Neches Belle Steamboat

Neches_Belle_Riverboat_sm

The Neches Belle was a wooden hull packet paddle boat used to move cotton and wool along the Sabine River. She was commissioned in 1889. Pictured above loaded down with bails of goods. In 1897 she was impounded by the law for debt. Left tied in Logansport, LA (DeSotto Parish) where she went down and rolled over.

Type: Side-wheel, wooden hull packet

Size: built to handle 500 bales of cotton. A relatively small boat.

Built: 1889, Beaumont, Tex. total cost, excluding machinery, $3.000

Destroyed: 1897

Area: Neches and Sabine Rs., Texas

Owner: When new, Captians Bill Loving and Pearl Bunn

Alladice & Liles, (Capt. John M. Lyles)

Captain: Master was Capt. John M. Lyles.

Pilot, then mate and later master, was John G. White

Toward her end, pilot, maybe, Will Loving

Comments: Engines and machinery from the VICKSBURG.

: Had electric lighting by 1893.

: Was said to be the most luxurious Neches R. Packet of her day.

Naches_Belle

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