Topic starter
10/03/2010 3:33 pm
What steamboat(s) would someone have taken in November of 1934 for a trip from Louisville, KY to New Orleans, LA? Sidewheelers or rear?
How long would the trip have taken; Louisville, KY to St. Louis, MO and St. Louis, MO to New Orleans, LA? Changes of ships anywhere along the way?
The most likely candidate I've been able to find is the Idlewild, but it appears to only have taken excursions (around Louisville) in 1934.
Your help is greatly appreciated.
John Jeter [email protected]
10/03/2010 5:42 pm
John,
There is a good possibility it could have been the CORDON C. GREENE. Greene Line still maintained a wharf boat at Louisville at said time...so she could have been the boat. My knowledge of Greene Line operations only had her making trips to NOLA for Mardi Gras. However she could have made an additional trip in the fall.
The L&C Line did Mardi Gras Cruises, too...but, their flagship was gone by 34...so it wasn't them.
Wouldn't have been the IDLEWILD, she was a daylight boat only.
Anyone have any other ideas?
10/03/2010 6:07 pm
not GCG
If it was that boat, it would have still been the CAPE GIRARDEAU, as the GORDON C. GREENE's first trip was in June 1935 after Greene Line bought her. Regardless of what boat, the Louisville to New Orleans trip wouldn't have included St. Louis - that would have been a 360 mile detour, and I'm not sure there were any packets running from Louisville or Cincinnati to St. Louis anyway, were there? What about the GOLDEN EAGLE as a possibility. I'll look at some of my old brochures later, which are up in the steamboat pilefiles.
10/03/2010 7:31 pm
The "Goldie" didn't venture over here onto the Ohio very often, but she did make a few trips as far as Cincinnati.
11/03/2010 1:33 am
How sure are you of the 1934 date? The CINCINNATI-a sidewheeler- made Mardi Graz trips every year from 1924-30. I know of no boat that went from Louisville to New Orleans in 1934 during the height of the Depression and definitely not Louisville to St. Louis to New Orleans. The QUEEN CITY ran until 1933 but, as far as I know, never went to New Orleans. The SENATOR CORDILL sank Feb. 5, 1934. The TOM & CHRIS GREENE were still carrying passengers in 1934 but they stayed on the Ohio River.
Sounds to me like whoever went from Louisville to New Orleans in November 1934 was probably on a towboat. If it was a towboat they would be pushing barges, the boat would have been a sternwheeler or propeller driven and it would have taken 7 to 10 days depending on river conditions. If the tow went from Louisville to St. Louis then to New Orleans, that trip probably took 17 to 20 days depending once again on river conditions.
That's my guess
11/03/2010 3:27 am
The QUEEN CITY did go to New Orleans during her life time. I've even seen a photo of her and the CINCINNATI landed together at one of the wharves in the Crescent City. In Way's Packet Directory, Capt. Way reports that her first trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras was in 1903 and her last one was in 1930. During her 1914 trip to New Orleans she sunk in Louisville on the Falls and never made it down yonder. The 1925 Mardi Gras that she made originated in Louisville, but the year and season unfortunately don't match the trip that John is looking for.