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SS Natchez
The name Natchez has been a name
used for numerous steamboats and four naval vessels, named after the
city of Natchez, Mississippi or the Natchez people; with this
current steamboat being in operation since 1975. The rest had been
used during the 19th century and the majority captained by Thomas P.
Leathers; where his boats had a cotton bale shown between two stacks
in his ensign. This is the ninth steamboat, which is a sternwheel
steamboat that is based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and has been
called the Natchez IX. It is owned and operated by the New Orleans
Steamboat Company that docks at the Toulouse Street Wharf, where
visitors can take day trips that also include dinner or harbor
cruises on the mighty Mississippi River. It wasn't modeled after the
other Natchez steamboats, but by the Hudson and Virginia; with its
steam engines coming from the 1925 steamboat Clairton, as well as
her steering system. The copper bell came from the SS. J.D. Ayres,
which is made of 250 melted silver dollars, and on top of it is a
copper acorn that came from the Avalon, which has since become the
Belle of Louisville. The steam calliope plays 32 notes and the wheel
is made of white oak and steel, measuring 25 feet by 25 feet and
weighs more than 26 tons. The whistle is off a ship that sank in
1908 on the Monagabola River, and this Natchez was launched from
Braithwaite, Louisiana; measuring 265 feet long and 46 feet wide.
The weight is 1384 tons, made of steel mostly, due to the rules of
the US Coast Guard. It won the Great Steamboat Race in 1982 held
each year at Louisville, Kentucky; part of the Kentucky Derby
Festival. She has never lost a race and the list of those that she
has beaten include the Mississippi Queen, Belle of Louisville and
the Delta Queen. When Katrina hit the city, she was moved upstream
to Baton Rouge, but has since moved back to the city of blues, New
Orleans.
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