Potomac (Packet, 1870-188?)

Date

• ca. 1877

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sidewheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: 1870 at Cincinnati, Ohio
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Dismantled after 1882
• OWNERS: Captain Theodore Fink; Captain John N. Shunk; Captain Wash Honshell and others
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain J.W. Batchelor (master, 1872); S.J. Batchelor (clerk, 1872); Captain Will Kirker (master, 1881-82); C.M. Phister (clerk, 1881-82); James A. Wirthlin (2nd clerk, 1882)
• RIVERS: Ohio River; Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 4561; Began in the Wheeling-Cincinnati trade. She had made only a trip or so when she was shut out by low water in the spring of 1870. She was sold to Captain Shunk and others for the Louisville-New Orleans trade. On December 21, 1870 she rammed and sank the "racer" Robert E. Lee opposite Natchez, Mississippi. By June 1872, she was in the St. Louis-New Orleans trade. When the C and O reached Huntington, she was bought by Captain Honshell and then ran Huntington-Cincinnati along with the Fleetwood. The Potomac proved to be too slow and went to the Cincinnati-Pomeroy trade along with the Ohio No. 4 and the Telegraph. She was dismantled sometime after 1882. Her hull served as a salt barge and finally sank above Hartford City, West Virginia. It lay there for some time and ice eventually turned it bottom side up. The wreckage was removed by the E.A. Woodruff
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: The crew of the Potomac about 1877: Standing, left to right: Ollie Newton, clerk; Sam Hawk, clerk; William Cox, pilot; Clayton C. Crawford, chief engineer; Rudy, carpenter; Lou Bert, 2nd engineer. Seated, left to right: John Brennen, mate; Captain Henry Drown, master; Oscar Shaw, head clerk; John L. Hamilton, 2nd clerk