W. H. Grapevine (Packet, 1898-1903)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: 1898 at Mound City, Illinois
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Broke loose in ice at Cincinnati, struck the C. and O. Railroad bridge and sank on December 25, 1903
• OWNERS: Iron Mountain Railroad; Captain Dos Davis (1903)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain W.L. Heckmann; E.M. Baldwin (pilot); Roy Coulter (pilot); Bill Thompson (pilot); Tom La Barge (pilot); W.L. Heckmann, Sr. (pilot); Sam Clifford (engineer); Bert Coulter (entineer); Fred J. Heckmann (engineer); Frank Blaske (engineer); Bill Kay (engineer)
• RIVERS: Missouri River; Ohio River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 5636; Machinery and part of the upper works came from the J.A. Woodson. Named for Captain William H. Grapevine, superintendent of Missouri-Pacific's transfer boats. She was designed for White River, Arkansas to connect with their trains. After a short time there, she went to the Missouri River and ran St. Louis-Rocheport. In 1900 she ran excursions at Kansas City under charter to A.F. Baughman. After being sold to Captain Davis in 1903, she ran Cincinnati-Ironton, Ohio. During the 1903 flood, she saved the lives of 200 stranded river dwellers and property estimated at two million dollars. She sank in December 1903. Her machinery went to the Big Sandy boat Eclipse