page_title: Mike McCoole
section_title: Work on the Mississippi
hierarchical_section_title: Mike McCoole / Work on the Mississippi
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Champion (1863-1865, "Tinclad" # 24) Lithograph by Middleton, Strobridge &amp; Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1864, after a drawing by Chas. A. Fisher. Inscription below the image reads: "United States Steamer Champion. Mississippi Squadron. Acting Ensign Thomas Divins, Commanding Nov. 1864". Thomas "Divins" is a misprint for Thomas Divine.
context_page_description: Mike McCoole, sometimes spelled McCool, was an Irish-born bare-knuckle boxing champion who came to America at the age of thirteen. He claimed the Heavyweight Championship of America in 1866 by defeating boxer Bill Davis after former champion Joe Coburn retired, and lost the title to Tom Allen in 1873.
context_section_description: In his boxing retirement, McCoole continued to work as a wharf laborer and mate on steamboats, and worked occasionally on coal barges as well.  He was aboard the steamboat Champion in 1864 when she was set on fire in Memphis during the Civil War.  The Champion was hit by an incendiary device, starting a small fire.  She returned to shore, while McCoole tied her up and waited for her crew and supplies to unload.
  He was a mate on the stern wheel packet freighter Florence Meyer when she was snagged and sunk on the Mississippi while loaded with cotton and other supplies, about 12 miles above Natchez, Mississippi near Bullett's Bayou, Louisiana in the early morning of September 25, 1880.   At least four of the crew were lost in the accident.  McCoole did not drown, as several newspapers reported, though he was washed overboard as the ship was sinking.  After a struggle, he was able to grab on to a barrel and pull himself back aboard using a guard rope to wait for rescue.  He worked aboard the steamer Yazoo off Louisiana as late as 1881, and as a fireman, shoveling fuel to the boiler, on the Earle, a New Orleans harbor boat.  In 1884, he worked as a fireman on the towboat Port Eads.
  McCoole died in financial distress on 17 October 1886, at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, of malaria, and other diseases, and was buried at St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, near Canal Street.
caption: Steamer USS Champion
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