Cape Girardeau (Packet, 1901-1910)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sidewheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: Madison, Indiana 1899, as War Eagle; rebuilt at St. Louis, Missouri 1901 and renamed Cape Girardeau
• FORMERLY: War Eagle
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Sank and lost at Turkey Island 50 miles above St. Louis, Missouri 1910
• OWNERS: Eagle Packet Company
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain Willam H. "Buck" Leyhe (Master)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 0827; Built at Madison, Indiana 1851, as War Eagle; rebuilt at the Carondelet ways, St. Louis, Missouri 1901 and renamed Cape Girardeau. She had red-painted smokestacks and was known as the "Red Stack Cape". Owned by the Eagle Packet Company, she ran regularly in the St. Louis-Cape-Commerce trade, Captain Buck Leyhe master. She sank while enroute from Commerce to St. Louis, Missouri, after hitting a hidden obstruction and was lost at Turkey Island 50 miles above St. Louis, Missouri July 11, 1910. The total loss of cargo was estimated at $60,000; no insurance