Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 - (Page 42)

began to unload, but had gotten off only 90 As the tree trunk penetrated the roof and tore pounds when the wind carried away two of the it away, the Pompey No. 4 filled up and bow studs with the cable fastened to them. settled into the river. The hands just had At this the water rushed in and the crew time to throw their trunks toward land, could barely cut loose a couple of horses get on the roof remains and try to guide and get a dozen bearskins ashore before the boat to sandbar. But the flatboat the boat sank to the bottom. lost its steering and drifted They lost everything downriver for three miles remaining on board, having before the crew abandoned Groundings, leaks,and saved only 51 pigs of the ship. rain probably did more lead. It did not always take a In April 1835 flatboat hole in the bottom to doom widespread harm to the Number Eight out of a flatboat. It could sink flatboatman’s precious Florence, Alabama sank from a storm, from a sheer, cargo than incidents of with her cargo of pig iron or from odd turns of fate. sinking. Rain could cause while nearly aground. She In 1812 the aptly-named had been stuck for days in flatboat Hard Times made it flour barrels to swell the shallow Tennessee River down from St. Genevieve, and pop their tops off, at a place called Colbert’s Missouri as far as the wetting the contents Shoals when the water Houmas below Baton suddenly rose and “set said and bringing on mold. Rouge. The boat was boat afloat in a very dark bound for New Orleans and foggy night.” The with 15,000 pounds of pig flatboat then struck a rock and sank in about five iron, horses, bearskins, 7,000 pounds of lead, and minutes owing to the heavy weight of the pig iron. 14,000 pounds of tobacco. With the weather Sometimes a boat was not safe in its very own worsening on the 10th of June, the crew tied up in bed. On a Saturday afternoon in April 1835, the the lee of the bank to wait out a gale that blew for flatboat Juniper, laden with bacon, made it safely two days. They were fine until the wind shifted from Paducah, Kentucky to New Orleans where it and began to blow toward the bank where they moored at the flatboat landing opposite the lay; then they were in trouble. Realizing this, they Faubourg St. Marie. The next morning the aptlynamed steamboat Whale passed down the river close to the Juniper’s stern, causing a bow wake that swamped and sank the flatboat right at her berth. On another occasion a flatboat sank at her berth in New Orleans after, according to the master, “shrimp ate out the caulking” under the boat, causing a leak that caused her to sink. The revenue Crews aboard Mississippi River vessels often had to load and unload cargo numerous times on downriver journeys — sometimes several times a day — when sandbars and low water grounded the ships. THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION 42 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities New Orleans Immortelle The Historic New Orleans Collection Highland-Fairfield: The Historic Heart of Shreveport The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Perils of the Mississippi River Louisiana Foodways Harvest of Life King Oliver: The Forgotten King of Jazz Louisiana Architecture Jazz Notes Louisiana State Museum Eye of the Storm Louisiana Association of Museums Soul Resin Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

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