Senator Cordill (Packet, 1902-1934)

Date

• ca. 1906

Publisher

Vicksburg, Mississippi: Joe Fox

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: 1902 at Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yard
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Sold to Charles Zubik and dismantled in 1934
• OWNERS: Vicksburg and Natchez Packet Company; Royal Route Company, Ltd. (1910); J. Clarence Sheets, D. Grover Gill, Art McDade, and Ike Matlack (1920); Ohio River Transportation Company (1929); Charles Zubik (1934)
• OFFICERS & CREW: George Litman (engineer, 1928); George McElhose (engineer, 1928); Captain Melvin O. Irwin (master); Fred Hoyt (clerk; purser, 1934); Clyde Packard (clerk); Monroe Cross (pilot); J. Hughes Arrighi (clerk, 1904); Captain Fred Hornbrook (master, 1934); Wilson (Wilsie) Miller (pilot, 1934); Fred Way, Jr. (master, 1931; pilot, 1931-34); Herbert Swan (clerk, 1934); Herbert Sidenstricker (clerk, 1934); Norwood Chamberlain (engineer, 1934); Walter Webster (engineer, 1934); Wiley C. Hill (mate, 1934); Alonzo Sewell (2nd mate, 1934); George Beegle (carpenter, 1934)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Kanawha River; Ohio River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 5080; Original price: $28,950. She was a stately looking steamboat with double swinging stages. In the beginning she ran Vicksburg-Natchez tri-weekly and also handled U.S. mail. On January 27, 1903 she participated in a parade and celebration when the Yazoo River diversion put Vicksburg back on the map. In 1912 her engines were replaced by compound non-condensing engines and she was lengthened in 1925 at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. In March 1918 she sank near Vicksburg and was raised by Captain George Wilson. In July 1920 she was sold to a group of upper Ohio River produce dealers and entered the Pittsburgh-Charleston trade. She tended to be accident prone: sank in the Siegrist Riffle; sank in the Kanawha River above Lock 7 after hitting a log; was stranded on Elk Chute Bar on the Kanawha from March 12-April 2, 1927; broke her wheel shaft on the Kanawha River in June 1927; exploded the main throttle valve at Point Pleasant, West Virginia on March 2, 1928, killing her engineers; struck a rock and sank below Lock 18 on the Ohio River in October 1930. In 1929 she teamed up with the Queen City and ran in the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati trade at various times until 1933. Captain Fred Hornbrook then ran her under lease in the P and C trade until she sank after hitting an improperly lowered wicket at Dam 14 on the Ohio River above Clarington on February 5, 1934. Three deckhands were lost. U.S. Engineers raised her and towed her to Marietta. She was then sold to Charles Zubik who towed her to Pittsburgh and dismantled her