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NATCHEZ
steamboat model
The Natchez was built in
1869 in Cincinnati. She was 301 feet long, had eight
boilers and a capacity of 5,500 cotton bales. In her
9 1⁄2-year service, she made 401 trips without a single
deadly accident. Natchez became famous as the
participant against another Mississippi paddle steamer,
the Robert E. Lee, in a race from New Orleans to St.
Louis in June 1870, immortalized in a lithograph
by Currier and Ives. The Natchez had beaten the previous
speed record, that of the J. M. White in 1844. Stripped
down, carrying no cargo, steaming on through fog and
making only one stop, the Robert E. Lee won the race in
3 days, 18 hours and 14 minutes. By contrast,
the Natchez carried her normal load and stopped as
normal, tying up overnight when fog was encountered.
Despite this she berthed only six hours later. One way
Leathers tried to speed up his boat was giving all of
his workers whiskey. When Leathers finally dismantled
the boat in Cincinnati in 1879.
New
Orleans, Louisiana, July 1, 1870: Both steamboats—the
Robert E. Lee and the Natchez—promote themselves as “the
fastest steamboat on America’s rivers.” Even though
neither boat has ever lost a race, one of them is wrong.
And, the day of reckoning has arrived.
At 5:00,
yesterday afternoon, just off the New Orleans docks, a
brief silence of anticipation filled the air. Each proud
steamboat idled side by side, poised and ready. The
starting pistol shot rang out. Silence vanished. Boat
whistles blew. The paddle wheels churned. Passengers on
both boats cheered and clapped. Thousands of spectators
lining the banks of the Mississippi began whooping,
shouting, dancing, and jumping. The noise of excitement
crushed normal conversation, as the race of the century
was on. The din dimmed only as the boats disappeared
around the first bend.
Over the
next few days, thousands of more spectators will be in
every river port and thousands more on levees between
those ports, both night and day, as the Natchez and the
Robert E. Lee speed their way along the 1200 miles of
the twisting, treacherous Mississippi River from New
Orleans to St. Louis.
Newspapers
across the United States and all across Europe have been
promoting this race for at least six months, now. It is
the most anticipated race in history. Citizens on both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean are placing bets on the race
at unprecedented levels. Some are speculating that $2 to
$3 million dollars will be bet on this race (using
relative
share of Gross Domestic Product that is $3.7 billion
today).
Part of
this gambling frenzy, no doubt, has to do with the well
known rivalry and intense personal animosity between
each of the boat’s captains—John W. Cannon of the Lee
and Thomas P. Leathers of the Natchez. They have cursed
each other and made fun of one another in public and
private for years. Everyone on the river knows, these
two captains hate each other.
But, this
race is not merely about sport, gambling, and “getting
even”. It’s also about testing and improving boats. The
speed of a steamboat is an important asset in making
money. Customers who ship their goods to market want a
fast boat. Passengers want to arrive at their
destinations quicker. Therefore, all boat owners are
doing everything in their power to improve the speed and
safety of steamboats.
So, even
though this race is exceptional, steamboat races are
frequent occurrences on the Mississippi, the Missouri,
and the Ohio Rivers. All too often, though, they end in
disaster because boat boilers are pushed to the point of
exploding. The Forest Rose blew up when it was racing
the York Town back in 1857 on the Ohio. Two killed and
dozens injured. Earlier that same year, the Ben Sherrod
steamboat was racing the Prairie on the Mississippi,
just below Natchez. A boiler blew on the Sherrod and the
resulting fire killed 150 people. There have been many
more such disasters on our rivers over the past 60 years
of steamboat travel.
Hopefully,
this current historic steamboat race– begun right here
Friday afternoon– will end with no such disasters, as
the boilers on both the Lee and the Natchez are stoked
to the limit in the quest for knowledge, speed, money,
and victory.
The Great
Mississippi Steamboat Race
There were
a few close calls in the steamboat “Race of the Century”
but no disasters. Both boats finished the race intact.
At about 10:00AM on July 4, 1870, thousands of
spectators stood by in St. Louis, gazing down river,
waiting for the winner. Three days and 18 hours into the
race, church bells rang, cannons roared, train whistles
blew, and the waiting crowd in St. Louis cheered and
yelled, “It’s the Robert E. Lee!”
Captain
Cannon and the Lee were the clear winners. Then, six
hours and 36 minutes later, Captain Leathers and the
Natchez moved across the finish line to an equally
rousing reception. Both the winner and the loser and all
of St. Louis partied all day and well into the night on
that unusually raucous Fourth of July in the summer of
1870.
Written
by Judd Hambrick, published on Southern Memories
on August 11, 2011.
This primarily wood Natchez riverboat model features:
-
Superior
hollow hull,
hollow
hull construction
- Hollow superstructure is comprised of many
individual thin pieces of wood glued together, not
several solid pieces of wood stacking on top one another
- Windows are cutouts (not black decals nor painted
indentation.) They are clean, uniform, and aligned.
38"L x 11"W x 17" T $3,475
Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $300 flat rate.
Lighting feature is included.
A boat without beautiful lighting is not a
riverboat. LED light powered by standard 9v battery for
your convenience. Our model has realistic and beautiful
lighting. Cheap model makers can never keep up
our
with genuine artistic design and engineering ability.
Model is built per commission only. We require only a
small deposit (not full amount, not even half) to start
the process $500  The
remaining balance won't be due until the boat is
completed,
in several months.
For other sizes,
please send us an email for a quote.
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