Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Etching Natchez

Hand-colored etching $300.00 Monochrome etching $200.00

The Natchez was built for Capt. T.P. Leathers for the New Orleans-Vicksburg trade. She was substantial and fast, but decidedly plain and ungainly. In off-cotton seasons the Natchez made trips to St. Louis, and so it was in June 1870 she sprinted north to that port, breaking the long standing J.M. White record by one hour, twelve minutes. This achievement set the stage for the celebrated race run between the Natchez and the Robt. E. Lee.

It is said of her that she went through the water like a swan. She had a half-round groove in her stemband that spurted up water like a fountain jet when under full headway. Smokestacks were red, and she wore the cotton bale symbol between them. She became stranded in 1879 at Rising Sun, Indiana, and after fruitless attempts to tow her free, she was dismantled. Later the hull was taken south to become a wharfboat at the Refuge Oil Mill below Vicksburg.

*This information was obtained from The Old Courthouse Museum (Vicksburg, Mississippi,) courtesy of Dr. Gordon A. Cotton.

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