Bald Eagle

Stoll, C. W.
Hartford, John

picture

Bald Eagle (Steamboat)
Steamboats

The Bald Eagle was originally the old Benton McMillan built at Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1883 for the Cumberland River. She was 155 x 33 x 5.5 feet; 239 tons. Later, in 1886, she was sold to Captain Hod Knowles and ran in the Pittsburgh and Cinncinnati trade for several seasons. Ira B. Huntington was her clerk. Captain Huntington afterwards related that he thought this was the first packet in the Pittsburgh trade to be lighted by electricity. Later she was sold to the Eagle Packet Company of St. Louis, Missouri, taken to Cincinnati, lenghtened and renamed the D. H. Pike. Her new dimensions were:- 199.6 x 33.5 x 5.5 feet. She then ran on the Illinois River. In 1898 she was taken to Madison, Indiana and rebuilt into the Bald Eagle. Her dimensions now were:- 206.5 x 34.2 x 6.0 feet. Tonnage: gross, 937; net, 590 tons. As she grew older she grew larger. She was operated by the Eagle Packet Company for many years. The license of Charles Coulter, chief engineer, expired on December 10, 1907 and was presented for revival on December 17th, between which dates the Bald Eagle employed Coulter as chief engineer. The case was reported to the U. S. District Attorney and Surveyor of Customs at St. Louis. Later she was sold to a contractor, used as a quarter boat and finally sank about 1934. There was a bald eagle that preceded this boat. She was built in 1879 at Madison, Indiana. She was 202.3 x 30 x 5.4 feet. She ran the St. Louis - Clarksville trade until 1895. During the cyclone of 1896 she broke loose, struck the middle pier of the Eads bridge, St. Louis, Missouri, and sank.

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Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library