As the 1880s dawned the steamboat company the Anchor Line was at the peak of its prosperity. Both freight and passenger traffic was increasing, but so was the threat of the railroad. The directors decided that what was needed was a combination of unparalleled luxury coupled with lightning speed. To satisfy this need they signed a contract with Howards of Jeffersonville, Indiana, the most prestigious builder of the day, to construct two indentical steamboats to be delivered some time in late 1881. Each boat would cost around $125,000.
The boats were 300 feet long and 84 feet wide. The depth of the hold was 9 feet six inches, and from the top of the pilot-house to the bottom of the hull was 67 feet. The boats were powered by engines with 26 inch cylinders having a ten foot stroke. Both vessels were side wheelers with water wheels 35 feet in diameter, each having 15 buckets. Five boilers, 30 feet long and approximately four feet wide, supplied steam to the main engines. Auxiliary boilers provided steamfor hoisting freight, working the capstans, and operating the pumps.
On December 1, 1881 with Captain Horace Bixby in command, the boat began her professional life on the river.
... on December 13, 1890 the Baton Rouge was sunk at Hermitage, Louisiana. The boat ran over a snag, an old pecan tree about 18 inches in diameter. On December 3, the snagboat McComb had attempted to remove the obstruction, which had sunk the Paris C. Brown a year earlier. The snag at that time was about 8 feet below the surface, and the McComb was unable to retrieve it. During the ten days between the McComb’s efforts and the Baton Rouge’s sinking, the river fell about five feet. To make matters worse the river had formed a cave in the levee at the landing, which in turned had created a strong and uncertain eddy. Captain Bixby later told reporters that the only reason he had even attempted a landing at the Hermitage was because he was under the impression the snag had earlier been removed by the McComb.
LOGES, MAX L. “The Life and Death of the ‘City of Baton Rouge.’” Mark Twain Journal 42, no. 2 (2004): 2–8. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41641543.