Robert E. Lee (steamboat)
Robert E. Lee, drawing by Samuel Ward Stanton (1870–1912) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Capt. John W. Cannon |
| Route | Mississippi River |
| Cost | More than $200,000 |
| Launched | 1866, at New Albany, Indiana |
| In service | 1866 |
| Out of service | 1876 |
| Fate | Dismantled, equipments moved to the second Robert E Lee (1876–1882) |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | inland steamboat |
| Tonnage | 1467 |
| Length | 285.5 ft (87.02 m) |
| Beam | 46 ft (14.02 m) |
| Installed power | twin high-pressure steam engines; cylinder bores 40 inches (101.6 cm); stroke 120 inches (304.8 cm); eight iron boilers each 46 feet (14.02 m) long and 27 inches (68.6 cm) diameter, working steam pressure 120 lbs. |
| Propulsion | sidewheel |
| Speed | 15 Mph |
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Robert E. Lee, nicknamed the "Monarch of the Mississippi", was a steamboat built in New Albany, Indiana, in 1866. The hull was designed by DeWitt Hill, and the riverboat cost more than $200,000 to build. She was named for General Robert E. Lee, General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States. The steamboat gained its greatest fame for racing and beating the then-current speed record holder, Natchez, in an 1870 steamboat race.