steamboat

With Election Day approaching and campaigns heating up, the Old Boat Column this week features a steamboat named for a famous politician. Erastus Wells was born in 1823 at Sackets… Read More

One of the best known and most revered steamboats of all time was the cotton packet America, owned and operated by Capt. LeVerrier (“L.V.”) Cooley. A trim steamboat with beautiful… Read More

The river community is saddened with news of the passing of Letha Jane Greene, 77, on June 20, at Cincinnati, Ohio. Youngest of the four children born to Capt. Tom… Read More

A lucky and recent acquisition is this week’s main image of a pretty packet boat that was popular in the annals of Ohio River steamboating. The Tell City was constructed… Read More

There was grand excitement along the St. Louis levee 150 years ago when the steamer Rob’t. E. Lee triumphantly arrived on July 4, 1870, hours ahead of the Natchez after… Read More

Among the beautiful big sidewheelers built on the Ohio River at Jeffersonville, Ind., was the palatial packet Katie. Built in 1871, the steamboat was not constructed by the Howard Shipyard,… Read More

A recent acquisition to the writer’s collection is this vintage postcard of the steamer Falls City, postmarked June 18, 1909. Built in 1898 at Cincinnati for the Louisville & Kentucky… Read More

The Belle of Louisville is looking for donations and gift certificate purchases to stay afloat financially. The 1914 paddlewheel-driven, steam-powered vessel is the last operating riverboat of its kind anywhere… Read More

The Rob’t. E. Lee was built at New Albany, Ind., in 1866, at what was known as the lower yard of Dewitt Hill. A wooden-hulled sidewheeler measuring 285 feet in… Read More

Of the many beautiful steamboats owned by the famed Anchor Line, all were sidewheelers save for one. Built at a cost of $36,500 by the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind.,… Read More