Eclipse (Packet, 1852-1860)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sidewheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: New Albany, Indiana, Dowerman's Ship Yard, 1852
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Wrecked in a great storm at New Orleans, February 21, 1860, she was later dismantled
• OWNERS: 1852: Captain Edward T. Sturgeon; January, 1857: Captain Lewis W. Broadwell, New Orleans; November, 1857: James M. Broadwell, New Orleans; April 23, 1858: Robert Bell, New Orleans; unknown date: Captain Harry I. Spotts
• OFFICERS & CREW: Henry Christopher and Jeff Stewart (pilots); Crew was composed of as many as 121 persons at times; among them: 70 firemen and deckhands, 25 stewards and waiters, five cooks, three mates, 5 engineers, along with clerks, pilots, etc.
• RIVERS: Ohio River; Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 1688; The Eclipse's hull was floated off a natural rise in the river and not launched making a considerable talking point in favor of the speed qualities she later developed. She was designed for the Louisville-New Orleans trade and was given large power. Captain Edward T. Sturgeon, master and principal owner, from Louisville, Kentucky, was 35 years old when he brought her out in 1852. Her famed speed trial left New Orleans at 10:12 a.m., Saturday, May 14, 1853. Four days, nine hours and thirty minutes later she landed at Portland, Kentucky, below the Louisville Canal. A day or so later the sidewheel A.L. Shotwell came up in almost equal time and for years there was bitter debate as to which boat was the faster. The populations of Louisville, Jeffersonville, and New Albany took these matters quite seriously. Extra editions of Louisville newspapers went on the streets when the Shotwell arrived at Portland. Horsemen did Paul Revere rides between the Portland landing and the printing plants. The Louisville Democrat inserted in their June 4, 1853 issue a statement written by Captain Sturgeon justifying the Eclipse's claim for having come up in faster time accompanied with certified statements from official timekeepers. She had several owners and her last running was perhaps in the New Orleans-Vicksburg trade. On February 21, 1860, a great storm at New Orleans blew her into midstream. She drifted down river coming in contact with shipping, stove in her bow, damaged her starboard wheelhouse and the ladies' cabin. One month later, Captain Spotts had her moored at Portland, Kentucky and auctioned off the furniture and apparel. Her hull was made into a wharfboat and served at Memphis until the start of the Civil War. Following are three contemporary descriptions of the Eclipse: "Her proportions, symmetry and power are fully up to all of her other excellencies of construction. The pantyrware was made especially for her by one of the most noted potteries in France. The pearl-handled cutlery was designed and manufactured at Sheffield, England and all of the glassware for the tables, bar, and other parts of the boat were designed and made in Switzerland. The carpet reaching from the gentlemen's hall to the large mirror at the end of the ladies' cabin is seamless and woven at Brussels, with eyelets at the sides, to be buttoned down instead of being laid permanently, consequently always spotlessly clean. The decorations on the Eclipse cost as much as many of the present-day steamboats cost." Another description says: "The cabin is Gothic and Norman styles. The ceiling is divided into diamonds and half diamonds by the crossing of the Gothic arches, and at the points of intersection hang pendant acorns entwined with oak leaves of rich gilt, the whole giving the appearance of two vast, arched collonades. The intervening spaces in the ceiling are decorated with frescoes; each stateroom door is embellished with a landscape; and over the forward entrance to the cabin are two large paintings of the patron cities, Louisville and New Orleans. The large stained glass skylights above and the six massive and richly gilded chandeliers are objects of wonder as well as sources of light." Quoting from a letter written on board near Memphis in 1853 by General S.G. French, USA, to his friend A.B. Hamilton of Washington, D.C.: "This is no six-horse stern wheel boat, and the passengers don't all get tipsy and play cards all night long--but on the contrary, this boat eclipses all I have ever seen in these parts, and many of the passengers are from Yankee-doodle-dum, on their way south looking out to see the horrors of slavery and new sights, and would as soon spend money for nought as touch a card or do anything else to militate against their pockets or consciences. Perhaps you would like to know what sort of a boat this is that strikes my fancy so--well I will tell you something about her. She is three hundred and sixty-five feet in length, forty foot beam, with two engines with 36 inch cylinders and eleven foot stroke, with sixteen boilers, two doctors, two freight engines, and wheels forty two feet in diameter--burns one hundred cords of wood per day, carries 1,800 tons and I hope won't burst her 'bilers' on 120 pounds of steam to the square inch or under any other circumstances. And then, too, she is beautifully finished, perfect in her accommodations, being just about twice as comfortable as Willards' Hotel--her staterooms are about twice as large as some of his, and much better furnished, and then the table! Why it would be a good tonic to you, and give you a most excellent appetite to read the 'bill of fair'--indeed I would send you one only I fear you would become discontented with your present sumptuous fare spread out all at once before you. But all joking aside, there is more comfort and convenience on this boat than in most of the Hotels as you can judge when I state that she cost one hundred and thirty five thousand dollars*--a great deal for a western style of boat. Just imagine our beautiful cabin 110 yards long!" *Actually according to Ways, the cost of the Eclipse came to $375,000 complete
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: A drawing of the Eclipse