I wish to thank the folks at the NEW ORLEANS STEAMBOAT COMPANY for those portions of the below information within " " marks.
While viewing this page click on this link "Captain Leather's Chair" to listen to a musical ditty about the race between the NATCHEZ and the ROBT. E. LEE performed by Mike Gentry & Ray Leake on their album Take Me To The River. The NATCHEZ Calliope
from YouTube
Name: NATCHEZ
Type: low pressure sidewheel steamboat, heavily built
Size:
Launched: 1823, New York, City. Placed in service between New Orleans
and Natchez. Later placed in the Vicksburg trade.
Destroyed: 1835, Sept 4, New Orleans: destroyed by fire
Area: Miss. R., 1823
Owner:
Captain and pilots: Capt.
Comments: 1825: Gen. Lafayette left N.O. aboard her for St Louis.
"When the Marquis de Lafayette, Marshal of France and a
former general of Revolution War fametoured America as a
guest of the government in 1925, part of his journey
(from New Orleans to St Louis) up the Mississipi River was
made on board the Steamer NATCHEZ.
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Name: NATCHEZ
Type: Sidewheeler Size:
Launched: 1838, Baltimore, Oh.
Destroyed: Reportedly 1842, Nov. 21, sank after collision in Brazil
Area: U. Miss. R. and Brazil
Owner:A group of merchants then the Government of Brazil
Captain and pilots: Capt.
Comments: Brazil converted her into a warship.
THE THOMAS P. LEATHERS BOATS
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Name: NATCHEZ
Type: Sidewheeler Size: 191'
Launched: 1849, Cincinnati, Oh.
Destroyed: 1866, Mar. 10: Mobile: sank from rot
Area: Vicksburg, Natchez and New Orleans
Owner: 1849 - 1853: Leathers, Capt. Thomas P.
Captain(s): Leathers, Thomas P.
Comments: "Her owner and master, Thomas P. Leathers, sold her in 1853
after three strenuous years of carrying cotton. The
NATCHEZ II wound up as a wharfboat at Mobile and succumbed
to old age by sinking . . . "
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Name: NATCHEZ
Type: Sidewheeler
Size: 270' Able to carry 4,000 bales of cotton
Launched: 1853, Dec.
Destroyed: 1854, Feb. 5: Burned to waterline.
Area: Miss. R.
Owner: Leathers, Capt. Thomas P.
Captain(s): Leathers, Thomas P.
Comments: "The third boat to bear the name NATCHEZ had one of the
most ill-starred and short-lived careers of any boat ever
built." "On January 1, 1854 she collided with and sank
the sidewheel packet PEARL below Plaquemine, Louisiana.
Then on Febuary 5, 1854, she burned to the waterline after
having had a commercial life of but six short weeks.
The hull was taken to Cincinnati where like a Phonix
arising from the ashes a new NATCHEZ was born." - - NATCHEZ IV
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Name: NATCHEZ
Type: Sidewheeler Size: 270'
Launched: 1854?, Cincinnati.
Destroyed: 1860: became a wharfboat
Area: Miss. R.
Owner: Leathers, Capt. Thomas P.
Captain(s): Leathers, Thomas P.
Comments: ". . . was awarded a mail contract between New Orleans and
Vicksburg and she became the Saturday boat out of N.O..
She survived until the spring cotton season of 1860 was over.
At that time she was sent to Louisville to tow the hull
of yet another NATCHEZ (to become NATCHEZ V) to New Orleans
for completion.
Her engines were placed in the new boat and she was sent to
Baton Rouge where she served as a wharfboat.
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Name: NATCHEZ
Type: Sidewheeler
Size: 273'; cargo capacity: 5.000 bales of cotton
Launched: 1860, Aug.
Destroyed: 1863,
Area: Miss. R.
Owner: Leathers, Capt. Thomas P.
Captain(s): Leathers, Thomas P.
Comments: 1861: "Jefferson Davis boarded at Brierfield Plantation
for a voyage to Montgomery where he was sworn in
as the Confederate president."
1861, Apr. "Impressed into Confederate Navy as a troop
carrier, she was sent up the White River in April
1861 to transport troops to Memphis. Then she
served as a cotton-clad armed boat on the Yazoo
River. There, 25 miles above Yazoo City on March
13, 1863, she was deliberately set on fire by her
crew and destroyed to prevent capture by Union forces.
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Name: NATCHEZ Type: sidewheeler Size: 301"
Launched: 1869, Cincinnati
Destroyed: 1879
Area: Miss. R.- Natchez to New Orleans
Owner: Leathers, Capt. Thomas P.
Captain(s): Leathers, Thomas P.
4. 1870, Oct. Richard Holmes
Comments: From The Wheeling Register, Monday, March 31, 1897
Comments: 1870, early June:
". . . the NATCHEZ went up to St Louis in 3 days, 21 hours, and 58 minutes,
this breaking a long standing record set by the J. M. White in 1844. This
set the stage for the famous race that began in New Orleans on June 30, 1870."
1870, June 30: "NATCHEZ left New Orleans a few minutes
behind the ROBERT E. LEE, which had refused all fright
and even removed the glass windows from the pilothouse.
The NATCHEZ, on the other hand, carried her normal
complement of passengers and freight and continued
to make regular stops on her way to St. Louis.
Despite lithographs depicting the two racers side
by side, such was not the case, for the boats were
never in sight of each other.
Delayed by fog and fuel stops, the NATCHEZ steamed
into St. Louis six and a half hours after the
ROBERT E. LEE set a record
of 3 days, 18 hours and 14 minutes. Despite her loss,
the NATCHEZ made 401 trips between New Orleans and
Natchez during the nine and a half years that she
ran on this trade.
Contemporary accounts claim that she ran on the water
with the grace and ease of a swan. One of her tall
smokestacks contaimned her whistle, which sounded like
an enormous bumblebee. As Captain Leathers put it,
'The whistle is for awakening the people on the shore,
not on the steamboat.'"
1879: "When she was taken to Cincinnati to be dismantled
in 1879, she could claim the distinction of never
having flown the American flag. Her hull was taken
to the Refuge Oil Mill, where it was used as a
wharfboat.
Made run N.O. to Natchez, 1870, 0/17/17
Made run N.O. to Cairo, 1870, 3/1/0
Made run N.O to St. Louis 1870, 3/21/58
Comments: From The Wheeling Register, Monday, March 31, 1897
The Natchez VII had a penchant for racing. One boat she raced was the ECLIPS.
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From River Musician, John Hartford's Web Site.
Name: NATCHEZ
Type: Sternwheeler
Size:
Launched: 1879, Aug. 2 by Coulter and Son at Cincinnati, Oh.
Destroyed: 1889, Jan. 1. Sank from lack of maintainance
Area: New Orleans and Miss. R.
Owner(s): Leathers, Capt. Thomas P.
Captain(s): Leathers, Thomas P.
Comments: " . . . designed skylight glasses depicting 22 indian
portraits. On the forward skyward bulkhead was a scene
at Natchez with Indians worshiping the rising sun and on
the aft bulkhead was and Indian queen jumping from a bluff.
1885, March 4: "Captain Leathers declared that the war was
over and fired his signal cannon from the NATCHEZ at
Vicksburg. He raised the American flag, the first time
one had flown from one of his steamers since being hauled
down on NATCHEZ Vin 1860.
This NATCHEZ was laid up due to lack of business in 1887.
Two years later on January 1, 1889, she sank at Stack Island
near Lake Providence, Lousiana. Although much of her cabin
equipment was salvaged, sand washed under her hull and she
broke up.
Comments: Photo and more history on NATCHEZ VII
Back to N Listings Name: NATCHEZ Type: Sternwheeler Size: Length: 225'; Width: 40'; Draft: 8' Launched: 1891 at the Howard Shipyard in Jeffersonville, Indiana Destroyed: 1918 0r 19: Broken up for salvage Area: Owner(s): Leathers, Capt. Thomas P. and Leathers, Capt. Bowling S. and wife Leathers, Capt. Blanch Douglass Captains: Leathers, Bowling S. ( Thomas P. Leather's son) Leathers, Blanch Douglass (Bowling's wife) Duke, William A. "By 1900, Captain B.D. Leathers (Blanch) was listed as the master of this NATCHEZ, and B. S. Leathers (Bolling) was listed as the clerk." Comments: "Since Captain Leathers was getting on in years, command of this boat fell to Captain Leather's son, Captain Bowling S. Leathers. Captain Bowling Leathers was married to Blanch Douglas Leathers who, in 1894, became one of the few women to obtain a master's licence. 1896, June: at the age of 80, Captain T. P. Leathers died of injuries sustained after being struck by a bicyclist on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. Operation of his steamers fell to his son and his daughter-in-law. The only "sternwheeler" named NATCHEZ under Captain Leather's ownership, this eighth(? 10th including 2 earlier boats Leathers did not own) vessel of the name had a career full of misadventures, including two sinkings." 1896, Nov.: Due to dried hull seams, sank 3 mi. above Natchez. Cargo was 1,700 bales of cotton and 8,757 sacks of seed. 1897, Early Feb.: Hit shore at Cottonwood, 20 mi below Vicksburg. Tore away her jack-staff and toppled her stacks. 1899, Nov.: Sank at Ford's crossing, 12 miles below Natchez. 1914: Got new boilers. 1915: Was taken by U.S. Marshalls, then sold to Duke, Capt. William A. for $6,500. 1919: Broken up Comments: The Thomas P. Leathers Papers From River Musician, John Hartford's Web Site.
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Click on steamboat above for larger image
Name: NATCHEZ IX Web Site
Type: Sternwheeler Size: length:265'; width: 44'; Draft: 5' 6"; Passengers:1,600 Engines: tandem compound condensing steam "Like old time packets, the engines for this boat came from another boat: the U.S. Steel Company's towboat, CLAIRTON (formerly the YOUGHIOGHENY, before that the B.F. FAIRLESS)" Designer: Lawrence Bates, noted riverboat captain, architect and author. Launched: 1975 by Bergeron Shipyards, Braithwaite, Lousiana Destroyed: still operating Area: New Orleans, La. Owner: New Orleans Steamboat Company Web Site
#2 Canal Street, Suite 1300 New Orleans, Louisiana Captains: Comments: One of only six remaining true steam-powered paddlewheelers. Patterned after the old packets VIRGINIA and HUDSON. Bell with 250 silver dollars once belonged to packet boat QUEEN CITY. "Unlike the packets of the old days, the only wood in this NATCHEZ is her main bar and her paddlewheel buckets. Her steel hull is divided into 28 watertight compartments making her safe and sound. Her thrity note calliope was modeled after earlier models used on steamboats. She can accomodate 1600 passengers in luxury and air-conditioned comfort - something that was never heard of in packet boat days.4. She Takes The Horns, by Fredrick Way, Jr.
From The Gallery
Of
Michael Blaser
