Electra (Packet, 1897-1914)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yard, 1897
• BECAME: Sunny South, 1914
• OWNERS: 1897: Red River Line; 1905: Cumberland River Packet Company; May, 1912: Captain Owen Burke, Mobile
• OFFICERS & CREW: 1897: George L. White (captain); H.C. Boazman (clerk) ; unknown date: Captain T.G. Ryman, Jr. (master); 1912: M.T. Jackson (captain)
• RIVERS: Red River; Mississippi River; Missouri River; Cumberland River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 1750; All the Electra's staterooms were named for flowers. She started out running the Red River Line from New Orleans-Shreveport. When the Red River Line failed, she was taken to the Cumberland River in 1905. In 1907 she was in the St. Louis-Missouri River trade. She was a large cotton boat in the Nashville trade. On July 20, 1910, while backing between piers of the bridge at Nashville, Tennessee, she was caught in a cross-current and struck a pier, damaging the hull. Upon inspection she was ordered to the ways for repairs. Estimated damage, $500. Her original price had been $17,000. Captain Owen Burke purchased her from a U.S. sale in May, 1912. That year she made a trip to Columbus, Mississippi. In 1914 she was renamed the Sunny South