Natchez built in 1891
The Natchez pictured (the tenth of at least twelve boats with that name) was a sternwheel wood hull boat built in Jeffersonville, Ind., by Howard Shipbuilders in 1891. She measured 225 x 40 x 8. Capt. T.P. Leathers was well up in years and the command fell to Capt. Bowling S. Leathers, his son, who had a steamboatin' wife, Capt. Blanche Douglass Leathers who got her license August 1894 and used it. Capt. Blanche, a no-nonsense executive, ran a tight ship, and when her father-in-law, Capt. Thomas P., 80, died in New Orleans from injuried sustained after being struck by a bicyclist, June 1896, she perpetuated the family steamboatin' tradition. Advertisements for Natchez in New Orleans newspapers, 1900, listed Capt. B.D. Leathers, master; B.S. Leathers clerk; no apology, no explanation. This last (and only sternwheel) Natchez of the Leathers's fleet survived some near-misses; sank about three miles above Natchez, November 1896, with 1,700 bales of cotton, and 8,757 sacks of seed, due to dried hull seams. In early February 1897, hit the shore at Cottonwood, 20 miles below Vicksburg, tore away the jack-staff and stages and toppled her chimneys. Sank at Ford's Crossing, 12 miles below Natchez, November 1899. Capt. William A. Duke became associated with the operation of this boat and also the T.P. Leathers and was master of the Natchez in 1902 with T.C. Sachse, clerk. She got new boilers in July, 1914, and less than a year later was in the hands of a U.S. marshal who sold her for $6,500 to Capt. W.A. Duke, May 1915. He ran her New Orleans-Cariola-Grand Lake with indifferent success often laid up for long periods, and she was dismantled in 1918.
All information obtained from Captain Fred Way's Packet Directory 1848-1983. Copyright 1983 by the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen. All Rights Reserved.
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