Lorena (Packet, 1895-1916)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: 1895 at Harmar, Ohio at Knox Yard
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Burned while at Point Pleasant, West Virginia for repairs on February 2, 1916
• OWNERS: Ohio and Mississippi Navigation Company (1912); Captain Fred Hornbrook (1916)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain George Wallace (master, 1896); George Conant (pilot, 1896); William Richardson (pilot, 1896); Dana Scott (clerk, 1896); Charles Beckwith (clerk, 1896); Clawson (engineer, 1896); Gordon (engineer, 1896); Lewis Clark (engineer, 1908); Luther Miller (engineer, 1908); Captain William Richardson (master, 1908); Captain Henry Kraft (circa 1914); Ben Richardson (engineer); John W. Rice (steward); Elizabeth Olinger (steward, circa 1900)
• RIVERS: Ohio River; Muskingum River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 3560; She replaced the Highland Mary in the Pittsburgh-Zanesville trade at the beginning of her career. Named for the heroine of a sentimental song popular during the Civil War. Captain Conant, Lewis Clark and Luther Miller all died while at work on the boat in the early 1900s. The Lorena was one of the first packets to be locked through old Merrill Lock and Dam No. 6 on August 5, 1904. She was also the first boat through the Taylorsville Lock on the Muskingum River in April 1896. In July, 1910 she was stranded on the bar at Cox's Riffle near Wellsburg, West Virginia and by July 25, she was high and dry. Several weeks passed before she could set sail again. Her trips on the Muskingum ended with the flood of March 1913. She then ran Pittsburgh-Parkersburg and, in 1915, she briefly ran Pittsburgh-Cincinnati. In mid-1915, she damaged her hull at Possum Bar near Clarington, Ohio and was laid up at Pittsburgh. Captain Hornbrook, in early spring 1916, took her to Point Pleasant for repairs and it was there that she burned
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: The Lorena (left) and and unidentified boat (right) in the lock at Marietta, Ohio