Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 - (Page 44)

Shipping Port and went on, but a few days later Gale Louisiana’s first river pilot and port captain, spent a 30-year realized that the vessel’s water reservoir had begun to leak, career on the river during the 18th century trying to assist and it took two days to repair it. She arrived at Natchez on navigation by keeping abreast of the depth of passes, but it April 17 to discover a great deal of water in the vessel, was an overwhelming task. After 25 years of taking regular which the crew pumped out. When the Aetna arrived in soundings and bearing the criticism when ships grounded New Orleans the master protested against the overflow of on the bar, he reported plaintively in 1748 that the passes the reservoir into the bottom of the boat, which had were never the same two years in a row and more often damaged the lowest tier of cargo, something they had not than not he could find no more than eight or nine feet over noticed until they unloaded. This damage, incidentally, the bar. Fifty to sixty years later, the situation was no better. was no small matter. These were the days when there Not until the 1870s would it finally be resolved, when were few other steamboats, and according to James Buchanan Eads completed the jetties that still bear Hunter the Aetna was making up to $25,000 in his name. freight charges on a single voyage. Four years The adventures of the ship Stratford in early later, when the economy had slumped and 1820 as related by Captain Robert Rogers to competition had expanded, the notary Carlile Pollock are Aetna sold before notary Pollock in instructive as to the experiences of April 1819, for just $8,200. ships before the jetties. The Stratford In a more typical case, the had sailed from Portsmouth in The average capacity of a steamboat Tom Bowling sailed from January 1820 and arrived off the flatboat was 400-500 New Orleans in February 1835, entrance to the Mississippi on barrels, or four to 50 bound for Ecore Fabre in the February 24. The crew took tons of cargo. Territory of Arkansas. She soundings, and came to anchor in proceeded up the channel to a point 10 fathoms of water. They then about eight miles before Tunica “trimmed the ship by the head,” or Bayou where, in crossing the river at the “usual place,” she in plain English redistributed the ballast to minimize the struck a snag on the larboard bow. The snag penetrated the draw in any one part of the ship. They got underway boat all the way through the forecastle deck. The crew several times, but “were baffled in all their attempts to pass managed to get the boat to shore and tied up to a bluff the bar.” bank, where she soon sank in three fathoms of water. The On the seventh day they suddenly “struck upon the cargo was lost except for a few packages, but in this case north spit.” It was now the March 3 and the Stratford was the Tom Bowling was later raised and saved. both baffled at the bar and aground. They tried all day on March 4 to heave off, assisted by a launch from the Balize, NAVIGATING THE MOUTH OF THE with no success. On the 5th, with brisk breezes from the MISSISSIPPI southeast and high water running, they made all sail, got No consideration of the Mississippi purchase on the cables, and hove taut. Nothing happened. would be complete without some discussion They now winded the ship round, let go the best bower of the difficulties getting over the siltanchor, furled all the sails, and turned in for the night. At 5 packed bar at its mouth. This a.m. they set all sail and commenced heaving again against was an issue that plagued all the anchors, and at 9 a.m., the ship suddenly floated. Louisiana from earliest colonial They were now sailing, with four anchors down. In the times. Jacques Enoul Livaudais, water were the “best,” the “bower,” the “kedge” and the “stream cable” anchors. They were able to hove up the “best” and the small bower anchors, but when they hove in In 1828, 19-year-old Abraham Lincoln was among on the kedge and stream cable anchors they refused to the thousands of farmers, traders, adventurers and budge. mariners who came to New Orleans on flatboats like Three hours later, with the sun at the meridian, they the one depicted here. 44 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2008 THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION

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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