Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-02-18

at the Louisville Water COmpany's pump
ing station steadily on the job. Failure
to catch the slightest trouble in the small
est valve might leave the city without
water and helpless prey to the flames.
But Chief Engineer West is there and
the pumps can find no rest. Yet all
those monotonous 'years-the never end.
ing throb, throb, throb of the pistons,
the ceaseless gurgle and rush of the
waters and the arduous duties of his Office
have been unable to dim his memory
of the one great experience of his life.
Forget it? should say not" the
old veteran will exclaim, as he tells the
story how the great steamer Natchez was
beaten back in the seventies by the
Robert E. Lee in that memorable race
from New Orleans to St. Louis. And
West was an engineer on 1.-THE Bob
Lee" as he affectionately calls the fastest
steamboat that ever piled the Mississippi
River and startled the world with her
prowess. The newspapers everywhere
were filled with praise for the Lee and
her plucky captain, but the story of how
Johnnie" West, the second engineer,
by clever scheme, ''speeded up the
champion and, risking his own life, saved
her from threatened defeat, has never
been told.
West was born in Germany seventy
six years ago, but came to Louisville with
his parents when but a 7-year-old lad.
He had natural hankering for machin.
cry, and while still in his teens went into
the great shops of Dennis Loug to learn
the trade. There he helped build the old
Cornish pumps, which were installed in
Louisville's first water system fifty-six
years ago. Before that time, Louisville
ians depended on street pumps for their
drinking water, cisterns in the backyartls
for the household supply and the old fire
cisterns to protect thier property. The
street sprinklers had to back into the
river to fill their casks.
The war was brewing then and soon
the North and South were pitted for the
struggle. Young West joined the Union
army and was assigned to the Third Ken
lucky Cavalry. He was with Sherman
on that memorable march to the sea and
in the fierce battles OF Shiloh and Stones
River, West was wounded while wearing
the blue, but only when he accidentally
shot himself in the leg.
81 was too good sprinter to get hurt
in any other way" he smilingly explains.
Engineer Of the bob Lee"
When peace had been restored the
young man returned to his work in the
Dennis Long shops, building steam boat
machinery. And this brings US to our
story of the Robert E. Lee and her plucky
second engineer.
The Lee was built at New Albany in
1866, that city then Boosting the best
nip carpenters on the island waters.
She cost her owner, Capt. John w. Can
non, the neat fortune of $225, 900 in gold.
apt. Cannon him-elf was an unusual
man. He was born and raised on farm
near Hawkesville, Ky. While still
very young man he constructed fat
boat and loaded it with hoop poles which
he had cut on his fathers place. With this
queer craft he journeyed TO New Orleans
and there sold the cargo for handsome
sum. That money was the beginning Of
his way to fortune and fame. He secured
a job as decksweeper on steamboat and
continued to save his earnings. The cap
tain of the boat took a liking to the lad
and taught him the pilots art. Still he
worked and saved and finally bought
.teamboat of his own. During the war
he operated three supply and transport
steamers for the Confederate Govern
ment. When the war was over he found
himself wealthy man and able to build
such boat as the Robert f. Lee.
When the Lee was conn leted and it be-
came known in New Albany that she was
to bear the name OF the South's greatest
warrior, partisans threatened to burn the
steamer to the waite hedge. So Capt. J
Cannon quietly ran bat to the Port
land wharf and the tainted, in bold
letters, Robert f. LIE" on her sides.
Capt. Cannon swore that he never would
build another boat at New Albany, and
he kept his promise. In fact, that Incl
dent practically marks the end of what
had been one of the c1k's most profitable
industries. Her ship! rds soon went in.
to decline and no q It boat ever was
built there afterward In the fall of 1865
the Lee left the Portland wharf for New
Orleans and entered Il e Vicksburg trade.
1t was admitted that che wac the fastest
boat on the inland waters.
Built - Rive Of Lee.
In 1869 the steamer Satchez was built,
with the express purpose Of being faster
than the Lee. The rivals ran in the same
trade between New Orleans and Vicks-
burg, a distance of 400 miles. In the
spring of 1870 the Lee went into the New
trade and the Natchez
into the New Orleans-St. Louis business.
The Lee left New cans every other
and Natchez Every every other
Both boats had hackers who
argued and quarreled and even fought
the merits Of their favorite. |