Energy & Power

Ship Tools from the Propeller Indiana, Shovel

Description

All the hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space below decks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.

date made

mid-1800s

when the Indiana was found

1972

ID Number

1979.1030.59

accession number

1979.1030

catalog number

1979.1030.59

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Ship Model, Steam Barge Edward Smith

Description

The three-masted wooden propeller Edward Smith was built in 1890 by F.W. Wheeler & Co. at West Bay City, Michigan. The 201-foot bulk freighter is best known for rescuing crew from the old wooden steamer Annie Young on 20 October 1890 in Lake Huron. The Young was transporting a cargo of coal from Buffalo to Gladstone, MI when a fire began somewhere in the vicinity of the boiler.

Upbound from Marine City, Smith’s Captain Mitchell saw the Young on fire, dropped the two barges he was towing and began circling the burning ship, rescuing 13 crew and the captain. Nine men were lost when their lifeboat swamped and sank. Capt. Mitchell was awarded a lifesaving medal for his efforts; Annie Young had been insured for $55,000.

In 1900, the Smith was renamed Zillah, when transferred at Port Huron, MI to new owners. On 29 August 1926, Zillah was transporting a cargo of heavy limestone when it sailed into a summer storm in Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior. The old steamer began to take on water, and the crew removed their belongings while Zillah coasted in a circle. The crew was rescued without loss by the steamer William B. Schiller, with assistance from the Coast Guard. Shortly afterwards, the ship rolled over and sank. The Zillah’s wreck was located in 1975.

Date made

1966

ship transferred to Michigan

1900

ship sank

1926-08-29

ship wreckage located

1975

built ship, Edward Smith

F. W. Wheeler & Co.

ID Number

TR.326655

catalog number

326655

accession number

265603

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Bryant’s New Showboat

Description

Bryant’s New Showboat was built at Point Pleasant, W. Va., in 1917. Launched in 1918, it could seat around 880 people in its theater. Most of the shows put on for Bryant’s patrons in small towns along the Kanawha, Ohio, Monongahela, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers were vaudeville or follies productions.

The ornate stage of Bryant’s New Showboat was home to dozens of plays like Hamlet and Little Nell of the Ozarks, and even the antics of a trained bucking mule named January. Owner Billy Bryant offered $10 to anyone who could stay on the animal’s back, but he had to retract that offer in mining towns, as the miners were strong enough to stay on.

The vessel was sold to new owners in 1945, at the end of World War II. Movie theaters, personal automobiles and other developments had gradually ended the colorful showboat era on America’s rivers.

Date made

1976

ID Number

TR.335568

catalog number

335568

accession number

1977.0630

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Ship Tools from the Propeller Indiana, Hand Truck

Description

These hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space belowdecks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.

The hand truck—virtually identical to modern examples—is one of four found aboard Indiana and used for moving cargo into, out of, and around the cargo hold of the ship. This hand truck was the artifact that actually identified the vessel when it was located in 1972, for the words “PROPR INDIANA” were stamped into its handle. The other three had different ships’ names stamped on them, indicating that they were secondhand or borrowed equipment.

Date made

ca 1858

when the Indiana was found

1972

ID Number

1994.0033.01

catalog number

1994.0033.01

accession number

1994.0033

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Self-unloading Ore Carrier James R. Barker

Description

The James R. Barker was built in 1976 by the American Shipbuilding Co. at Lorain, OH for the Interlake Steamship Co. It was named after the head of the Moore-McCormack Steamship Company, which owned Interlake. Costing over $43 million, Barker was the third 1000-footer to sail the Great Lakes, and the first built entirely on the Lakes. These big bulk coal and ore carriers were constructed to fit the largest locks connecting the Great Lakes.

Barker's two big 8,000-hp engines turn two 17-1/2-foot propellers, pushing the vessel at a speed of 15.75 knots (18 mph). The ship can transport 59,000 tons of iron ore pellets or 52,000 tons of coal. The self-unloading rig has a 250-foot-long boom that can unload 10,000 tons of ore or 6,000 net tons of coal per hour. By contrast, Interlake’s first bulk carrier, the 1874 wooden-hulled steamer V.H. Ketchum, could carry only 1,700 tons of ore and took nearly twelve days to unload using manual wheelbarrows.

The Barker was still in service in 2009.

Date made

1978

year the James R. Barker was built

1976

built James R. Barker

American Shipbuilding Co.

bought the James R. Barker

Interlake Steamship Co.

maker

Boucher-Lewis Precision Models, Inc.

ID Number

TR.336153

catalog number

336153

accession number

1978.0374

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Abraham Lincoln Patent Model Replica

Description

Abraham Lincoln had considerable maritime background, although it is usually eclipsed by his political heritage. At the age of 19 in Anderson Creek, Ind., he built a flatboat for $24, loaded it with a local farmer’s produce, and floated it 1,000 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, where he sold both the boat and its cargo. When he was 22, he was hired by an Illinois store owner to take some goods down the Mississippi and sell them in New Orleans. Lincoln built another flatboat and successfully piloted it from New Salem, Ill. to New Orleans over a three-month period.

In the mid-1840s, as a lawyer in Springfield, Ill., his law partner William Herndon recalled watching Lincoln working on a large boat model with a local craftsman. A Springfield resident recalled Lincoln demonstrating the idea for his model in public. His model embodies an idea Lincoln had for raising vessels over shoal waters by increasing their buoyancy. That idea became patent #6,469 in May 1849—the only patent ever obtained by an American president. After he became president in 1860 and moved to Washington, he visited his model in the nearby Patent Office at least once. He also enjoyed reviewing naval vessels and ideas, and he personally approved inventor John Ericsson’s idea for the ironclad warship Monitor.

Lincoln’s original patent model was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1908 and has left the Mall only once since then, for an exhibit at the US Patent Office. This replica was built by the Smithsonian in 1978 for long-term display to preserve the fragile original.

date made

1978

ID Number

TR.336769

accession number

1978.2284

catalog number

336769

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Rigged Model, Sidewheel Cotton Packet J.M. White

Description

The Mississippi River sidewheel steamboat J.M. White was built at Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1878 for the Greenville and New Orleans Packet Company. Measuring 321’ long and 91’ in beam across the paddlebox guards, the White only sat 10’-6” deep in the water when fully laden. The steamboat was designed for Mississippi River packet service between New Orleans, La., and Greenville, Miss.

The White was one of the largest, most expensive, luxurious, and most powerful river steamers ever built, with 2,800 horsepower and a capacity of 250 first-class passengers and 10,000 bales of cotton. Named after famous riverboat captain J. M. White (1823–1880), the “supreme triumph in cotton boat architecture” was a masterpiece of the gaudy, glamorous style known as “steamboat Gothic.” It had multiple bridal chambers; stained glass skylights and windows; rare wood veneers and gilded finishes; seven gilded “Egyptian-style” chandeliers; a sterling silver Tiffany water cooler in the 250’-long main cabin; monogrammed flatware and china; and a full concert grand piano.

The White spent most of its eight-year career in service on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Vicksburg, Miss. Despite its economy of size, the White’s high initial $220,000 cost, a spotty economy, and the rapidly expanding railroad network made the steamboat unprofitable. It caught fire, blew up, and burned to the waterline at a Louisiana landing in December 1886, killing several aboard.

Date made

1974

built

1878

used date

late 19th century

ID Number

TR.334847

catalog number

334847

accession number

315419

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Propeller Indiana’s Cargo of Iron Ore

Description

On 6 June 1858, the propeller Indiana sank in Lake Superior transporting its owner, three passengers and 280 tons of iron ore from Marquette, MI to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. The ship was insured for $9,000; the ore was insured separately for an undisclosed amount. One contemporary newspaper stated that it was the “first cargo of Lake Superior iron ore ever lost on the lakes.”

The ship landed upright and slightly bow down on the lakebed in 120 feet of water; the bow split open and ore spilled out onto the sandy bottom. The deck of the shipwreck remains covered with iron ore today, and the cargo hold is filled about three feet deep with ore as well.

Samples of the ore were recovered in 1979; upon analysis, they revealed that a high percentage of pure iron.

Location

Currently not on view

date propeller Indiana sank

1858-06-06

samples of the ore were collected

1979

ID Number

1979.1030.12.01

catalog number

1979.1030.12

accession number

1979.1030

Data Source

National Museum of American History