The Great American Steamboat Race (27 page)

Before reaching Vicksburg late Friday afternoon, Tom Leathers was pleased to see that the
Natchez
, fiercely striving to catch up, was gaining, though slightly, on the
Robert E. Lee
. Checking his watch, he estimated that, except for the head start the
Lee
had got at New Orleans, the
Natchez
was running only about eight minutes behind, a lead that was not at all insurmountable. But he had lost more time at the Vicksburg wharf, putting off passengers and their baggage and taking on fuel. That done, he had steamed off again, renewing his hot pursuit, but with more time to make up.

In the early evening, just above the mouth of the Yazoo River, as the
Natchez
approached Buckhorn Landing at Milliken’s Bend, Leathers’s chief engineer, Andy Pauley, discovered that the pump that drew river water into the boat’s boilers had suddenly quit and could not be restarted. He diagnosed the problem as a broken valve. There was nothing to do but head the
Natchez
into shore, tie up to a tree on the riverbank, shut down the engines, remove the valve and fix it. Pauley made the repairs, but consumed thirty-four precious minutes in the process. Then he started up the engines again, and the
Natchez
carefully backed out into midstream and resumed its urgent run, its captain fuming in frustration.

Then came a new misfortune. In the darkness of Friday night the speeding vessel, despite the reputation of its pilots, lost the channel and ran into shallow water near the shore off island No. 93 and grounded on the river bottom. Only after more anxious minutes were the pilot and the engineers able to dislodge the boat by reversing its huge paddle wheels. It then returned to the safety of the main channel, where it straightened up in deeper water and re-entered the race.

Under way again, the
Natchez
passed the steamer
Frank Pargoud
, which was headed downstream. Leathers had heard reports that Cannon had arranged to have the
Robert E. Lee
refueled from the speedy
Pargoud
rather than tying

the
Lee
up to burdensome barges to take on fuel. The passing of the
Pargoud
, whose crew failed to answer the
Natchez
’s hail, a sign that something was not quite right, silently told the enraged Leathers that the reports were true.

The
Frank Pargoud
maneuver was indeed Cannon’s latest trick. The
Pargoud
was owned by John W. Tobin, Cannon’s long-time and wealthy friend who was aboard the
Lee
, giving Cannon moral support and expert advice as well as enjoying the history-making ride. The
Pargoud
’s usual run was between New Orleans and Greenville, carrying passengers and freight. But on the night of Friday, July 1, 1870, it had no passengers, no lights beaming from its stateroom windows, and the only freight it bore was one hundred cords of knotty pine wood, oozing thick, sticky sap that would make it burn bright and hot, just the fuel needed for a racing steamboat. By prior arrangement, Tobin’s boat had stood idling in mid-stream just below Greenville, waiting for the
Robert E. Lee
. When the
Lee
had appeared, between two and three o’clock in the morning, the
Pargoud
, its bow pointed upstream, had steamed up alongside the swiftly moving
Lee
as it passed. Lines had gone out, lashing the boats together, and the two steamers had raced side by side while brave and hardy roustabouts walked gangplanks laid between the boats, carrying armloads of firewood from the main deck of the
Pargoud
to the main deck of the
Lee.

While the two boats were tied together, with planks between them, Governor Warmoth and Doctor Smyth, both with other matters doubtlessly on their minds, had seized the opportunity to disembark from the
Lee
and had made their way across the gangplank to the
Frank Pargoud
to return to New Orleans. When the transfer of wood and the two passengers was completed, the
Frank Pargoud
had cast off the lines that bound it to the
Robert E. Lee,
and its captain had let his boat fall behind the
Lee
, then had made a big Uturn in the river and headed back downstream, a dangerous night’s work efficiently done. Meanwhile the refueled
Robert E. Lee
continued on through the darkness, rushing toward Helena and Memphis.

The
St. Louis Republican
reporter aboard the
Natchez
cried foul, as did fellow passengers who had bet on the
Natchez
and learned about the
Frank Pargoud
incident by way of the public announcement Captain Leathers made to those still awake at that late hour. They protested that Cannon and the
Lee
had disqualified themselves by using the
Frank Pargoud
as a sort of power booster while it took on its load of fuel. “The
Lee
won all her bets up to the time when the
Pargoud
improperly and unfairly aided her by making use of her own propelling power while transferring a heavy lot of pine fuel,” the reporter wrote. “The propelling power being thus divided, from another boat, loses the race for the
Lee
and all bets, notwithstanding she was in the lead. Hurrah for the
Natchez!
”
¹

Having become a
Natchez
partisan, the reporter declared his confidence in the boat’s ultimate victory and the righteousness of its cause. “Everything goes lovely just now,” he wrote, “and the goose hangs a trifle high; but Capt. Leathers has a fearfully long reach, and aside from the question of the bets (which the
Lee
has forfeited) the
Natchez
has a good show to make the best time. We are making a fair, open business trip, although not attempting to do much business. But we are not making a run for a race, but to try and see what can be done in the way of fast work on a regular trip.”
²
When he wrote that, the
Robert E. Lee
was twelve miles ahead.

Unable to resist the chance to make a buck, Leathers slowed down at Greenville and pulled up to the wharf to take on passengers, only to discover there were no passengers waiting to come aboard. He quickly hauled his lines back in and left, after losing another ten minutes. While at the wharf, though, he had learned from someone on shore that the
Lee
was an hour ahead of him.

About ten o’clock Friday morning the
Natchez
reached the mouth of the Arkansas River, passing the site of the washed-away town of Napoleon. At White River, at eight minutes past ten, the
Natchez
slowed again, this time to tie up to and tow a barge from which it took on three hundred boxes of coal and received the somewhat good news that the
Robert E. Lee
was fifty minutes ahead. The
Natchez
, now two-thirds the way between Greenville and Helena, had gained ten minutes since leaving Greenville.

When the
Natchez
was in sight of Helena, the hopeful reporter aboard wrote : “The
Natchez
will undoubtedly set a mark that will be the goal of other boats for years to come. If we had put her through without landing, taking our fuel from steamers with full head on, and for the sole purpose of racing, we could have made Helena at least an hour ago, which is the opinion of every man on board. Helena is now in sight. We will not stop, but I will send this ashore by a skiff, if possible.”
³

At Hardin Point the
Natchez
received a warm welcome from the steamer
Mollie Able
, which stopped and swung sideways in the river, so that its bow pointed toward the
Natchez
, and it saluted Leathers and his crew with a blast from its whistle. The
Natchez
signaled its acknowledgment with a blast from its own whistle.

Continuing to keep track of the race was the New Orleans
Picayune
, which on page one on Saturday printed a dispatch telegraphed to it when the two steamers had passed Helena:

H
ELENA
, A
RK
., July 2 — The Lee passed here at 4:30 [
P
.
M
.], the Natchez at 5:24. Lee 54 minutes ahead. All her window blinds were down and some plank off her wheelhouse, and she seemed to be driving through the water. Neither boat landed here. A party went out to the Natchez in a small steamer. On their return reported that the Natchez claims to have broken her pump and laid up for 30 minutes last night.

The Lee’s time from New Orleans to this place is 47 hours 36 minutes — the fastest time on record. The Natchez says her time to this place is one hour and a half faster than her last trip. The Lee cheered with her whistle when she passed, and was answered by two steamers lying at the wharf and the multitude of people on the shore. Those who think the Natchez laid up 30 minutes last night are still betting on her.
⁴

The
Natchez
was showing how fast it could run, breaking all of its previous speed records so far. But it was still trailing the
Robert E. Lee
.
At Memphis the excitement and the crowd waiting at the river’s edge to see the racers were equally huge. The crowd’s anxiety was heightened by a breakdown in the telegraph line below Memphis, the eager spectators not knowing where the boats were or when to expect them at Memphis. A news reporter in Memphis described the situation:

All coming from the [Memphis telegraph] office were eagerly questioned, but no news could be gained, as the operator at Helena reported the boats not in sight at 3:45 [
P
.
M
.]. With every moment’s delay the excitement increased. At one time it seemed probable that the curiosity of the populace would not be gratified till the boats arrived at this place [Memphis], for the telegraph line between Helena and Madison was blown down by a sudden storm at 4 o’clock this afternoon. When this news was bulletined, a verbal cry of disappointment arose, and murmurs that some ruse was being practiced found many believers. But fortunately the telegraph operators were equal to the emergency. Repair men were immediately sent out from different stations, and by 7
P
.
M
. the line was again in order, and the news came that the Lee had passed Helena at 4:30 and the Natchez at 5:24....

The curiosity of the people to see the boats as they pass is intense. Many have been on the bluff [on the river] all the afternoon, and since dark the crowd has increased till the whole bluff is now covered, and still people are coming in from all parts of the city.

Great preparations are being made for the reception of the boats. Tar barrels are placed ready to be fired as they approach, and a battery of artillery is in position ready to thunder forth a salute in honor of the victor. All seem wild with anticipation. Men, women and children are striving for favorable positions to witness the race, and all seem animated with an intense desire to gain a good look at the boats as they pass the city.
⁵

Among the crowd, absorbed with the race, rumors, all false, were rife. One had it that the
Robert E. Lee
had broken down and was unable to continue the race. Another was that the larboard wheel housing of the
Natchez
had been blown off and that the
Lee
was towing the
Natchez
. Still another claimed that the
Natchez
was gaining on the
Lee
and that Captain Cannon had despaired of winning the race. Other rumors asserted that the recent telegraphic message reporting that the
Lee
had passed Helena fifty-four minutes ahead of the
Natchez
was a fraud perpetrated by friends of the
Lee
who had tampered with the telegraph wire.

The
Lee
had been expected to arrive about nine
P
.
M
.— despite Captain Cannon’s promising only to make Memphis by eleven — and the steamer
Connecticut
had left the Memphis wharf earlier that evening carrying a capacity load of passengers, at two dollars a head, all intent on seeing the two boats steam by. At ten
P
.
M
. the
Connecticut
was still out in the river, its passengers waiting and wondering where the racing boats were. The reporter covering the event at the Memphis waterfront seemed to grow as anxious as the other spectators:

1 0
P
.
M
. The boats are not in sight yet. The crowd on the bluff in front of the river is immense. Nothing like it has been seen in this city for very many years. Seats have been impromptued for the ladies, and the whole front of the city looks like one vast amphitheatre, and the utmost interest is manifested on all sides.

Betting is very heavy, with the chances slightly in favor of the Lee. But experienced steamboatmen claim that the Natchez can more than make up her lost hour above this point, and great confidence is still manifested by the backers of the natty champion.

Tugs have been stationed in the river with barges of coal ever since 8 o’clock, but up to this hour nothing has been heard of either boat.
Old men who have not been to the levee for years came out on this occasion, to gaze upon the magnificent spectacle. Carriages, hacks, buggies and every specie of vehicle crowded the levee. Bonfires are prepared and will be fired as soon as the boats come in sight.
⁶

The people of Memphis, the city itself, were planning a spectacular welcome for the race’s leader, which at last report was the
Robert E. Lee
. Not only the cheering crowds, the artillery salutes and the bonfires, but a breathtaking fireworks display were awaiting the
Lee
, the fireworks to be set off the moment the
Lee
was spotted clattering and splashing up the river, its cabin lights glowing from a distance, gleaming through the night’s blackness.