Valley Queen

Hartford, John

picture

Valley Queen (Steamboat)
Packets
River steamers
Steamboats

The Valley Queen was built at Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1889 for Captain Geo. W. Rea and others. Her hull was 196.5 feet by 36 feet by 5.5 feet. She had two boilers, each 46 inches by 28 feet. Her machinery came from the La Belle and had cylanders 20.5 inches in diameter with 6.5-foot strock. She had cotton guards and carried 900 tons. This was a New Orleans-Shreveport packet from 1889 to 1894 and belonged to the Red River line; Geo. W. Rea was her master. In 1894 she was chartered by the Anchor Line for the New Orleans-St. Louis trade. She resumed the Red River trade in 1894 with Ben C. Rea, master and Jesse K. Bell Rea, pilot. In 1900 she was owned by the Chalmette Packet Company and ended her days in the New Orleans-Vicksburg trade. While descending the Mississippi River near Vancluse, Arkansas on March 12, 1900 she struck some obstruction damaging her hull to the amount of $3000. In leaving Natchez, Mississippi and about midstream on January 17, 1901, fire was discovered in the cotton on board. Vessel and cargo each damaged $2500. On August 27, 1901, when about to make a landing at Cracraft's Landing, Arkansas, she struck some hidden obstruction and filled with water. However, she was saved from sinking. Damage, $2000. While on the Mississippi River near Bruinsburg Landing in Tensas Parish on March 1, 1903, she took fire in her hold from some unknown cause and burned; a total loss. No lives were lost. The boat was valued at $20,000; the cargo, $50,000.

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Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library