R. Dunbar (Packet, 1895-1918)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: 1895 at Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yard
• BECAME: General Crowder
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Sold to Liberty Transit Company in 1918 and renamed
• OWNERS: Ryman Line; Captain Ralph Emerson Gaches (1913); John W. Hubbard (1914)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain Tom Ryman, Jr. (master); Monroe Cross (pilot)
• RIVERS: Cumberland River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 4668; The timber for the hull was cut on a farm below Nashville and barged to Jeffersonville, aged one year and creosoted--an early use of this form of preservation. She ran upriver trades on the Cumberland River above Nashville. Named for Reuben Dunbar, storekeeper at Greasy Creek, Kentucky. She was very light draft and a big carrier. Her cabin was decorated with Biblical inscriptions and the ladies' cabin contained a large picture of Jesus Christ. Captain Tom Ryman had been exposed to revivalist Sam Jones and the boat's interior reflected his new beliefs. She carried some notable people on the upper Cumberland including Cordell Hull, U.S. Secretary of State, 1933-44. The R. Dunbar once raced the Will J. Cummins from Nashville to Burnside and won. After 1914, she ran Pittsburgh-Charleston managed by Captain William E. Roe until the Kanawha sank, and then Captain Fred Hornbrook took over the trade
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: At the wharf on the Cumberland River in Nashville, left to right: R. Dunbar, J.B. Richardson, Henry Harley