Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-10-08
Dan Able, Vicksburg.
Virginia, New Orleans.
Henry Won Phul, Cairo.
Tigress, New Orleans.
Mississippi, st. Louis.
H.. L.. DArA

J. s. McCune, Petrolia, Memphis, Gui-
don, Darling, Mollie Hambleton, Ma
toma, Fairy Queen, Commercial, Belle
Memphis.
Boats Leaving To-Day.
Cairo and ST. Louis The Belle Mem
phis is the regular packet this evening,
leaving at FIVE O'clock Captain Dan
Mussleman commands Larry Entler,
clerk.
Louisville and CiHcinnati-The IA
nous Darling is the Ohio packet this
evening, Captain j. NJ. Cheneworth in
command and A. b. tombstone in the
office.
miscellaneous.
The Arkansas river is falling, with
scant five feet to Little Rock White
river is receding, with six feet at DuvalPs
Bluff The Ohio is falling, with nine
feet scant in the canal.
= The following description of the Robt.
f. Lee we find in the Louisville Courier.
She was announced to start South yes
terday, and will be here on Wednesday
or Thursday:
The Bobt. L. Lee was built expressly
for the passenger and carrying trade be-
tween New Orleans, Vicksburg, and the
Bends, distance of upwards Of 500
miles TO make weekly trips, equal to
travelling 1000 miles every week, inciud-
ing her time in port, and attending to
way business, receiving and discharging
cargo. She was constructed at cost
exceeding $780, 900, and is the largest,
and will, we think, prove the fastest boat
ever in the trade. Her outfit is undoubt-
eddy the most costly and magnificent
that has ever yet been placed on ives
tern steamer, the owners being deter
mined that for the honor of the trade, as
well as the name, she shall stand sans
peur et sans repr0dche, and with
out an equal or rival in her career.
The capacity of the boat is equal to the
burthen of 1000 bales of cotton, or 1850
tons; and it is expected that she can
carry 5000 bales with her guards clear
of the water, and not a tier above the
second deck. In former times 10000
bale" boat was rarity, and 5000
bale" boat the wonder of the age yet
the Lee can carry 5000 bales, with her
guards clear Of the water, and make
railroad time.
The cabin and outfit of this great
Southern steamer surpasses that OF any
boat that has ever yet graced the trade,
and her accommodations are on the same
scale of grandeur aud magnifcence.
She has sixty.one state rooms in the main
cabin, twenty-four extra rooms in the
texas for passengers, a nursery for ser
wants and children, and cabin for col
ored people adjoining the nursery, in
which are state rooms for fifty passengers.
This gives her cabin accommodations for
two hundred and twenty persons in
rooms and take her all in all she is the
most commodious and complete packet
that has ever been built, and veiy great
improvement in all respects upon any
boat that has preceded her, but wh' ler
her equal ever can come after ren. MS
to be seen. The main cabin carpet in
a single piece, some l79 feet wide and
upwards of 225 feet in length, royal
Wilton velvet, purchased of A. T. Stew
art, of New York, and made to order.
The furniture was also made to order, all
of the modern style and costly material,
being in fact solid rosewood, the chairs,
sofas, sociabes, etc, most artistically
and deliberately carved The cushions
of all the seats are heavy crimson satin,
and the style of the furniture is of new
and original designs, all made in this
city, at the mandatory Of John Simm
She has twenty extension dining tables
in the main cabin, each to accommodate
twelve guests; thus seating two hundred
and forty for dinner, with plenty of room
for extra side tables.
This is the seventh boat built for Capt
Cannon, and in this magic number lies
the charm, as she is the greatest and best
of the feet First he com manded the
Gov. Downes, then he built the W w
Farmer for the Ouachita, followed by
the r. w McRae, the Louisiana, The
Bella Donna, the Vicksburg, the General
Quitman, aud now the Robert f. Lee
The new craft combines all the requisite
and outfit To make her the
best and most servlceable boat ever in
the trade. The dimens., - are as fol-
lows: Length of hull, } feet; beam,
&c feet; hold, 81 feet; az enc width, Sc
feet, or five feet wider .nln the new canal
locks The guards are Is feet wide, her
decks very high, and, with her great
depth Of hold, she can stow 5000 bales of
or Louisiana cotton without
at all encroaching upon the cabin or
upper guards. When fully laden her ca
pacity is equal to 1900 tons.
The machinery of the Robert E. Lee
consists of two main engines, the cylin
iers of which are forty inches in dame
Ter, with ten feet stroke, the largest high
pressure engines on the river. She has
eight boilers, each twenty eight feet in
ength, and forty two inches in diameter,
making fire surface of over thirty feet,
which will require hecatomb of fuel to
eed The doctor engine is considered
/ triumph of mechanical art, it being of
new style, with the parallel motion ap-
Piled. 1t supplies the boilers with water,
md can throw an immense volume. The
,oat is also furnished with three sepa-
ate pumping fire engines, with an abund
lnce Of hose in case of fire The water
wheels are monsters, being thirty-nine
eet in diameter, with seventeen feet
ength Of buckets. She has wrought iron
hats weighing Is, $50 pounds, the shafts
icing each twenty-three feet in length, |
With the journals eighteen inches in d.
meter Each of the cranks, which are
llso wrought iron, weighs 5000 pounds.
They were all made east of the Ale
,henies, and are the largest ever con-
Itructed for a Western steamer.
The model of the Robert L. Lee is
aultless, being built expressly for speed,
nd with her immense power and its
Il