The ‘Scapegrace’ Packet Kentucky
The packet Kentucky, built at Madison, Ind., in 1907, holds the distinction of having earned what is possibly the most caustic description of a vessel by Capt. Frederick Way Jr. in his Way’s Packet Directory. The Kentucky was built with a wood hull, 185 by 33 feet, and the engines were 15’s – 5-foot stroke fed by three boilers 38 inches in diameter and 20 feet in length. The machinery and boilers had originally been on the Levi J. Workum, built at Levanna, Ohio, in 1890. In fact, the listing for the Workum states that it was rebuilt and enlarged to actually become the Kentucky.
Capt. Way describes the Kentucky in such a fashion as to leave no doubt that he was no fan of the boat: “She drove away more business and made more money than any other boat of her size and time. For some abstruse reason her cabin was designed in a long wedge shape so that the lengths of the berths got shorter as you proceeded aft, some of them barely 5’6” long, and added to this novelty she one time got in a “breeze,” and the cabin was shifted out of plumb and leaned in a uniform stagger, creating an optical illusion seen nowhere else except in a “Fun House” of a pleasure park. She was proverbially slow, sloppy, and if her smokestacks ever stood straight, I never heard of it. Her redeeming feature was in economy of operation. No money ever was spent on her. … This scapegrace was pawned off on an unsuspecting public without one whit of an apology from the management, nor any warning to brace the unwary, and plodded along making enemies and money.”
This “management” were the owners, the Louisville & Cincinnati Packet Company. The Kentucky was usually in the Cincinnati- Madison trade, and often ran Cincinnati to Louisville. In 1907, the boat was blowing the whistle from the Telegraph (WJ, May 2), and after 1918 carried the Bonanza whistle, which had been on the City of Cincinnati when it was crushed by ice. Still later, according to Way’s, the Kentucky carried an imitation of the T.N. Barnsdall whistle.
The L&C Packet Company went out of business in 1932. Of the Kentucky at this time, Capt. Way writes, “The Greene Line took her over and quietly chloroformed her.” When the Kentucky was dismantled, some of the machinery went to the towboat Eclipse, which was later renamed John G. Britton.
Some years ago, my wife noticed a blue pilot’s cap for sale on Ebay and purchased it for me. The lining shows that it is from the Cincinnati Regalia Company, which in the 1920s and 1930s often placed ads in The Waterways Journal depicting these caps. The filigree embroidery on the front is a gold pilot wheel with a red ribbon across that proclaims in gold script “KENTUCKY.” Below this and above the visor are large letters to identify the wearer as “PILOT.” It is interesting to note in these ads that the price of the cap and embroidery fell somewhat between ads in 1930 and those in 1932, due perhaps to the effects of the Great Depression and reductions in pilot wages. Even if it were utilized by a pilot on a “scapegrace” of a packet, it is a prized possession to me today.
Caption for top photo: The packet Kentucky underway. (David Smith collection)
