The New Hanover Started As A Packet
The last column looked at the Harper C. Patton that was built by Hines in 1954. A recent event involving a bell has prompted this look back at another boat that was an early mainstay in the Hines fleet on the Green and Barren rivers.
When people think about the passenger and freight packets that graced the rivers during the 19th and early 20th centuries, they usually think of the large, majestic steamboats that were embellished with fancy wooden frills and fitted with tall chimneys or smokestacks. However, not all the vessels that handled freight and passengers were like that. Some were small, simple craft that served in the short distances between specific areas.
In 1924, such a boat was built at Madison, Ind. It was sternwheel with a wooden hull that was 85 feet by 16 feet. This hull was 3.6 feet in depth, and the power was provided by a one-cylinder gas engine of 47 hp. Owned by Sanford B. Smith of Bethlehem, Ind., and with a hailing port of Evansville, Ind., it was intended to run in the Madison, Ind., to Louisville, Ky., trade on the Ohio River. It was named New Hanover, replacing an earlier boat of the same name that had burned.
A piece in the March 1996 issue of the S&D Reflector says that a gas packet named Hanover burned and sank, with the 34 hp. gas engine being recovered and placed on a new boat named New Hanover, and that when it in turn also burned and sank, the engine was then placed on this second New Hanover, As so often happens in this old boat research, there are conflicting reports regarding the engine. The June 1996 issue of the Reflector has a photo of the second New Hanover and says that it had a “57 hp. engine”. The List of Merchant Vessels, however, gives the horsepower of the boat new in 1924 as 47, and would carry it that way as long as it ran as a packet.
The New Hanover was a faithful servant in the Louisville – Madison trade, and later it was extended to go up the Kentucky River to Monterey, Ky., some 42 miles above the mouth at Carrollton, Ky. The boat had a main deck with a second deck cabin that appears to be counter-sunk into the main cabin, and behind that rose a single smokestack. On top of the cabins was a fairly large pilothouse, and situated prominently on the deck ahead of it was a large bell.
In 1933, the List of Merchant Vessels shows the New Hanover to be owned by Jesse Singer, also of Bethlehem, Ind., and the port of registry remained Evansville. In 1936, the owner was shown as J.R. Sherman, Louisville, and the home port was also changed to Louisville. In 1941, the owner was listed as James R. Hines, and a whole new life began for the little, short-trade packet.
Hines built a timber structure across the head of the boat, squaring it off and adding towknees. It was thereafter used as a towboat, working on the Green and Barren rivers all the way into Bowling Green, Ky. At some point, the gas engine was replaced by a 100 hp. Fairbanks-Morse diesel engine. It would then plod along diligently, ushering barges up and down those narrow and twisting streams.
A photo in the collection of Barry Griffith shows the New Hanover at “Steamboat Landing” at Bowling Green. Several people are shown on the boat with his grandfather, Capt. David L. Griffith, and the pilot, Capt. Lewis Martin, standing outside the front of the second cabin with engineer John Singer and cook Bunch Johnson standing on the head of the boat. Also on the head are several members of the Hines family, James G., Warren W. and Thomas W. Hines, as well as children Sherry, Joe and Tommy Hines.
The New Hanover was last listed in the 1949 Inland River Record. It was beached out at Bowling Green in high water and dismantled. Capt. David Griffith procured the large bell from the boat and had it on display in his yard. For the past 47 years it had graced the yard of his grandson, Barry, until this past week. He and his wife Faye are moving and downsizing, but the historic bell was removed by a crew from Hines-Furlong who transported it to the HFL facility at Paducah, where it will be restored and placed on display.
