City of Providence (Packet/Excursion boat, 1880-1910)

Date

• 1910

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sidewheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet/Excursion boat
• BUILT: Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yards, 1880
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Crushed by ice at St. Louis, January 20, 1910, lost
• OWNERS: Anchor Line; Columbia Excursion Company
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain George Lennox (master, 1882); Frank Perkins and James McMeen (clerks, 1882); George Betts (striker engineer, 1888)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 1126; Built at Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yards in 1880; home port St. Louis, Missouri; original price $71,850. She was owned by the Anchor Line; Captain George Lennox, master with Frank Perkins and James McMeen, clerks, 1882. She blew out a cylinder head on the port engine 30 miles above Memphis June 15, 1888, killing the striker engineer, George Betts. When the Anchor Line quit business, she was sold to Columbia Excursion Company, St. Louis, Missouri; she was converted into an excursion boat and operated there. While at the foot of Olive Street, St. Louis, June 12, 1909, a fire in the cookhouse caused $50.00 damage, but no one was hurt, no passengers on board at the time. On January 14, 1910, while lying in winter quarters just outside city limits, St. Louis, ice shoved her up on the bank. On January 20, while efforts were being made to get her back in the river, the boat suddenly slipped in and sank. It was a total loss, $80,000
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Sunk at St. Louis, Missouri, 1910