Chester (Packet/Towboat, 1906-1920)

Date

• August 1907

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel/Propeller
• BOAT TYPE: Packet/Towboat
• BUILT: 1888 as the Cherokee; renamed Chester when sold circa 1906 to St. Louis and Chester Packet Company
• FORMERLY: Cherokee
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Sold to Sugar Products Company, New Orleans who converted her into a barge in 1920 and sent her to Cuba
• OWNERS: St. Louis and Chester Packet Company (1906); Kansas City Missouri River Navigation Company; Federal Barge Lines; Sugar Products Company
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain William L. Thompson; Captain W. L. (Steamboat Bill) Heckmann (master, 1912); Captain H. C. Blaske (co-pilot)
• RIVERS: Missouri River; Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 1001; T0409; Entered the St. Louis-Kansas City trade in June 1907. She was taken to New Orleans in winter 1910-11 and converted to propeller drive, vastly altered. This did not work, so she was returned to New Orleans in the fall of 1911 and made twin props. Captain W. L. Heckmann was master in 1912 on the Missouri River. She was not a howling success, often laid up and several times caught out on shore. Finally sold to Sugar Products Company
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: On shore, in front of the Chester, are stacked many sacks of wheat with two men standing in front of the sacks and a group of women behind them. A caption on the photo states that the Marquis girls are on a trip down the Missouri River