Author: Keith Norrington

In the glory days of the big steam towboats, one of the best-known ones was the Boaz. Built in 1882, the wooden hull measured 193 feet in length by 44… Read More

In 1894, as the Howard family prepared to occupy their newly completed 22-room riverside mansion at Jeffersonville, Ind., the shipyard built the towboat Fritz, named for Capt. Fritz Mentor. The… Read More

The ferry City of Baton Rouge is one of only a half dozen remaining riverboats built by the famed Howard Shipyard & Dock Company at Jeffersonville, Ind. It was constructed… Read More

By Keith Norrington Reportedly one of the hardest-working riverboats in the Southeast, the extant snagboat Montgomery was constructed for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers by the Charleston Dry Dock… Read More

In a 1970 interview with a St. Louis-Post Dispatch reporter, well known educator, river historian and museum curator Ruth Ferris (1897–1993) said that the most rewarding aspect of her lengthy… Read More

For 1864, the daybook records for the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind., list only contracts for the construction of a wharfboat for the Louisville & Cincinnati Mail Line and three… Read More

A recent acquisition to the writer’s collection is this week’s Old Boat Column image of the packet James Howard alongside a wharfboat at the St. Louis levee. In 1870, Capt. Read More

One of this writer’s favorite steamboats built by the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind., was the Sunshine. Launched on May 3, 1888, for a contract price of $21,750, the wood-hulled… Read More

In 1900, the Howard Shipyards built a beautiful and large sidewheeler named Indiana. Constructed on a wood hull measuring 285 feet in length by 45 feet in width, the boat… Read More

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