Current Natchez
The ninth and current Natchez, the Str. Natchez, is a sternwheel steamboat based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Built in 1975, she is sometimes referred to as the Natchez IX. She is operated by the New Orleans Steamboat Company and docks at the Toulouse Street Wharf. Day trips include harbor and dinner cruises along the Mississippi River. It is modeled not after the original Natchez, but instead by the steamboats Hudson and Virginia. Its steam engines were originally built in 1925 for the steamboat Clairton, from which the steering system and paddlewheel shaft also came. From the S.S. J.D. Ayres came its copper bell, made of 250 melted silver dollars. The bell has on top a copper acorn that was once on the Avalon, now known as the Belle of Louisville, and on the Delta Queen. It also features a steam calliope, made by the Frisbee Engine Company, that has 32 notes. The wheel is made of white oak and steel, is 25 feet (7.6 m) by 25 feet (7.6 m), and weighs 26 tons. The whistle came from a ship that sank in 1908 on the Monagabola River. It was launched from Braithwaite, Louisiana. It is 265 feet (81 m) long and 46 feet (14 m) wide. It has a draft of six feet and weighs 1384 tons. It's mostly made of steel, due to United States Coast Guard rules. In 1982 the Natchez won the Great Steamboat Race, which is held every year on the Wednesday immediately before the first Saturday in May, as part of the Kentucky Derby Festival held in Louisville, Kentucky. It has partaken in other races, and has never lost. Those it has beaten include the Belle of Louisville, the Delta Queen, the Belle of Cincinnati, the American Queen, and the Mississippi Queen.
Read more about this topic: Steamboats Of The Mississippi
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