Old Boat Column

On January 21, the river fraternity lost one of its most dedicated and notable members with the passing, at age 106, of Mary Ackerman Otte, of Quincy, Ill. She was… Read More

The Mamie S. Barrett was a 1921 product of the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind. Constructed for Oscar F. Barrett, of Cincinnati, on a steel hull measuring 146 feet in… Read More

Happy New Year! We begin the Old Boat Column for 2020 with one of the beautiful steamboats operated by the famous Diamond Jo Line, the steamer Quincy. Built at Dubuque,… Read More

In 1910, the Howard Shipyards at Jeffersonville built a trim sternwheeler named Nashville to run in the Evansville–Nashville–Paducah trade for W.W. Parminter of Nashville, Tenn. The wood-hulled riverboat measured 155… Read More

This week, the Old Boat Column presents a photo of the Falls City. Built in 1898 at Cincinnati for the Louisville & Kentucky River Packet Company, the sternwheeler ran between… Read More

Built in 1902 by the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind., the Stacker Lee was owned by the famous Lee Line of Memphis. Constructed at a cost of $21,600 on a… Read More

Built in 1879 for the Missouri River trade, the Montana was a packet with a wooden hull measuring 250 feet in length by 48.8 feet in width. Displacing 959 tons,… Read More

Third in a line of government steamboats to carry the name, the Mississippi had a unique beginning. A new steel hull, built by the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind., in… Read More

This week, the Old Boat Column presents a recently-acquired image of the steamboat Dubuque. This large sternwheeler was originally known as the packet Pittsburgh. Built in 1879 by the Cincinnati… Read More

Several steamboats carried the name of Alton, paying tribute to the Illinois city on the Upper Mississippi River above St. Louis. Undoubtedly the best known and most attractive riverboat to… Read More