Kate Adams

Golden Eagle River Museum

1925

picture

Kate Adams (Steamboat)
River steamers
Steamboats

Pittsburgh (Oh.)

1920-1929

Photo taken 1925 at Pittsburgh during her last days. The third KATE ADAMS (1899-1927) was built by the Howard Shipyards Company at Jeffersonville, Indiana, for the Memphis and Arkansas Packet Company. Her steel hull was 240 ft. long, 40 ft. beam, 7 ft. hold, having eighteen water-tight compartments. Her over-all width was 80 ft. Each stateroom had a colonial-arched entranceway. She made her first trip on Thanksgiving Day, 1899. Her run was between Memphis, Tennessee and Arkansas City, Arkansas. The "Lovin' Kate" was the principal actress in the movie "Uncle Tom's Cabin" filmed in 1926. She was remodeled to resemble a pre-Civil War steamboat and re-named La Belle Riviere for the movie. Following her film career, her name was changed back to KATE ADAMS. She burned at the Memphis wharf on January 8, 1927. Her roof bell now hangs over the entranceway to the Mariner's Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Her deep-toned whistle which could be heard thirty miles back in the Delta, was later installed on the towboat "Leona" of Cincinnati. She was a way of life for those who knew her and loved her. As she flashed white on the brown river, the moan of her whistle and the splash and slap of her paddles sang the hymn of life on the Mississippi. Howard Robb - 1960 Arkansas City, Ark., - St. Louis, Mo.

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Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library