Eclipse (Rafter/Packet, 1882-1917)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Rafter/Packet
• BUILT: LeClaire, Iowa, 1882
• FINAL DISPOSITION: December 8, 1917, Neville Island, Ohio River, burned and sank
• OWNERS: 1882: Lindsay and Phelps Lumber Company; 1886: Cable Lumber Company; 1904: Captain John Lancaster, LeClaire; 1913: Captain Ralph Emerson Gaches
• OFFICERS & CREW: John McKenzie (master), Al Carpenter (pilot); 1888: E. Lancaster (master); 1896: Captain J. Lancaster, Captain B. Jenks; 1911: Robert F. Isherwood (captain)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Ohio River; Monongahela River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 1695; Built in 1882, the Eclipse towed rafts until the mills shut down in 1904. Then Captain John Lancaster, LeClaire, who held interest in the boat and had commanded her as a rafter, bought Captain John Streckfus's warehouses at Davenport, Iowa and Clinton, Illinois and entered the Eclipse in the trade. This venture was not a success because a street car line had been opened. This was the last effort to run a packet between those cities. She later ran in the Dubuque, Iowa-Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin trade. In 1913 she was laid up and sank in Cat Tail Slough, south of Albany, Illinois. Captain Ralph Emerson Gaches then bought her to tow his showboat. He was making a trip with her from Pittsburgh to Sistersville, West Virginia with an Atlantic Refining Company gasoline barge the night of December 8, 1917. She struck the dike at the foot of Neville Island, Ohio River, burned and sank. During her days she towed showboats, Golden Rod, Cotton Blossom and Emerson's Floating Palace. She was enrolled at the Port of Burlington, April 29, 1884; Port of Dubuque, May 8, 1888; Rock Island, Illinois, 1894, 1900 and 1902
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: The Eclipse at LeClaire, Iowa