Topic starter
01/01/2016 7:45 pm
This may be one for Jimmy or Keith. In the UW-LAX Murphy Library Steamboat Photo Collection, there are three views of the wood-hull sternwheel steamer PEARL, built by Howard in 1887. C. P. Fishbaugh's "From Paddle Wheels to Propellers" lists her built for $2,200 for freight service on the Cumberland, with dimensions of 140 x 22 x 2.7.
What interests me is that she's not listed in Way's, and she's of a somewhat odd construction. The pilothouse is forward of the boiler deck cabin, like a cross between a packet and a pool-style towboat. Even more interesting is an image of her after burning at St. Marys, WV on October 27, 1916. The machinery on the main deck is, maybe to my untrained eyes, not indicative of a Western Rivers steamboat. Could she have been an electrically-driven sternwheeler?
This particular photo can be found by searching for "steam15309" at https://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/LaCrosseSteamboat/ . (Direct links to Digital Collections images involve a session ID that expires.)
01/01/2016 8:21 pm
Good eye, Jon! I don't think that she was a steamboat either. I don't see a boiler, and it looks as if her pitmans were attached to those two big flywheels. My thoughts are that she's not listed in Way's Packet Directory because she was a gas boat.
02/01/2016 11:06 am
Yeah, the size of the hull seems to be a match for this gasboat PEARL (see photo). But I have different build information for it. I have seen errors in some of UW-LAX Murphy Library listings. I think there may be some errors here, but I don't have time to really investigate further, at the moment.. Here is what I have for the gasboat PEARL:
Sternwheel gas packet, built 1906 at Monteiths Landing, WV. Hailed from Cincinnati.
Wood hull, 73.8' x 15.5' x 1.7'. gas engine (engine specs not listed).
Source: 1914,1916 MV of US. Off the list after 1916. (now I know why!)
The PEARL had a sisterboat, EVELYN, b. 1910 Clarington, OH. (EVELYN is featured in our 2016 Sternwheel Towboat calendar). Both were rare in that they employed pitman arms instead of chains.
The researcher at UW-LAX may have assumed steamboat (as the writing on the photo states "Str.") and picked-up on a PEARL from Way's Packet Directory by mistake, thus saying it was built at Howards. But it was built at Monteiths Landing, WV, in 1906.
The burned upper splashwall in the photo appears to be a good match for the 1909 photo of the PEARL. It appears by 1916 they had improved the railings on the "boiler deck" at the bow. But otherwise it looks like a match with the PEARL gasboat, in my opinion.
02/01/2016 10:12 pm
The Pearl that Jon has pulled up never changed her look until the end. The photo that Sreve put up is of the Gasboat Pearl that ran in the Sistersville-New Metamoris trades and was built by Capt.Moneith for his own use.
The Pearl that Jon refers to was gasboat packet. Not any electric involved. Notice in the fire photo the gas engine set about midship. Has a sort of dome top. Probably a Fairbanks-Morris of less than 50 h.p. A system of belts ran aft to the Bull Wheels to which the pitmans were connected. Those systems needed a 10 to 1 reduction. Imagine once you got those bull wheels in motion what it took to stop them and reverse by the belt system.
To add to the confusion there was a real nice Corps of Engineer steamer called the Pearl.
That boat ended up at the Kahlke yard in Judy's territory.
Topic starter
02/01/2016 11:06 pm
Thanks Steve and Bill. I learn something new every time I read this board!
03/01/2016 12:16 am
the steamer PEARL
Yes Bill, the steamboat PEARL ended up in the Kahlke Boatyard here in Rock Island. She was situated near the opening to the river at the downriver end of the yard. I presume whatever has not disintegrated is still there buried under the mud and silt which has settled in there over the years. Back in November 1980 I went into the yard and saw her donkey boiler. I sent pictures to the REFLECTOR and the next time I visited, the boiler was gone...and NO I don't have it!!!!
03/01/2016 12:59 am
Bill, not sure I follow you... If you're saying the Pearl gas packet that burned in 1916 is not the same Pearl gas packet built at Monteith's landing (also with pitmans -- a very rare distinction) and Monteith's Pearl also exits the Merchant Vessels of The U.S. Books exactly after 1916, and Monteith's Pearl appears to be the same size as the burned boat --- Then what Pearl is this in the 1916 burn photo? If it's really not the same Pearl that I described, this leaves the question: If it is a different Pearl than Monteith's, was this burned Pearl built at Howard's, or not?
I suspect the burned Pearl, with pitmans, is indeed the same Pearl in my 1909 photo, built by Monteith, and the UW-LAX researcher mistakenly picked-up an "Str." Pearl from Way's Packet Directory, using that info in error in their photo narrative online.. (i.e. this Pearl is definitely a gasboat, and was not built in 1887, as their narrative states).
I'm curious now! 🙂
Topic starter
03/01/2016 1:04 am
I think it's more likely that the researcher got the mis-identification from the Fishbaugh book, where she is listed as "steam engine, stern-wheel". Certainly the researcher would have looked at the 1916 date on the photo and realized it didn't match either of the packet listings in Way's. However, it does seem a coincidence that both PEARLs would have both the same name and the unique gas-with-pitmans design.
03/01/2016 1:32 am
I would like more spec's on this other Pearl gas packet that also had pitmans, assuming there really was a second boat this coincidental (same size, falls off the list in 1916, has pitmans, etc)... if anyone has info on this other Pearl gasboat ?!