Old Boat Column

When the Ryman Line, which operated packet boats out of Nashville to the upper Cumberland valley, went bankrupt in the fall of 1916, its assets included the Henry Harley. This… Read More

Well known on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers as a salvage boat, the T.F. Eckert was built at Cincinnati in 1869. Constructed at a cost of $40,000 on a… Read More

Named for a Cincinnati coal dealer, the Tom Dodsworth was built in 1871 at Pittsburgh by James A. Blackmore. Capt. George McCallam was the first master of the big sternwheeler,… Read More

One of three steamboats to carry the name, the Des Arc was built at Paducah, Ky., in 1862. Records state that the wooden hull (205 feet in length by 31… Read More

It hardly seems possible that five decades have passed since this writer, as a 15-year-old, first visited the famous steam towboat Sprague in June of 1969. I shall never forget… Read More

For a contract cost of $17,000, the packet Electra was ordered from the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1897. The sternwheeler was constructed on a wooden hull measuring 170… Read More

Named for the daughter of a Cincinnati furniture manufacturer, the sidewheel packet Emma Duncan was built in 1860 at Pittsburgh. Constructed on a wooden hull measuring 180 feet in length… Read More

This week’s Old Boat Column image is a recent acquisition picturing the New Orleans wharf. Although not all of the steamboats can be identified, the two vessels at the far… Read More

Seven decades ago, on May 11, 1949, the steamer Avalon arrived at my hometown of New Albany, Ind., just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky. The last of the… Read More

Originally named Irene D, this former rafter was built in 1888 at Rock Island, Ill. It was constructed on a wooden hull that measured 133.5 feet in length by 29.6… Read More