Argand (Packet/Towboat, 1896-1927)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet/Towboat
• BUILT: 1896 in Levanna, Ohio
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Burned just below the Lowell Lock on the Muskingum River, December 6, 1927 while steam was being raised preparatory to moving her into the Lowell canal for the winter
• OWNERS: Captains I.N. Flesher and Gordon C. Greene; sold to Big Sandy Navigation Company October 1898; sold to Captain Edwin A. Price April 1901; acquired (along with the showboat Water Queen) by Captain Roy L. and Josie Hyatt in February 1910
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain Ralph Emerson Gaches (pilot, summer 1901); Captain I.N. Flesher (master, 1896); Captain Mary B. Greene (master, 1897); Jesse P. Hughes (pilot); Henry Brookhart (pilot); George Mitchell (clerk); Harold Wolfe (clerk); Alex Shaw (mate); Manuel Landis (mate); Charles Hardy (engineer); George Price (engineer); F. H. Wilkins (master, 1898); George C. Mitchell (clerk, 1898); Phil Hornbrook (clerk, 1897); William Goodwin (clerk, 1896)
• RIVERS: Ohio River; Muskingum River; Big Sandy River; Green River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T0153; Ways - 0322; Originally a packet named for the Argand Refinery near Marietta, Ohio; came out in the Pittsburgh-Parkersburg trade; after Flesher sold his interest to Captain Greene, the boat entered the Wheeling-Parkersburg trade; she ran up the Big Sandy River after being acquired by the Big Sandy Navigation Company; acquired by Captain E. Price in 1901 to tow his showboat Water Queen; in 1925 the towboat-showboat combination was chartered by a film company for the movie Stage Struck starring Gloria Swanson; the showboat was saved when the Argand burned in 1927, while steam was being raised prior to being moved to winter quarters; the wreckage of the Argand was undisturbed until World War II when the boilers, machinery and wheel shaft were removed for scrap; the hull timbers and remains of the paddlewheel were exposed during low water in summer 1988; the Argand's whistle came from the Will J. Cummins