Peoria (Packet, 1914-1918)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: 1914 at Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yard; completed at St. Louis
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Ice broke and snapped her mooring lines while she was at winter quarters at Docks Nest, Paducah in January 1918. She traveled some distance downriver, minus crew, and her capsized hull was eventually found several miles away
• OWNERS: Eagle Packet Company
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain Buck Leyhe (master, 1914, 1916, 1917); Fred Buthman (chief engineer, 1914); Captain John Simmons (master, 1915)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Illinois River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 4445; Her construction commenced at Howard Ship Yard in Jeffersonville, Indiana. She was towed from there, incomplete, by the Dorothy Barrett to St. Louis where she received her engines and finishing. Original price varies: one source lists $26,000, another source says $100,000. She was planned and built under the supervision of Captain Henry Leyhe. Home port or owner's residence circa 1913, St. Louis, Missouri. Her trial trip was made in October 1914 beginning at St. Louis and proceeding to Alton, Illinois. She ran St. Louis-Peoria. In 1916 and 1917 she made Mardi Gras trips. Captain W.C. Lepper found her capsized hull in 1918. The boilers were recovered and put on the Golden Eagle. Her machinery (originally from the towboat Ed Roberts) was lost