Tag: side-wheeler Natchez

Wikipedia says: Natchez has been the name of several steamboats, and four naval vessels, each named after the city of Natchez, Mississippi or the Natchez people. The current one has been in operation since 1975. The previous Natchez were all operated in the nineteenth century, most by Captain Thomas P. Leathers. Each of the steamboats since Leathers’ first had as its ensign a cotton bale between its stacks.

…The fifth Natchez was also built in Cincinnati, as Captain Leathers returned there quickly after the destruction of the fourth. She was also equipped with six boilers, but this one could hold 4,400 cotton bales. This one was used by Leathers until 1859. In 1860 she was destroyed while serving as a wharfboat at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.