Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-06-29
NEW BOAT IS HOME
Capt. John Streckfus' Handsome
Steamer Reaches Rock
Island Port.
WARM WELCOME IS EXTENDED
Cannon Boom and Whistles Blow
Large Crowd at the
Landing.

hdSS anu cneerS OF the Assem- bled
crowds, Capt. Streckfus' new packet.
the u. S." steamed proudly and
gracefully into her home port this
morning. Long had her coming been
looked forward to and the people Of
K Jck Island and Davenport had been
led 10 expect much of her. 1t is no
exaggeration to say that every expec.
tation was fully met.
Out of courtesy to the people of
Davenport. Capt. Streckfus, being a
resident IF Rock Island, turned the
bow of his steamer toward that city
first in tAc.ful acknowledgment OF
the honors accorded him from that
side.
On the other side two cannon led
the chorus, accompanied by steam
whistles and band as a landing was
effected. AS soon the boat touched
shore the crosd surged aboard and it
was over half an hour before the j
S." could be cleared for the Illinois
shore.
On this side the Acme Packet COM
pany's warehouse on the levee had
BET n bedecked with flags and bunting
and great crowd stood in impatient
expectation A committee of business
men headed by +. G. Young was
there to give Capt. Streckfus the glad
hand. and Bleuer's band was on hand
by order of Mayor KuoX. V Daubsr
had his anvil stationed back of the
Seventeenth street depot and gave the
captain salute of 10 shots as
the steamer hove in view. When
q o hn IN ~ hn n
wave of admiration swepG over the
throng and cheer after cheer broke
out spontaneously. Within a few
minutes after the long steel bridge
was dropped on the platform there
were hun dreds of people aboard, and
every visible part of the boat was soon
thoroughly inspected and pronounced
good.
Trip Begins Monday.
The new packet left New Albany At
1920 q. IN Monday, running TO Cairo
in % hours. She reached st. Louis
Wednesday at IL p. IN. ami left
Thursday noon. Stops were made at
Quincy. Burlington and Muscatine,
the last named place being reached at
5 o'clock this morning. The party
that made the initial trip was COM
posed of Mrs. Streckfus and two old
est sons and Il Winter. of this city
Col. and Mrs. James Donahue and
William Peterson. of Davenport; w.
II Lehman, OF Des Moines. and Mr..
and Mrs. +. d Chapman and Dan
lei Weiss, of Louisville. At Mus
catiue the party was increased by
Mayor Knox and Fred Hass, Of
this city, and f NJ. Sharon, Hal
Decker, 5. w. Searle and Purser T..
w. Baker, of Davenport. Mr.. Sharon.
in behalf OF the business men of DIv-
export, presented Capt. Streckfus
with beautiful silk flag. The whole
trip was made without q single un-
toward incident, the boat behaving
perfectly. Towns along the way ex-
tended the warmest greetings, at
Burlington. in particular. a great
crowd assembling on the levee and
cheering the graceful craft.
Finest on Upper River.
The new packet is without doubt
the finest ana best equipped craft of
her class on the upper river. She
represents many new ideas her owner
has gathered in long experience in
the trade for which she is designed.
yards at Jacksonville, Ind, and no
expense has been spared in fully
working out all details. Symmetry,
speed and roominess are her distin-
gushing attributes. The length is
I75 feet, beam 33 feet and width over
all 10 feet. The hull is 5! feet in
depth, and on her trip up she drew
about "a feet. Her decks will COM
fortably accommodate upwards of
Thousand persons. and there is room
below for considerable miscellaneous
freight.
The two boilers are IS inches 10
diameter by % feet long and contain
125 2-inch tubes. allowing lSS pounds
of steam. Boilers and machinery were !
made by the Charles Hegewald COM
pany, of New Albany, Ind and sup
ply steam for a pair of engines hav-
ing 16-inch cylinders by 81 feet
stroke and equipped with a mechan-
ical boiler cleaner, allowing boilers to |
be disconnected and cleaned while |
under way. as they are independent
OF each other. They are also equipped |
with the induced draft or coaxer and |
will exhaust in or out of stacks. The
small engine that works the coaxer
sets under the boilers.
High Pressure Engines.
The engines are of the lever high
pressure pattern, and have the Cali
fornia cutoff She has steel doc
tor, steam ship-up rigging, cast steel
cross-heads and flangs, and steel
cylinder timbers. Her % inch shaft |
is % feet in length. working u wheel |
with eighteen 80 iuch buckets. She
is equipped with the famous Cincin-
natl Crawley & Johnston steam steer
ing apparatus, which is coming into
use SO universally. Her bell is of an
elegant silver tone, and was cast es-t
pecially for the boat by the K. w.
Vanduzen company, of Cincinnati.
The Kitchen, pantry, and crews