Bluff City (Packet, 1896-1897)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: 1896 at Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yards
• FINAL DISPOSITION: November 18, 1897 fire broke out and she burned at Chester Illinois
• OWNERS: St. Louis Anchor Line
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain D.M.Connors
• RIVERS: Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 0655; Original price was $36,500; fire loss was $100,000. The only sternwheeler built by Howard and the last boat of any sort built by them. Original name was to be Austin Corbin but idea was scrubbed close to launch date. She ran the St. Louis-New Orleans trade. The morning of November 18, 1897, she departed St. Louis loaded and with two loaded barges in tow en route to New Orleans. Fire broke out and she was landed at Chester, Illinois and burned. All 40 passengers and crew got to safety. During exceptionally low stages in the Mississippi in 1976, the wreck was exposed, an attraction which drew many souvenir hunters
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Main cabin of the Bluff City