Ocean Wave (Packet, 1854-1868)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sidewheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, 1854
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Burned on Lake Pepin at Frontenac, Minnesota, June 11, 1868
• OWNERS: Captain Waldo P. Marsh; Galena, Dunleith and Minnesota Packet Company; Minnesota Packet Company (1856); Captain James Sheets; Northwestern Union Packet Company (1864)
• OFFICERS & CREW: John Cochrane (clerk, 1856); Captain E. H. Gleim (master, 1856, in the Minnesota Packet Company); Captain Andrews (master, spring 1857, in the Galena and St. Paul Line); Captain James (master, fall 1857, in the Galena & St. Paul Line); Captain John Scott (master, 1858-1859, in the Prairie du Chien line); Captain N. F. Webb (master, 1860, in the Dunleith Line, and in the La Crosse Line in 1861); Captain James Sheets (master); William R. Tibbals (master, fall 1867); H. T. Kingman (master); Judd West (master)
• RIVERS: Wisconsin River; Mississippi River; Minnesota River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 4261; First home port was St. Louis, Missouri; built for Captain Waldo P. Marsh who ran her in the St. Louis-Illinois River trade. The Minnesota Packet Company bought her in 1856 for upper Mississippi trade. In the winter of 1867/1868, she took barges from Dubuque to New Orleans and was so long at it that it was said "relatives did not recognize the crew when they got back". Remembered as a short boat hard to steer
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Ocean Wave is the boat on the far right; according to caption, this depicts the fleet of steamers chartered by Governor Morton and Yates to bring the dead and wounded from Fort Donaldson home to Indiana and Illinois