper Yukon River was "Klondike" ("Klondike II"), which made her last run on July 4, 1955. The last commercial steamboat to operate under its own power on the Yukon River was the "Keno", from Whitehorse to Dawson City on August 26–29, 1960. It was an equipment run to move the boat for purposes of putting it on display at Dawson City. "Keno", the second "Klondike", and "Nenana" survive as museums.
Lewis R. French (schooner)
The Lewis R. French was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992. She is the oldest two-masted schooner in the United States (slightly older than "Stephen Taber", also built in 1871), and is one of only two that has a full keel (the other, the "Governor Stone", is also a National Historic Landmark). She is the oldest sailing ship built in Maine, and the only known surviving Maine-built schooner that has always been home-ported in Maine.
Streckfus Steamers
"J.S." was the first steamboat in service on the Mississippi built especially for excursions. The 1901 excursions on the "J.S." also corresponds to the first regular dance bands hired by Streckfus. Though the "J.S." spent much of its time in St. Louis and St. Paul, it tramped on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. While cruising the Mississippi near LaCrosse, WI on the night of June 25, 1910, Streckfus lost his custom-built steamer, the "J.S.", to a fire allegedly ignited by a drunken and disorderly passenger. Streckfus started offering passenger service on his paddle-wheelers as a part of a new business model, balancing his business between moving freight and moving people.
Yellowstone (steamboat)
From 1831 through 1833, regular runs of the steamboat took advantage of the higher river due to April snow melts and again in June and July by favor of snow melt from the Rocky Mountains. During the winters when ice prevented such travel and late summer when water levels were insufficient for the six foot draft of the vessel, the "Yellowstone" served the cotton and sugar cane markets along the lower Mississippi River. After the final July 1833 run up the Missouri River, the steamboat continued the work along the Mississippi River with Captain John P. Phillips, under new ownership.
USS Mississippi (CGN-40)
By 1995 it was determined her nuclear reactors would need to be refueled, but cuts in the Navy budget ruled out the refueling overhaul the ship would need to continue in service. After serving just 18 years in commissioned service, USS "Mississippi" (CGN-40) was deactivated on 6 September 1996 at Norfolk and was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 July 1997. The ship was prepared and then towed from Norfolk, VA to Bremerton, WA via the Panama Canal from March 1998 to May 1998. The MSC fleet tug executed the initial tow until ex-"Mississippi" was moored at Rodman Naval Station, Panama. The Pacific tow was completed by to the Naval Sea Systems Command Inactive Ships Onsite Maintenance Office, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington from March to May 1998.
Barque
A well-preserved example of a commercial barque is the "Pommern", the only windjammer in original condition. Its home is in Mariehamn outside the Åland maritime museum. The wooden barque Sigyn, built in Gothenburg 1887, is now a museum ship in Turku. The wooden whaling barque Charles W. Morgan, launched 1841, taken out of service 1921, is now a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. The Charles W. Morgan has recently been refit and is currently (Summer, 2014) sailing the New England coast. The United States Coast Guard still has an operational barque, built in Germany in 1936 and captured as a war prize, the USCGC "Eagle", which the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut uses as a training vessel. The Sydney Heritage Fleet restored an iron-hulled three-masted barque, the "James Craig", originally constructed as "Clan Macleod" in 1874 and sailing at sea fortnightly. The oldest active sailing vessel in the world, the "Star of India", was built in 1863 as a full-rigged ship, then converted into a barque in 1901.
Natchez (boat)
The ninth "Natchez", the SS "Natchez", is a sternwheel steamboat based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Built in 1975, she is sometimes referred to as the "Natchez IX". She is operated by the New Orleans Steamboat Company and docks at the Toulouse Street Wharf. Day trips include harbor and dinner cruises along the Mississippi River.
The Natchez IX is modeled not after the original "Natchez", but rather the steamboats "Hudson" and "Virginia". Her steam engines were built in 1925 for the steamboat "Clairton", from which the steering system also came. From the SS "J.D. Ayres" were taken the copper bell, made of 250 melted silver dollars. The bell has on top a copper acorn that was once on the "Avalon" (now known as the "Belle of Louisville"), and on the "Delta Queen". The "Natchez IX" also features a steam calliope that can play 32 notes. The wheel is made of white oak and steel, is by , and weighs over 26 tons. The whistle came from a ship that sank in 1908 on the Monongahela River. The Natchez IX was launched in Braithwaite, Louisiana. She is long and wide, has a draft of six feet and weighs 1384 tons. Natchez IX is mostly made of steel, to comply with United States Coast Guard rules.
Queen of the Mississippi (2017 ship)
Queen of the Mississippi is an overnight riverboat being built by American Cruise Lines (ACL) at Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland for overnight river cruising on the Mississippi , Ohio, Tennessee , and Cumberland rivers in the United States. This riverboat was announced to assume the "Queen of the Mississippi" name after the previous ship was repositioned to the Columbia River and renamed in early 2016. However, the American Eagle quietly assumed the name in 2016 without clarification of whether this vessel will become "Queen of the Mississippi" in 2017 or sail under a different name.
Charles W
The F/V "Charles W", also known as Annie J Larsen, is a historic fishing schooner anchored in Petersburg, Alaska. At the time of its retirement in 2000, it was the oldest fishing vessel in the fishing fleet of Southeast Alaska, and the only known wooden fishing vessel in the entire state still in active service. Launched in 1907, she was first used in the halibut fisheries of Puget Sound and the Bering Sea as the "Annie J Larsen". In 1925 she was purchased by the Alaska Glacier Seafood Company, refitted for shrimp trawling, and renamed "Charles W" in honor of owner Karl Sifferman's father. The company was one of the pioneers of the local shrimp fishery, a business it began to phase out due to increasing competition in the 1970s. The "Charles W" was the last of the company's fleet of ships, which numbered twelve at its height. The boat was acquired in 2002 by the nonprofit Friends of the "Charles W".
Streckfus Steamers
There are at least two descendants of the Streckfus family who are active as river boat captains, at least through 2005. At that time, Captain Lisa Streckfus piloted the "Delta Queen" on the Mississippi River. She is the daughter of riverboat captain, Bill Streckfus, and great-granddaughter of the family's first riverboat captain, John Streckfus, Sr. Lisa's cousin, Sister Mary Jo Manthey, is also a Mississippi River steamboat captain.
Minnehaha Park (Minneapolis)
Beginning in 1828, steamboats began to travel the Mississippi River as far north as St. Paul, the upper limit of commercial navigation on the Mississippi, until two dams and a series of locks were built between 1948 and 1963. The steamboat journey began to attract the attention of tourists, and in 1835 well known artist of American Indian life George Catlin made a trip by steamboat up the Mississippi from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony and Fort Snelling. Impressed with the scenery, Catlin proposed a "Fashionable Tour" of the upper Mississippi, saying:
Showboat
The last showboat to travel the rivers in authentic pattern was the "Golden Rod" in 1943. The glory days of showboats are recalled by the "Majestic", which is docked on the Ohio River in Downtown Cincinnati. Until 2013, she served as a venue for regular performances.
Montana (steamboat)
The Montana was a Missouri River stern-wheel steamboat, one of three "mega-steamboats" (along with its sister boats the "Wyoming" and the "Dakota") built in 1879 at the end of the steamboat era on the Missouri—when steamboats were soon to be supplanted by the nation's expanding railroad network. It was long (excluding the paddle wheel) and wide and weighed 959 tons (870 tonnes), excluding cargo. For a while the "Montana"'s size allowed it to compete with the railroads, but the railroads continued to close the gap. On June 22, 1884, the "Montana" met its fate near Bridgeton, Missouri, when it collided with the Wabash Bridge and/or a submerged tree branch (a snag) by various accounts. To allow its cargo to be unloaded, it was beached on the Bridgeton side of the river, where in the following years its rotting hulk was repeatedly buried and uncovered as the banks of the river shifted.
History of Missouri
The Mississippi-Ohio river systems were navigated by steamboat starting in 1811 with the "New Orleans" steamboat travelling from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to New Orleans. On December 16, 1811, the New Madrid earthquakes smashed the lightly populated region. In 1817, the first steamboat reached Saint Louis. That year, the commerce from New Orleans to the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville was carried in barges and keel-boats having a capacity of 60 to 80 tons each, with 3 to 4 months required to make a single trip. In 1820 steamboats were making the same trip in 15 to 20 days, by 1838 in 6 days or less. By 1834 there were 230 steamboats, having an aggregate tonnage of 39,000 tons, engaged in trade on the Mississippi. Large numbers of flat boats, especially from the Ohio and its tributaries, continued to carry produce downstream. In 1842 Ohio completed an extensive canal system that connected the Mississippi with the Great Lakes. These were in turn connected in 1825 by the Erie Canal with the Hudson River and the Port of New York on the Atlantic Ocean. There was expansive growth of resource commodity, and agricultural products trade throughout the rivers and Great Lakes network.
Oxford, Maryland
Oxford is host to the oldest privately operated ferry service still in continuous use in the United States. The original ferry service, known today as the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry, was established in 1683 and continues today. The ferry links Oxford with Bellevue, Maryland, crossing the 3/4 mile width of the Tred Avon River during a 7-10 minute trip (20 minute round trip).
SS St. Marys Challenger
The SS "St. Marys Challenger" is a freight-carrying vessel operating on the North American Great Lakes built in 1906. Originally an ore boat, she spent most of her career as a cement carrier when much larger ore boats became common. After a 107-year-long working career as a self-propelled boat, she was converted into a barge and paired with the tug "Prentiss Brown" as an integrated tug-barge. Before conversion, she was the oldest operating self-propelled lake freighter on the Great Lakes, as well as being one of the last freight-carrying vessels on the Great Lakes to be powered by steam engines.
Lake Winnipesaukee
The M/V "Sophie C." is the oldest, and one of only two currently operating, floating United States Postal Service post offices. Floating post office service was started on Lake Winnipesaukee in 1892, and currently delivers mail daily to eight of the lake's islands between June and September. The "Sophie C." was built by Boston General Ship & Engine Works in 1945 to temporarily replace the "Mount Washington", whose engines and boilers had been commandeered by the Navy during World War II, and she took over the mail route from the "Uncle Sam II" in 1969.
Economic history of the United States
In the winter of 1811 to 1812, the "New Orleans" became the first steamboat to travel down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. The commercial feasibility of steamboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries was demonstrated by the "Enterprise" in 1814.
Steamboats of the Mississippi
British-born actor William Chapman, Sr. created the first showboat, named the "Floating Theatre," in Pittsburgh in 1831. He and his family performed plays with added music and dance at stops along the waterways. After reaching New Orleans, they got rid of the boat and went back to Pittsburgh in a steam boat in order to perform the process once again the year after. Showboats had declined by the Civil War, but began again in 1878 and focused on melodrama and vaudeville. Major boats of this period included the "New Sensation", "New Era", "Water Queen", and the "Princess". With the improvement of roads, the rise of the automobile, motion pictures, and the maturation of the river culture, showboats declined again. In order to combat this development, they grew in size and became more colorful and elaborately designed in the 20th century. These boats included the "Golden Rod", the "Sunny South", the "Cotton Blossom", the "New Showboat", and the Minnesota Centennial Showboat. Jazzmen Louis Armstrong and Bix Biederbecke played on Mississippi River steamers.
Edward M. Cotter (fireboat)
"Edward M. Cotter" is considered to be the oldest active fireboat in the world and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996. Along with her firefighting duties, during the winter "Edward M. Cotter" is used as an icebreaker on Buffalo's rivers. "Edward M. Cotter" mounts five fire monitors that are capable of pumping . She can often be seen sailing out of her berth and south-west to Lake Erie, returning north through the breakwall and firing her fire monitors.
Missouri River
Water transport increased through the 1850s with multiple craft ferrying pioneers, emigrants and miners; many of these runs were from St. Louis or Independence to near Omaha. There, most of these people would set out overland along the large but shallow and unnavigable Platte River, which was described by pioneers as "a mile wide and an inch deep" and "the most magnificent and useless of rivers". Steamboat navigation peaked in 1858 with over 130 boats operating full-time on the Missouri, with many more smaller vessels. Many of the earlier vessels were built on the Ohio River before being transferred to the Missouri. Side-wheeler steamboats were preferred over the larger sternwheelers used on the Mississippi and Ohio because of their greater maneuverability.
State of Pennsylvania (steamboat)
State of Pennsylvania was a steamboat that was built in Wilmington, Delaware in 1923, along with her identical sister ship "State of Delaware". The steamboat operated on the Delaware River between her homeport of Wilmington and the cities of Chester and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, as well as Riverview Park in Pennsville, New Jersey. Regular service on these routes was stopped in 1960. The boat foundered near her dock on the Christina River in 1970. In 1979, she was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1988, the upper decks were destroyed by a deliberately set fire, and in 2005 the hull was removed and scrapped as a hazard to navigation, all without the ship being raised.
MV Mississippi
M/V "Mississippi" is a United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) towboat operating on the Mississippi River. It is the largest diesel towboat on the river.
Steamboats of the Mississippi
In the forty years to the mid-century mark, there were some 4,000 fatalities on the river due to boiler explosions. Some 500 vessels were wrecked by the peril. Early boilers were riveted of weak iron plate. Vessels at the time were not inspected, or insured. Passengers were on their own. Meanwhile, the explosions continued: the "Teche" in 1825, with sixty killed; the "Ohio" and the "Macon" in 1826; the "Union" and the "Hornet" in 1827; the "Grampus" in 1828; the "Patriot" and the "Kenawa" in 1829; the "Car of Commerce" and the "Portsmouth" in 1830; the "Moselle" in 1838.
MV Mississippi
M/V "Mississippi" is a working towboat for the USACE Memphis District of the Mississippi Valley Division. Ninety percent of the time it is moving barges, equipment and supplies in support of mat sinking operations. It also serves as an inspection boat for the Mississippi River Commission (MRC) during a high- and low-water inspection trip each year. Commissioners hold meetings at river towns in the boat's hearing room, which can seat 115 people. Its dining room has a capacity of 85 people. The boat has 22 staterooms and can handle 150 passengers. The Corps also uses it as a "giant floating ambassador".
Mary D. Hume (steamer)
R. D. Hume was a pioneering businessman at Wedderburn and Gold Beach, then known as Ellensburg. By 1881, he had established a fish cannery and built "Mary D. Hume", to support the cannery operation. "Mary D. Hume" passed through several owners and a number of changes and reconstructions, and served as late as the 1970s, the oldest serving commercial vessel on the West Coast.
The first eight years of the "Hume's" career were spent hauling cargo between San Francisco and Gold Beach. In 1889 the "Hume" was bought by the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, to be used to haul baleen from Arctic waters. She was re-rigged as a brigantine. Her first expedition spanned 1890-1892, catching 37 whales for a cargo worth $400,000. The second voyage lasted from 1893 tp 1899, with relief crews sent to Herschel, Canada. In 1900 the "Hume" became an Alaskan cannery tender for the Northwest Fisheries Company, receiving a new steam engine between 1900 and 1904. After sinking in ice in the Nushagak River she was repaired in Seattle. In either 1906 or 1908 she began work for the American Tug Boat Company of Everett, Washington towing logs and barges on Puget Sound. Her superstructure was altered at this time. A third new engine was installed in 1939, salvaged from the Columbia River lightship. In 1954 a 600 hp diesel engine was installed and the superstructure was altered to its present configuration. In 1973 the "Hume" was bought by the Crowley Maritime Corporation and was used as a tugboat. She was retired in 1977, and reconditioned by Crowley in 1978 prior to her return to Gold Beach.
Mississippi Queen (steamboat)
The "Mississippi Queen" was laid up in New Orleans at Perry Street Wharf after being gutted, initially for renovation. Instead, however, the steamboat was sold for scrap in May 2009. She was towed for the last time to Morgan City, Louisiana on March 24, 2011 to be cut down. Dismantling had begun by April 7 of that year the rumors had stated.
Iowa (steamboat)
The Steamboat Iowa was revered as one of the largest and fastest boats on the Mississippi in the mid 19th century; it is incorporated into the official Seal of Iowa. Built in 1838, the "Iowa" was the first vessel named for the newly formed Territory of Iowa. It weighed 112 tons, could pull 10 keelboats, and it set the speed record from Galena, Illinois to St. Louis in 1843, making the trip in 44 hours, a record that held until 1849.
The "Iowa" was hired by Mormon supporters of Joseph Smith, Jr. as part of a plan to rescue him from jail in June 1843; the excursion was cancelled after Smith was murdered in jail.
The "Iowa" sank after a collision with the steamboat "Declaration" on Oct. 1, 1847 while traveling from New Orleans to St. Louis. This liability for this collision was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court case "John Walsh v. Patrick Rogers" (54 U.S. 283- 1852). However, the "Iowa" was apparently rebuilt, or a new steamboat was later rechristened "Iowa", since similar side-wheeler appeared twice in Barber and Howe's 1865 "Loyal West in the Time of Rebellion", and there is reference to the "Iowa" being used as a troop transport during the Civil War.
Carlisle II
The Carlisle II is the oldest of only two operational examples of a Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet vessel. (The other is the 1922 Steamship "Virginia V".) They were once part of a large fleet of small passenger and freight carrying ships that linked the islands and ports of Puget Sound in Washington State in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Steamboats of the Mississippi
"Natchez III" was funded by the sale of the first. It was long. Leathers operated it from 1848 to 1853. On March 10, 1866, it sank at Mobile, Alabama due to rotting.
Commerce, Mississippi
In 1888, the steamer "Kate Adams", the fastest boat of its type on the Mississippi River, caught fire near Commerce, killing 23. The people of Commerce provided food, clothing and transportation to the survivors.
Mystic, Connecticut
Mystic Seaport is the nation's leading maritime museum and one of the premier maritime museums in the world, founded in 1929. It is the home of four National Historic Landmark vessels, including the 1841 whaleship "Charles W. Morgan", the oldest merchant vessel in the country. The museum's collections and exhibits include over 500 historic watercraft, a major research library, a large gallery of maritime art, a unique diorama displaying the town of Mystic as it was in the 19th century, a working ship restoration shipyard, the Treworgy Planetarium, and a recreation of a 19th-century seafaring village.
MV Mississippi
Steamer "Mississippi was a sternwheel, steam driven boat that was based upon the "Mississippi II". After "Mississippi II" hull and machinery were determined to no longer be serviceable in 1926, a new hull, boilers, and engines were built at Jeffersonville, Indiana. In 1927, the cabin from its predecessor was moved atop the new hull at Paducah, Kentucky. Used for inspecting and surveying along rivers, the boat continued in service until April 1961, when the USACE decommissioned it at Memphis, Tennessee. Converted to a museum and restaurant, it was in Saint Louis, Missouri until 1975. While in Missouri, it was renamed "Becky Thatcher", after the character in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". It was then moved to Marietta, Ohio, where it was the Showboat Becky Thatcher" restaurant and theater in 1975. The boat was purchased by a group of interested citizens who planned to bring her to Marietta as part of the Bicentennial project. Those citizens formed a not-for-profit corporation, the Ohio Showboat Drama Inc., and in the summer of 1976, the musical "Showboat" was performed as part of the town's U.S Bicentennial celebration, by the Mid-Ohio Valley Players on the decks and an adjacent barge with 3,000 people watching from the shore. The boat was permanently moored on the Muskingum River, near where the mouth meets the Ohio River. "Becky Thatcher" was entered into the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service in September 1983.
Georgiana (steamboat)
"Georgiana" was one of the last steamboats on the historic Portland-Astoria run. Her last captain on the run was Arthur Riggs, (1870-1941) whose own life spanned the great days of steamboating on the Columbia and Willamette rivers. Captain Riggs had begun in steamboating in 1887 on the "Isabel" on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers, and later served on many famous boats throughout the Pacific Northwest, including "Multnomah", "Telegraph" and "Telephone". "Georgiana" had been an interim boat between the flamboyant old paddlewheelers and the modern steel excursion boats, and her trade might have continued had it not been disrupted by World War II.
Port of Dubuque
The authentic dual paddlewheeler "Spirit of Dubuque" was designed by Dubuque boating legend Robert Kehl, with the help of a New Orleans marine engineering firm in 1976. The Spirit is a replica of a century-old Mississippi River steamboat with decorative smokestacks, a scalloped canopy over its open-air deck, and Victorian red and gold decor throughout the enclosed dining salon. She made her way north from Louisiana for a maiden voyage in spring 1977, with eight cases of bananas. The bananas, still in their skins, were sliced lengthwise and placed under the boat so it would slide easily down beams into the water upon launching. Captain Walt and Nancy Webster have owned the Spirit of Dubuque since May 1994 and now operate the only Iowa-based sightseeing and dinner cruise paddle wheeler on the Mississippi River. The lady can carry 377 passengers. The Websters cruise from May through October each year, offering sightseeing, lunch & dinner cruises for all ages. They provide specialty cruises for school field trips, fall colors excursions, murder mystery dinner cruises and private wedding ceremonies. For the Websters, the best part of their business is the people. “We bought this business to be able to work together and to work with people who want to enjoy the Mississippi. We’ve met people from all over the world who come here specifically to see the river. We’re very proud to own an authentic paddlewheeler and carry on the heritage of riverboat lore on the Upper Mississippi,” they say.
Grey Eagle (sternwheeler)
Grey Eagle was a wooden sternwheel-driven steamboat that operated on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers in the United States from 1894 to 1930. In 1903 "Grey Eagle" became the last commercial steamboat to run upriver to Junction City, Oregon.
Steamboats of the Mississippi
On February 24, 1830, as the "Helen McGragor" prepared to pull away from the Memphis waterfront, the starboard boiler blew. The blast itself and flying debris killed a number of people, and about thirty others were scalded to death. The boiler explosions and resulting fire aboard the "Sultana" in 1865 (near Memphis) lead to 1192 deaths and is considered the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history.