Robert E. Lee

1870 · Sternwheel Steamer · Work 170 of 1,871

The Mississippi packet Robert E Lee running upstream past a wooded bank, twin fluted smokestacks joined by a decorative crown, cotton bales stacked on the main deck, stern wheel churning.

What it was used for: The boat is older than its date: it was completed in 1866 at New Albany, Indiana, for Captain John W. Cannon; 1870 is the year of the race. It ran between New Orleans and Vicksburg and brought cotton downstream — 285 feet long, eight boilers, cylinders of 40 inches bore with a ten-foot stroke. In 1874 it came into New Orleans with 5,741 bales, a record cargo. The building cost is given as 230,000 dollars, though documented in only one place.
What was new: Technically there was nothing fundamentally new about the boat; what was new were its scale and its way of working. It became famous through the run of 30 June to 4 July 1870 against the Natchez, for which three days, 18 hours and 14 minutes over some 1,200 miles are now quoted — while the contemporary Currier & Ives lithograph in the Metropolitan Museum reads "Time: 3 Days 18 Hours and 30 Minutes; Distance 1210 Miles". It was not a comparison: by the Louisiana State Museum's account Cannon left cargo and passengers behind and took on fuel from barges brought alongside under way, while Leathers did not lighten his load and sat six hours on a mudflat; the Waterways Journal gives fog and four hours 45 minutes for that delay. The record outlived the trade: in 1874, the year of the record cargo, the Eads Bridge at St. Louis was finished.

Robert E. Lee

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