Virginia (Packet, 1895-1912)

BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel

BOAT TYPE: Packet

BUILT: 1895 at Cincinnati, Ohio

BECAME: Steel City

FINAL DISPOSITION: Renamed while undergoing repairs at Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1912

OWNERS: Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line

OFFICERS & CREW: Captain Thomas Calhoon (master, 1896); Robert H. Kerr (purser, 1896); Harry Ollom (pilot, 1896); Spence Sandford (pilot, 1896); ? Johnson (engineer, 1896); ? Owens (engineer, 1896); John Sweeney (mate, 1896); Hod Knowles (mate, 1896); Irwin Johnson (steward, 1896); Captain Alf Pennywitt (master, circa 1902); Captain Charles W. Knox (master, 1910); Billy Anderson (pilot, 1910)

RIVERS: Ohio River

OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 5593; Built by the Cincinnati Marine Railway Company with machinery by Griffith and Wedge. Construction was superintended by Captain J. Frank Ellison. Was known to be exceptionally quiet in operation. She had 50 staterooms in the cabin and 10 more in the texas. The cabin was white with panels of Lincrusta Walton. She was one of the first steamboats on the upper Ohio River to have a carbon arc searchlight contained in a glassfronted case with a reflector, called a White Squadron light which was imported from the Atlantic seaboard. She had distinctive arch hogchains, an innovation later used on other boats. On March 3, 1904 she struck a submerged bridge pier at Steubenville, Ohio. Her hull was ruptured but assistance from the local fire department and from towboats Raymond Horner and Ironsides prevented her from sinking. She was the first packet to pass under the completed Wabash Railroad bridge at Pittsburgh in 1904. In 1909 her fancy-topped stacks were replace

PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Left to right at the Marietta, Ohio wharf: Queen City, Virginia