The Mississippi River is the single most defining element of Baton Rouge’s existence. Indeed, it’s likely that Baton Rouge—back to its Native American roots—would not have existed where it does had the Mississippi not flown past. It’s no accident that many of the world’s largest cities were built along navigable rivers, and Baton Rouge is no exception.
Like the city, the ships that have navigated the Mississippi have changed considerably over time. I chose these two photos because they were probably only taken 30 or 40 years apart, but they show two very different eras of Baton Rouge’s nautical ancestry.
Louisiana
Meet “Louisiana.” Built in Jeffersonville, Indiana and launched on the 21st of July, 1926, she was 150 feet long and had a 64 foot wide beam (which is not at all apparent in this photo). She could carry 75 cars and a thousand people, which makes this photo even more deceptive, given her quaint antebellum styling.
“Louisiana,” and her sistren “The City of Baton Rouge” and “The Thomas Pickles” were absolutely essential to the flow of commerce between Baton Rouge and its west bank sibling, Port Allen. It’s worth noting that when “Louisiana” was launched, neither the Huey P. Long Bridge nor the Horace Wilkinson Bridge existed. The former’s namesake was working in the Public Service Commission in 1926; one can only wonder what conversations took place aboard “Louisiana” as The Kingfish ascended.
“Louisiana” is important because she represents the last era of Baton Rouge’s history that depended on ships for east-west commerce. When this photo was taken in 1936,
J. E. Vickers
$500,000 bought a lot of boat back in 1960, and the J. E. Vickers was no exception. The Vickers Towing Company’s new flagship triple-screw towboat was named after the company’s namesake, James Elmer Vickers. 18 months separated the laying of the keel from the ship’s first trip to Morgan City, Louisiana.
The J. E. Vickers was a bit smaller than the Louisiana with a length of 110 feet and a 40 foot beam. But it was much more powerful (three large General Motors diesel engines turned its massive screws), and it was also fitted with an air conditioner!
Tow boats served many purposes on the Mississippi. The J. E. Vickers was built to pull (or push) a massive load, but one newspaper reported that “the guest room … is one of the most elaborately furnished of any Mississippi river boat.”
Life on the boats could be dangerous, though. A flash fire on a Vickers boat took the life of James E. Johnsey in 1967; a similar fire took the life of James I. Hall in 1975. The latter had only worked for the Vickers Towing Company for three weeks before the explosion.
It’s difficult to trace the fate of the Vickers Towing Company and the J. E. Vickers. Newspaper accounts of the company fizzle out in the early two thousands, and it’s likely that the J. E. Vickers was sold to another firm that renamed it. Whether it’s still plying the Mississippi is anyone’s guess, but it’s a fitting reminder of how riverboats have evolved over the past century.