Chaperon

Type

Steamboat

Period

19th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: Chaperon was a wooden sternwheel steam packet built in 1884 at Chambersburg, Ohio (originally named J.C. Kerr), that became one of the best-known small packets of the Green and Barren Rivers in Kentucky, running trade and excursion service between Bowling Green and Mammoth Cave. She is a popular subject for scale modelers thanks to a well-documented Model Shipways kit based on her. Specifications: According to period descriptions used for the Model Shipways kit and American Marine Models, Chaperon had a hull roughly 120-121 feet long, with a beam of about 21-28 feet (sources vary) and a shallow draft of around 4 feet, typical of Western-rivers sternwheel packets built for shallow, seasonal inland waterways. She was a wood-hulled, coal-fired sternwheeler with an open pilothouse and elaborate gingerbread-style decorative trim. Service History: The steam packet Chaperon was built for trade traffic at Chambersburg, Ohio in 1884. The Ohio River was shallow during the summer and often choked by ice in the winter, which made steamboat travel seasonal and delays frequent. In 1906, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Green River Lock and Dam 6, just downstream from Kentucky's Mammoth Cave, and Chaperon was the first boat of its kind to pass through the new locks, in addition to hauling cargo she ran sightseeing excursions between Bowling Green and Mammoth Cave during the summer months. The National Park Service similarly notes that in 1906, construction on Lock and Dam No. 6 was completed and open for river traffic, and the Chaperon was the first steamboat to make the run from Evansville, Indiana to Mammoth Cave entirely by boat. Notable Facts: The Chaperon, built in 1884 as the J.C. Kerr, was renamed by the Evansville and Bowling Green Packet Company after a rebuilding, and ran in the Bowling Green and Mammoth Cave trade. She was sold in 1917 to Capt. Gid Montjoy of Greenwood, Mississippi, who renamed her Choctaw and took her to run on the Yazoo, and she burned at Melrose Landing, Mississippi on the Tallahatchie River on March 8, 1922. A detailed 3D digital reconstruction of the boat, built in Blender and informed by period sources and steamboat experts, has been produced and is displayed at the Verkehrsmuseum Dresden, illustrating the level of documentation available to modelers. Modeling Notes: The vessel is the subject of a well-known Model Shipways wood kit (1:48 scale) marketed as a historically accurate representation of the boat, and a finished commercial model by American Marine Models used mahogany, pine, holly, ebony, cherry and purpleheart for hull, superstructure and hand-carved trim, giving modelers a sense of the level of ornamental detail typical of these packets.