W. W. (Excursion boat, 1905-1922)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Excursion boat
• BUILT: 1882 at Dubuque, Iowa
• FORMERLY: City of Winona
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Sank and was lost during a windstorm at the head of Brush Creek Island on the Ohio River in the spring of 1922
• OWNERS: Captain John Streckfus (1905); Captain Frank T. Rounds (1917); John F. Klein (1920); Captain Ralph Emerson Gaches (1921)
• OFFICERS & CREW: D.C. Dillon (engineer, circa 1912); Arthur Fayerweather (2nd engineer, 1908-1910); "Bass" Black (engineer, 1914); Frank O'Kell (engineer, 1915)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Ohio River; Cumberland River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 5666; Renamed in 1905 after being rebuilt. Named in honor of Captain Walter Wisherd. The W.W. and the J.S. were popular excursion boats on the upper Mississippi River. Captain Rounds bought the W.W. in 1917 to replace the Golden Girl. She ran excursions and in the summer of 1918 was in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1920 owner John Klein used her to tow barges loaded with pipe from the upper Ohio to the lower Mississippi. In 1921 she was bought by Captain Gaches who used her to tow his showboat. The show was boycotted at one point by people of of Crown Hill, West Virginia who assumed that the name of the boat, "W.W.", stood for Woodrow Wilson. Captain Gaches replied that the initials stood for "Western Waters" and so the show went on. The W.W. was lost in a storm in the spring of 1922
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: At shore with excursion barge ACME at her side