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Are there more photographs of the interior of the Robert E. Lee steamboat? I’m trying to find photos of large mirrors that may have hung in the dining room or entry.
I have a cabin arch from the Robert E Lee. It is a serpentine wooden board approximately six feet long.
Do you know anyone who wants it (free)? It is in New Albany Indiana.
Chris, thank you for your interest in the Lee Line. I certainly am interested.
Could you send me a picture of this board and any history you may have on this
item? Again, thank you for contacting me.
Jim Lee
Most articles I have read concerning the Lee omit the fact there were two of them. The racer (of 1866) actually died of old age. She ended her steaming days in 1876 as a coal scow, then as a wharf boat. When her machinery was removed it was installed in a second Lee, said to be larger and more luxurious, although not as fast. This was the one destroyed by fire sometime in the ’80’s. I have seen one of the original Lee’s cabin arches, a serpentine affair 17 feet long that spanned the width of the main cabin. It does not even remotely resemble the built-up arches in the photo. Additionally, photographs of the racing Lee clearly show the clerestory windows of the main cabin to be in groups of three topped with Gothic arches. Might this be the second Lee? It certainly is not the Lee of racing fame.
Bill, thank you for your interest. The Robert E Lee racer was a completely
different boat than the Lee Line Robert E Lee. My family was in the process
of recovery from the Civil War in 1866 and boot strapped themselves back into
the steamboat business with smaller used steamboats. Through the 1870’s and 1880’s
the Lee Line grew by adding more boats. It wasn’t until the mid to later 1890’s
that the Lee Line added a number of new Howard Shipyard built boats following the
bankruptcy of the St. Louis New Orleans Anchor Line. The 1880’s saw the addition
of a few new boats also Howard built. The challenge to operating a steamboat line
was the almost constant need to raise sunk boats, replace boats that could not be
salvaged and keep in good repair operational boats. My grandfather S Rees Lee when
asked how many boats the Lee Line owned would say “we have more boats under the river
than on the river.”
Blessings,
Jim Lee
There are 3 steamers named Robert E. Lee. The first one is the famous racer Rob’t. E. Lee 1866-1876, 285.5’ x 48’, dismantled in 1876. The second one is also owned by capt John W. Cannon but much more luxurious. Rob’t E. Lee. II 1876-1882 315’x48.5’, only one photograph of her main cabin was ever taken can be viewed at University of Wisconsin La Crosse collection. Much of the machineries and equipment transferred from the first to the second Lee. She caught fire on September 30 1882, 30 miles north of New Orleans, at Point Pleasant, killing 21 people. The third Lee is the one owned by Lee Line steamers, much smaller compare to the first two Lees. The arch from the main cabin is from the racer Lee, it matches a photograph of her main cabin found recently.