Charles Ipcar says:
Love this website!
I and some of my friends have been puzzling over the above photo for a bit on another Facebook forum. The warship in the background cannot be the Gunboat USS Nashville, which had two funnels and did not lay that low in the water. The prime candidate appears to be the Monitor USS Amphitrite which was in the area from 1910 to 1916. The later date makes even more sense given that the Sadie Lee (2nd steamboat in) wasn’t even launched until 1901.
Editor:
Thank you Charles for your keen eye and correct identification of the USS Amphitrite. Close examination of an enlarged image of the above picture shows a single funnel ship with what looks like a gun turret on her bow very much like a Civil War iron clad Monitor US gunboat. The link below gives the history of this ship and similar war ships.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Amphitrite_(BM-2)
The Monitor USS Amphitrite was moored at the mouth of the Wolf River where it meets the Mississippi & apparently caused silt buildup causing the eventual forming of Mud Island. https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1701/24751223704_f2bf2b4350_o.png
Dual Turret Monitor USS Amphitrite from collection of Milton McFarland Painter Sr. , Mississippi River, Memphis TN – Circa 1911
From Monitor Amphitrite. Sysid 97315. Scanned as tiff in 2008/03/03 by MDAH. Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Hi, my is Greg Murray. My great great grandfather dance and played banjo on the Jim Lee.