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THE EMILIE,
CAPTAIN LA BARGE AND THE SPREAD EAGLE
Collected and Transcribed by
Sue Rekkas
Steamboats and
Steamboatmen of the Upper Mississippi,
Descriptive,
Personal and Historical,
The Saturday
Evening Post of Burlington, Iowa,
October 9,
1918, page 6.
SPREAD-EAGLE
(first)
Like the War Eagles the Spread Eagles were a numerous family, there
having been five of the name on the upper river between 1857 and
1918. The first of the name was a side wheeler, built in 1857. She
was 210.0 feet long, 36.0 feet beam, and 6.0 feet hold, with three
boilers, 40 inches in diameter by 24 feet, and cylinder 22 inches by
7 feet stroke. Do not know who owned her originally, but in 1882
she was owned by the American Fur Company, St. Louis, under whose
management she made at least one trip to St. Paul. Her regular
trade, however, was on the Missouri. Captain Thomas K. Vorheis, a
sketch of whose life appeared in these columns, was chief clerk in
1863, with Thomas Gibbons as second. In 1862 Mr. Robert Bailey, of
St. Louis was pilot.
Major
H. M. Chittenden, in his life of Captain Joseph La Barge relates an
incident in which the Spread Eagle and Capt. Bailey were the
principle actors. Speaking of the first trip of Captain La Barge’s
steamer Emilie up the Missouri in the spring of 1862 he says:
“An
exciting accident of the trip was the passing of the American Fur
Company’s boat, the Spread Eagle. The new opposition of La Barge
Harkness and Company was a formulaic one, and it bestirred itself
with unusual vigor to be first on the ground with its annual
outfit. The Spread Eagle left St. Louis with three days the start
of the Emilie, but was overtaken by that boat near Fort Berthold.
For the next two days the boats were near each other most of the
time. The day after leaving Berthold the Emilie passed her rival
for good. When the officers of the Spread Eagle saw that they were
beaten they played a desperate game, which showed to what lengths
the Company’s servants would go when it was a matter of rivalry in
trade.
“At the
point where the race took place there was a towhead which at the
stage of the river then prevailing was covered with water. The main
channel, and at ordinary stages of water the only channel, passed on
the right hand side going up and this channel the Spread Eagle
took, But the water was now high enough to give a good channel on
the other side of the towhead. As the distance by this channel was
somewhat shorter, and as the Emilie was the faster boat anyway, it
was a good chance to shoot well ahead and get out of the way. La
Barge promptly seized the opportunity. The pilot of the Spread
Eagle with quick eye realized that he had been out maneuvered, and
seeing no other way to prevent the Emilie’s passage, determined upon
wrecking her. He accordingly left the main channel and made for the
chute that the Emilie was entering. He steamed alongside her for a
moment, but found that he was loosing ground. The boats were
scarcely fifty feet apart, when the pilot of the Spread Eagle seeing
that he could not make it, deliberately put his rudder to port and
plunged the bow of his boat into the Emilie immediately opposite her
boilers. Several of the guards were broken and the danger of wreck
was imminent. La Barge was in the pilot house at the time and was
not looking for such a move, for he did not believe that even the
American Fur Company would play so desperate a game when human life
was at stake. He instantly called out to Bailey, the pilot of the
Spread Eagle, to stop his engines and drop his boat back or he would
put a bullet thru him. The passengers likewise became thoroughly
aroused, some of them got their arms and threatened to use them if
the Spread Eagle did not withdraw. These treats were effective;
the Spread Eagle fell to the rear and was seen no more.”
Captain
Bailey’s license was revoked for this piece of business, but later
on, on recommendation of Capt. La barge, he was reinstated.
The Spread
Eagle was snagged and sunk in 1863 at Pickney Bend, near Miller’s
Landing, Missouri River. The scene of the accident has been
commemorated in the name Spread Eagle Camp, where the survivors of
the wreck made their temporary habitation after the loss of their
boat. Captain Vorheis was chief clerk of the Spread Eagle at the
time. His son, Dr. H. G. Vorheis, is in the army, and the last
communication I had from him he was at Ft. Leavenworth, but expected
soon to be on his way to France.
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