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Memphis, Tennessee, circa 1900. "Mississippi River levee from the custom house. Steamboats James Lee, Harry Lee and City St. Joseph." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
That is the Frisco Bridge in the background, built in 1892, still in use today as a railroad bridge. At the time of the photo, it was the only bridge across the Mississippi at Memphis, now there are four.
The wharfmaster's office reminds me of a carnival ticket booth.
I always assumed that enclosing side-wheels was done as a safety precaution, given the extra foot traffic around them. It never occurred to me that it might have been to muffle their sound. But the anti-splashing aspect seems logical, too.
[I always thought it was to keep them from getting wet. - Dave]
It is interesting how wide the James Lee looks in comparison to the other two river boats. I have seen photographs here on Shorpy of other sidewheelers and they have never looked as wide as this. Another thing is the blended sides. Most sidewheelers are sort of squared off at the wheels. The sides of this one wrap around and the stern looks to be quite broad as if it starts just aft of the sidewheels.
It was pretty much the default setting to enclose the wheels on sidewheel steamers. I imagine this was done more to keep the afterdecks from getting splashed than to reduce noise. Note the lack of enclosures on the sternwheel boats.
I've never noticed an enclosed paddle wheel before.
Is this a feature reserved for luxury vessels? I wonder how much of the sound of the wheel was actually muffled?
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