H.W. Buttorff (Packet, 1896-1911)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: 1896, Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yards
• BECAME: John Lee, 1911
• OWNERS: 1896: Ryman Line; 1911: Lee Line
• OFFICERS & CREW: 1901: Captain James S. Tyner, Al Bishop and George Bitroff (clerks), Bud Yarbrough and B. Collishaw (pilots), Bedford Harris and Allard Jones (enginers), Dave and Lonnie Martin (mates); 1908: Captain Hunter; 1909: Harry L. Wills (first class pilot)
• RIVERS: Cumberland River; Ohio River; Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 2509; The H.W. Buttorff was named for the founder of Phillips & Buttorff Company. Original price, $7,000. She was involved in the Nashville-Paducah trade. On March 5, 1899 she was blown against the stone piers of a bridge at Clarksville, Tennessee and sank. Appeared to be a total loss, but was raised. Value at the time, $15,000. Captain J.S. Tyner spent his honeymoon aboard, was master 15 years, and his wife lived aboard for eight of those years. Under Captain Hunter on November 19, 1908, she was the first boat to jump a dam on the Cumberland. January 9, 1909, while enroute down the Mississippi River near Plum Point, Tennessee, she struck a hidden obstruction causing floor timbers and bottom planking to break. Estimated damage, $500. On April 20, 1909 she collided with the J.B. Richardson on the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky, slightly damaging the Buttorff. Pilots on watch on both boats were found at fault. Harry L. Wills, the first class pilot on the Buttorff had his license suspended 10 days by the steamship inspection service. She was purchased by the Lee Line in January 1911 which renamed her John Lee
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Left to right: H.W. Buttorff; Tarascone; Jewell at Evansville Indiana