Steamboat: A. B. CHAMBERS
Built: 1855
Tonnage: 410
Clemens' Service: 26 October 1859 - 24 February 1860
Co Pilots: James DeLancey and William Bowen
First mate: Grant Marsh
Captain: George Bowman
Fate: snagged and sank near St. Louis, 24 September 1860 [Licensed Pilot]
Steamboats
Steamboat: ALECK SCOTT
Built: 1848
Tonnage: 709
Clemens' Service: 13 December 1858 - 8 April 1859
Pilot: Horace Bixby
Captain: Robert Reilly
Fate: May 1862 acquired by Union and renamed FORT HENRY; later converted to gunboat and renamed LAFAYETTE [Cub Pilot]
Steamboat: ALFRED T. LACEY
Clemens' Service: 11 - 28 July 1858
Built: 1857
Pilot: possibly Barton Bowen
Co-Pilot: possibly George Ealer
Captain: John P. Rodney
Fate: burned April 26, 1860 with loss of sixteen lives including Captain A. T. Lacy's daughter [Cub Pilot] [Licensed Pilot]
Steamboat: ALONZO CHILD
Built: 1857
Tonnage: 493
Clemens' Service: 19 September 1860 - 18 November 1860
and 8 January 1861 - 8 May 1861
Co-Pilots: Horace Bixby, William Bowen, Sam Brown
Captains: David DeHaven and James O'Neal
Steamboat: ARAGO
Built: 1860
Tonnage: 268
Clemens' Service: 28 July - 31 August 1860
Co-Pilot: Isaiah W. "Bill" Hood
[identification of "Bill" Hood was made by researcher Michael Marleau, Nov. 2006]
Captain: George P. Sloan
Fate: Burned in Dog Tooth Bend, near Commerce, MO on Feb. 6, 1865.
Capital, a famous side-wheel steamboat that ran between Sacramento and San Francisco from 1866 to 1896.
The Charles Morgan, on which Clemens traveled from Vicksburg to New Orleans, was destroyed by fire at Cincinnati, Ohio on September 4, 1886.
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.
Steamboat: City of Baton Rouge
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.
Steamboat: CITY OF MEMPHIS
Built: 1857
Tonnage: 865
Clemens' Service: 25 March - 1 or 2 July 1860
Co-Pilot: Wesley Jacobs
Captain: Joseph Edward Montgomery
Fate: boilers exploded May 31, 1866 with loss of eleven lives; towed to Saint Louis, MO and dismantled
Steamboat: COLONEL CROSSMAN
Built: 1857
Tonnage: 415
Clemens' Service: 4 March - 15 March 1857
Pilot: Horace Bixby
Captain: Patrick Yore
Fate: lost in explosion 2 February 1858 at New Madrid, MO with loss of fourteen lives [Cub Pilot]
See Episode
August 19, 1853, 11am, Sam boarded the sidewheeler steamer Cornelia and traveled to Alton, Illinois. The Cornelia was sunk just two years later, running into a rock at Chain of Rocks. Chain of Rocks is a geological formation just below the confluence of the Missouri River and the Mississippi River.
Steamboat: CRESCENT CITY
Built: 1854
Tonnage: 688
Clemens' Service: 29 April - 7 July, 1857
Pilot: Horace Bixby
Co-Pilot: Strother Wiley
Captain: R. C. Young
Fate: 1861 abandoned [Cub Pilot]
See episode
Steamboat: D. A. JANUARY
Built: 1857
Tonnage: 440
Clemens' Service: 16 July - early Aug 1857
Pilot: Horace Bixby
Captain: Patrick Yore
Fate: snagged and lost 18 Dec 1867, Chester, Illinois [Cub Pilot]
April 28, 1861 Sunday – Sam boarded the Die Vernon as a passenger for the return trip to St. Louis, where he spent a few days with his family [MTL 1: 120n2].
Steamboat: EDWARD J. GAY
Built: 1859
Tonnage: 823
Clemens' Service: 2 August - 1 October 1859
Captain: Barton Bowen
Fate: 1863 acquired by Confederacy and taken up Yalobusha River; later burned on 17 July 1863 to prevent capture.
May 12, 1882: Sam and his stenographer Roswell H. Phelps left St. Louis at about 4 PM aboard the Gem City on an overnight packet headed north to that “white town drowsing in the sunshine.”
May 14, 1882 Sunday – The Gem City arrived in Hannibal, Mo. at 7 AM [Ch 53 LM].
August 12, 1842 Friday – Though a boy of nearly seven, Sam probably was witness to the sinking of the side wheel steamboat Glaucus at Hannibal. Such an event would have brought the whole town out to gawk. Sam noted the sinking in his notebook in 1883 [MTNJ 3: 30n52].
The Gold Dust, which took Clemens downriver from St. Louis to Vicksburg,exploded her boilers at Hickman, Kentucky on August 7, 1882.
Mark Twain reprints an account of the explosion of the Gold Dust as chapter 37 of Life on the Mississippi. A New York paper reported forty- seven persons were scalded and seventeen missing.
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.
Grand Turk (Packet, 1848-1854)
BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sidewheel
BOAT TYPE: Packet
BUILT: 1848 at Freedom, Pennsylvania
FINAL DISPOSITION: Burned and lost in the steamboat fire at New Orleans on February 6, 1854
OWNERS: Captain Newman Robirds, St. Louis
OFFICERS & CREW: Captain Newman Robirds (master); Captain Clayton (master, 1852-53); H. S. Phillips (clerk, 1852-53)
RIVERS: Mississippi River; Missouri River
The Hannibal City was a sidewheel steamboat named in honor of Missouri’s leading port north of St. Louis. The sidewheeler belonged to the fleet of the St. Louis & Keokuk Packet Company.
Low Pressure Steamboat “Isaac Newton.” Built in 1846, the steamboat was larger than any previous river steamer. The vessel consumed four tons of coal per hour, a startling amount for the time. The paddle wheels were 39 feet in diameter and the ship was 338 feet long. The steamer was rebuilt in 1855, extending the length to 405 feet. The “Isaac Newton” was unsurpassed in its size and the splendor of its interior furnishings.
Day by Day dates were theorized by Branch for June 25, 1859 to July 28, 1859, not corroborated by Marleau
Noted in Hannibal Journal for May 23, 1853: Sam wrote in “Our Assistant’s Column” of the Journal that the steamboat Jennie Deans had put ashore two children stricken with cholera [Branch, “Steersman” 206n10].
Steamboat: JOHN H. DICKEY
Built: 1857
Tonnage: 403
Clemens' Service: 4 August - 19 October 1858
Pilot: possibly Samuel Bowen
Co-Pilot: possibly Strother Wiley
Captain: Daniel Able
Fate: Survived the Civil War; dismantled July 8, 1865 [Cub Pilot]
Steamboat: JOHN J. ROE
Built: 1856
Tonnage: 691
Clemens' Service: 5 August - 24 September, 1857
Pilot: Zebulon Leavenworth and/or Sobieski Jolly
Captain: Mark Leavenworth
Fate: snagged and sunk at New Madrid, MO on 12 September 1864 with 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry aboard. Losses included 165 horses. [Cub Pilot]
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