Steamboat Graveyard Gets
Mississippi Craft
River Folk Mourn
Quincy- Ill.-(Special)--Regret has greeted the news from St. Louis that the excursion steamboat Capitol, of the Streckfus Line, which carried the aura of half a century of Mississippi River steamboating, is being broken up at the "steamboat graveyard" in St. Louis. Engines, boilers and the general upper works of the old steamboat were removed some weeks ago, preparatory to final breaking up of the vessel.
As the excursion steamer Capitol, the old steamboat has operated for the last 25 years on the Mississippi River, from New Orleans to St. Paul, plying the upper river in the summer and wintering at New Orleans, out of which it carried daily excursions.
But for more than 25 years preceding its debut as an excursion boat, with added deck, huge dance cabin and other features, the steamboat has engaged in regularly scheduled packet trade on the Upper Mississippi. Built at Pittsburgh, at the headwater of the Ohio, the big steamboat originally was named "Pittsburgh".
In 1897, however, while laying at the St. Louis River front, all her upper works were stripped of by a cyclone that struck St. Louis. The old Diamond Jo Line bought the wrecked steamboat, and had it rebuilt at Dubuque, Iowa. For more than 20 years it then operated in the upper river trade as the "Dubuque", until purchased by the Streckfus Line and remodeled for excursion purposes.
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