Search for the first steamboat on the Mississippi and
Ohio Rivers, the New Orleans. April, 1989.
T he story of the New Orleans is a fascinating as well
as historical story. Built in 1811 for Nicholas Roosevelt
by Robert Fulton, the maiden voyage of the newly built
ship down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers was an adventure
epic by itself.
Reaching the Mississippi just in time to experience
the worst earthquake in American history, the New Madrid
upheaval, its crew, including Roosevelt's wife who gave
birth to a descendent of Teddy and Franklin during the
trip, was forced to steam over forested land after the
river changed course, narrowly avoiding disaster from
thousands of uprooted and drifting trees.
Finally reaching New Orleans, the ship went into service
between that city and Natchez. In 1814 it transported
men of Andrew Jackson's army to fight in the famous
battle against the invading British at Chalmette.
She hung on a snag in 1814 above Baton Rouge and sank
at a place called Clay's Landing according to the report
describing the end of her short but brilliant trailblazing
career on the river. Considering the legend of this
famous ship, we again found it strange that no one had
ever searched for her burial place.
Marshaling NUMA's research team, we tackled the problem,
using the able Bob Fleming's initial research, the book
on the New Orleans by Mary Helen Samsot, and Keith Sliman
of Baton Rouge who worked at the Seven Seas Dive Shop
and probed the records of the Louisiana state capitol
archives.
Sliman, going on the report of the sinking, found the
answer to the mystery that had defied all efforts for
nearly four years. He pinpointed the land along the
river frontage that had been owned by John Clay from
1813 to 1818. The land parcel, now owned by an oil company,
has the exact same dimensions as it did when Clay supplied
firewood to the New Orleans. Fortunately, the river
bank boundary has never measured more than a 100 yards.
Now, we had a real ballpark location.
In cooperation with the Army Corp of Engineers and
the Louisiana State Archaeology Office, Craig Dirgo
and I came to Baton Rouge and began a mag survey of
the land between the levee and the present shore line.
We turned up nothing that suggested any heavy metal,
well aware that the copper boilers on the ship would
not read on the Schonstedt gradiometer and the engines
had been removed and installed in a later ship, but
hoping for scattered iron contacts.
The Army Corp of Engineers research came through at
this point, mostly with bad news. Their projections
put the 1814 river bank about 100 feet farther into
the water. Then the agonizing blow. In 1971 the Corp
had laid a steel and concrete revetment mattress along
the bank to halt erosion, which now lies on top of any
remains of the New Orleans.
Sad to say, when the river is low during a drought,
you can almost walk on top of the famous old ship, but
cannot touch or pinpoint her exact site with metal detection
gear because of the revetment and the steel cables that
hold it together.
In the distant future, perhaps, the revetment might
be pulled up for some reason and a survey will discover
the bones of the first steamship on western waters.
But until then, the New Orleans will have to remain
at rest in the mud.
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