# Jeffboat

Jeffboat was a shipyard in Jeffersonville, Indiana founded by James Howard in 1834, a builder of steamboats. The company was owned by the Howard family until it was sold leading up to World War II. Following the war, it became known as the Jeffersonville Boat and Machine Company and later changed its name to Jeffboat, the more commonly used short form of its name. The company was the largest inland shipbuilder in the United States and the second-largest builder of barges before it closed in 2018.

## Origin

Jeffboat was originally established as the Howard Shipyards in 1834 by James Howard when he started his first boat, the Hyperion. The Howard family controlled the company for 107 years, building over 3,000 ships.

### 19th-century steamboats

The Joe Fowler is a former steamboat built at the Howard Shipyard in 1888. The sternwheeler was designed for packet service between Evansville, Indiana and Paducah, Kentucky. Joe Fowler was a United States Mail carrier, and after seven years of service, had logged over 327,000 miles and transported over 152,000 passengers without a fatal accident. In 1914, new owners replaced the steamer with high-pressure boilers designed for the western rivers. After this time, Joe Fowler ran excursions around the Pittsburgh and Wheeling, West Virginia areas, before hosting a cruise down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers for Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and a long summer cruise from Pittsburgh to St. Paul, then back to Louisville. After 1917, it was sold, refitted to better serve excursions, and renamed Crescent.
The Emily is a former sternwheeled steamboat built at the Howard Shipyard in 1891. The single-boiler steamer began in ferry service at Kenova, West Virginia, and later operated at Wheeling, West Virginia. Emily was sold three times, starting in 1902. The third buyer was Henderson Ferry Company of Henderson, Kentucky, which renamed it the Dixie Bee Line. It burned in Henderson in 1926. After a rebuild, it ran as the ferry Ohio No. 2. In the 1930s, it was renovated for packet service, and renamed Joe Curtis, and plied the waters near Memphis until it struck ice and sunk on January 25, 1940.

## 20th century

Besides the original Jeffersonville, In. location the company had also established Yards in Paducah, Kentucky, Madison, Indiana, Cincinnati, and other locations. Most of them were put up for sale in 1917.
The company faced persistent challenges during the Great Depression. The United States Navy bought the shipyards in 1942 and reorganized it as the Jeffersonville Boat & Machine Company.
During World War II, it built 123 vessels of the type known as "Landing Ship, Tank" (LSTs), 23 submarine chasers, and numerous other craft. Post-war, the shipyards built customized crafts, but specialized in barges and towboats. In 1957, the official name was changed to Jeffboat.
The Jeffboat yard built two nostalgic paddlewheelers during this period. In 1973, it completed Mississippi Queen steamboat, and in 1985, finished the General Jackson showboat.
Production was stopped from 1986 to 1989.

## 21st century

A wildcat strike shut down operations during part of 2001.
The Jeffboat yard built a third nostalgic paddlewheeler, the City of Evansville, which was put into service as the Casino Aztar riverboat casino.
A union decertification petition was circulated in 2016, but employees voted 649 to 190 to retain Teamsters Local 89 as their union.
As of 20 June 2015, the 68-acre Jeffboat shipyard is owned by American Commercial Lines Inc. (ACL), a company also based in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Mark Knoy is the CEO. In turn, Platinum Equity owns ACL, the largest inland shipbuilder in the United States, building both river barges and ocean barges.
The company laid off 278 employees in November 2017 due to a lack of production, and it closed permanently on April 23, 2018.

## Ships built

Steamships built in the yard include (in alphabetical order):
| Name | Origin | Year | Power | Propulsion | tonnage | Length | Beam | Draft | Out of service | Notes |
| A.D. Allen | Built | 1901 | Single steam boiler | Sternwheeler | | 125 | 23 | 2.5 | 1929 or later | Arkansas River |
| A.M. Halliday | Built | 1903 | Single boiler steam | Centerwheel | | 121 | 59 | 7.7 | 1954 | Steel, double-hull. Ferry. Dismantled. |
| A. Baldwin | Built | 1905 | Dual boiler, steam | Centerwheel | | 127 | 58.9 | 7.5 | 1971 | Steel-hull. Catamaran. Ferry. |
| Acadia | Built | 1860 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 188 | 35 | 7 | 1863 | Burned in the Civil War |
| Alberta | Built | 1876 | Steam | Sternwheeler | 107 | 116 | 25 | 3.5 | | White River |
| Alberta | Built | 1880 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 150 | 18.5 | 3.5 | | Arkansas and White rivers |
| Alberta No. 3 | Built | 1884 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 145 | 28 | 3.6 | | White River |
| Alex Perry | Built | 1891 | Dual boiler, steam | Sternwheeler | | 149.9 | 18.5 | 3.5 | 1896 | Lost to fire |
| Alex. Scott | Built | 1842 | Steam, six-boilers | Sidewheeler | | 266 | 34 | 8 | | St. Louis–New Orleans |
| Algiers | Built | 1925 | Steam, dual boilers | Sternwheeler | | 144 | 55 | 7.7 | After 1958 | Dual, steel hull. Catamaran. Ferry. New Orleans. |
| Aline | Built | 1858 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 125 | 30 | 6 | | New Orleans–Opelousas (1859). Confederate service (1861) |
| Alma | Built | 1900 | Triple-boiler, steam | Sternwheeler | 311 | 220 | 36 | 5 | 1861 | Missouri River |
| Alonzo C. Church | Built | 1893 | Triple-boiler steam | Recess wheel | | | 59 | 7.7 | 1954 | Steel, double-hull. Ferry. Dismantled. |
| A. Baldwin | Built | 1905 | Dual boiler, steam | Centerwheel | | 172.3 | 43.3 | 6.5 | 1914 | Dismantled and converted to wharf boat. |
| Alonzo Child | Built | 1857 | Steam, six boilers. | Sidewheeler | | 236 | 38 | 7 | After 1863 | St. Louis–Omaha. St. Louis–New Orleans. |
| Alton | Built | 1906 | Steam | Sidewheeler | | 241.1 | 38 | 7.3 | 1918 | St. Louis–Alton. Excursions. Lost in ice. |
| America | Built | 1898 | Triple-boiler, steam | Sternwheeler | | 200 | 38 | 6.5 | 1926 | Ouchita River (1898). Mississippi River (1904). |
| America | Built | 1917 | Steam, five boilers | Sidewheeler | | 285 | 45 | 6 | 1930 | Converted wooden hull from Indiana. Lost to fire. |
| Andrew Christy | Built | 1897 | Triple-boiler, steam | Sidewheeler | | 170 | 48 | 7.4 | | Renamed Henry Watterson |
| Archie P. Green | Built | 1873 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 110 | 22 | 3 | 1880 | White River. Sunk near Batesville, Arkansas. |
| Arkansas City | Built | 1882 | Steam | Sidewheeler | 1,236 | 273 | 44 | 7 | 1896 | Destroyed in tornado |
| Ashland City | Built | 1892 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 120 | 20 | 3.9 | After 1900 | Nashville–Clarksville (1892). Paducah–Danville. |
| Assumption | Built | 1875 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 151 | 35.8 | 6.5 | 1895 | New Orleans–Thibodeaux (1878). New Orleans–Bayou Lafourche (1880). |
| B.B. | Built | 1899 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | | | | | Ferry at Warsaw and Quincy |
| B.H. Crooke | Built | 1873 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 151 | 30 | 4.5 | 1880 | Evansville–Nashville. Dismantled. |
| Bayliss Lee | Built | 1899 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 190 | 38 | 5.8 | | Memphis. Paducah–Waterloo. Memphis–Vicksburg. |
| Bayou City | Built | 1859 | Steam | Sidewheeler | | 165 | 28 | 5 | | Houston–Galveston |
| Belle Lee | Built | 1868 | Eight boilers, steam | Sidewheeler | 1,284 | 291 | 2.4 | 8.4 | 1876 | Refabricated and renamed Mary Bell |
| Belle Memphis | Built | 1866 | Steam | Sidewheeler | | 260 | 40 | 7 | 1980 | St.Louis–Memphis. Dismantled. |
| Belle Memphis | Built | 1880 | Five boilers, steam | Sidewheeler | | 267 | 42 | 7.5 | 1897 | St. Louis–Memphis. Hit snag near Chester, Illinois. |
| Belle of Alton | Built | | Six boilers, steam | Sidewheeler | | 229 | 34.5 | 6 | 1871 | Alton–St. Louis (1868). New Orleans–Grand Encore (1870). Fire. |
| Belle of the Bends | Built | 1898 | Three boilers, steam | Sidewheeler | | 210 | 32.6 | 7.4 | | Vickburg–Greenville (1898). Sank and raised twice. Renamed Liberty. |
| Ben Franklin | Built | 1869 | Four boilers, steam | Sidewheeler | | 261 | 37.5 | 6.1 | 1881 | Cincinnati–Madison. Sank in 1878, but recovered. |
| Big Sunflower | Built | 1869 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 125 | 28 | 4 | | Vicksburg. Possibly rebuilt as the Jennie Lane. |
| Birdie Brent | Built | 1866 | Steam | Recess wheel | 109 | 111 | 22 | 3.5 | 1887 | Boonville, MO. Sunk. |
| Black Locust | Built | 1834 | Steam | | | 110 | 25 | 4.5 | | Louisville–Jeffersonville. Possibly first or second boat built at Howard. |
| Black Locust | Built | 1847 | Steam | Recess wheel. | 106 | | | | 1867 | Louisville–Jeffersonville. Ferry. Lost in ice. |
| Blanks Cornwall | Built | 1887 | Steam, two boilers. | Sternwheeler | | 140 | 29 | 4.6 | 1896 | Yazoo and Tallahatchie rivers. Lost to snag. |
| Blue Wing No. 2 | Built | 1850 | Three boilers, steam | Sidewheeler | 170 | 150 | 60 | 6.5 | 1862 | Kentucky River. Captured by the CSA and burned. |
| Blue Wing No. 3 | Built | 1863 | Steam | Sidewheeler | 158 | 150 | 31 | 5.7 | | Kentucky River (1863). New Orleans–Mobile (1866). Louisville (1876). |
| Bluff City | Built | 1896 | Four boilers, steam | Sternwheeler | | 225 | 42 | 6 | 1897 | St. Louis–New Orleans. Fire at Chester, IL. |
| Bob Blanks | Built | 1903 | Three boilers, steam | Sternwheeler | | 175 | 35 | 5 | 1912 | New Orleans. Fire. |
| Bonnie Lee | Built | 1875 | Steam | Sternwheeler | | 165 | 30 | 3.5 | 1880 | New Orleans and Red River. Boiler explosion. |