The newspaper article appearing below was published in a New Orleans newspaper on Sunday, January 18, 1920. It tells the history of the New Camelia lake steamer, from its beginnings in a shipyard in Delaware to its sad and ignoble end at a shipyard in Madisonville. In between, it served many purposes, but the best remembered were its days as an excursion vessel bringing people from New Orleans to St. Tammany Parish and back.
There were music, fun and dancing during her hey day, plying the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and along the Gulf Coast, but near the end of her existence, she served as a riverside rundown rooming house for area shipyard workers. Here's the story from beginning to end.
Famous Old Lake Steamboat Finds Grave in Tchefuncta
First Published Sunday, January 18, 1920
New Camelia, After the Remarkable Career of Three-quarters of a Century, Resting on Bottom of Beautiful River that So Often Sheltered Her
By Doris Kent
The New Camelia is gone forever. After nearly three-quarters of a century of usefulness she lies in a waterly grave at the bottom of the Tchefuncta River at Madisonville, with the purple water hyacinths and flags marking her resting place. Her passing writes "finis" at the end of a long career closely identified with that of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and lakeshore towns.
"So she's gone, is she? At the bottom of the river. Well..." On the sunny doorstep of his son's home on North Claiborne St., Captain Jim Dandie, for forty years mate and captain aboard the Camelia, sighed and nodded his head with the quiet philosophy of 83 years when he learned of the old steamer's end.
"Well, she went down quiet and easy in fresh water, didn't she? I never thought of her going like that, somehow. You see, I was with her 40 years when she made the lake trips, and the trip all along the Gulf Coast clear to Mobile and Pensacola before the over-the-lake railroads were built. I've seen her buck into the teeth of a gale like a bull dog and hang on to her course when the wind was blowing the water out of Pontchartrain.
"I always sort of imagined her going down in one last big fight with the wind. A grand old boat! We used to brag she had the prettiest hull of any steamer in this part of the country. And she's at the bottom of the Tchefuncta, you say?"
Launched in the Year 1847
The hull that aroused the pride of the boat's navigators was laid in Delaware, in the year 1847, it is said. And when it made its first contact with the waters of Pontchartrain it bore the name of Zephyr.
During the Civil War it had the important duty of acting as dispatch boat for General Ben Butler, federal commander in occupation of the captured city of New Orleans. There are a few old residents today who can recall this enemy boat whipping into port at Spanish Fort at a speed considered remarkable at that time.
It was not until after the Zephyr had been demobilized from military duty and the blue uniforms had given way to tailored grey ones again, that she passed from the hands of the government and became definitely identified with New Orleans for the rest of her days.
She was purchased by August Rome, New Orleans cotton merchant, who foresaw the need for communications between the city and outlying parts, struggling through reconstruction after the war. Captain John Beadman, afterward of the tug Samson, took charge of the steamer, rechristened with the "strictly Southern" name of "The Camelia."
She began her triumphant cruises along the Gulf Coast as far as Pensacola and back, and continued this after Mr. Rome rebuilt her on the same hull and called her the "New Camelia."
From that time on, the steamer was an important figure in travel, commerce and pleasure of the city. She carried cotton and merchandise, and in summer her decks fluttered with the veils and parasols of excursionists. Whole families would board the boat at New Orleans for some lake or Gulf towns, accompanied by servants laden with baggage of every description.
Passengers on the New Camelia enjoy visiting with friends
Grouped on the shady side of the steamer, they would pass the warm mornings and afternoons, but when dusk fell there would be a general flutter of anticipation as deck hands began clearing away the coils of rope and chairs. Negroes with banjos and guitars would shuffle up from the lower deck, grinning at the applause that greeted them. Then the dancing would begin on the smooth deck, swept by the cool salt breeze, and the Camelia would push on through the darkness, twinkling with lights and sending the echo of music and laughter across the water.
Daily Lake Packet
In the later days, when the New Camelia made only the daily trip across the lake, pausing at Mandeville and then pushing on up the river to Madisonville, she still made an imposing sight as she came swooping in at evening, white and stately against the blue.
At Mandeville, there would be a crowd of summer vacationists at the end of the long pier, waving a greeting to the guests and the commuting husbands just out of a hot and busy city. At the prow of the vessel would stand the captain -- one of a long line, be he Captain Dandie himself, Captain Blakesley, Captain Weaver, or Captain Hanover.
Before the railroad was laid to Covington, the mail bag would be dumped over to the pier; baskets and trunks and packages would be handed down in rapid succession. In recent years there was always a string of automobiles that must be backed carefully along the gangplanks to the wharf. Almost every automobile in the Florida parishes made the trip from New Orleans on the New Camelia to save the long trip by way of Baton Rouge.
During the latter part of the New Camelia's life she belonged in turn to W. G. Coyle & Co. and recently to the Louisiana Steamship Company. Each owner, in respect of the old craft's excellent former services, made repairs and renovations.
But the day came at last when for the New Camelia, the "new" now a mockery of her former glory, made her last journey up the Tchefuncta. She went with the slow gait of old age and dropped anchor for the last time among the water plants near the Madisonville loading wharf.
The sleepy old town had begun to hum with life sprung up around the Jahncke Shipbuilding plant, and the Camelia looked her age among the great new ships in various stages of construction about her. She had come in from her life of gaiety and freedom to the fate that awaits many a former belle when age comes on. She began "keeping boarders."
Used As A Boarding House
The broad decks and the staterooms of the steamer provided an excellent solution for the housing problem in Madisonville, made acute by the influx of shipyard workers. Securely tied up to the bank, the New Camelia took on the aspect of one of the rooming houses in the more shabby city streets.
From her deck where feet had danced to the music of banjos or sturdy sailors had withstood the sweep of high seas, flannel shirts and dishtowels flapped from a clothesline. In the cabin where the federal commander had prepared the military dispatches, a stout landlady swayed in a rocking chair and did tatting during the afternoon. On the lower deck a few chickens clucked in a wire enclosure.
But recently, even this motley crew left the old boat, when the word went around that she was becoming too weak even for this dull existence. And one day, she slipped gradually down beneath the water.
The Final Resting Place of the New Camilia
For more information about the Camelia, CLICK HERE.
For a collection of photographs of the New Camelia from Denis Bechac,
In 2011, Iris Lulu-Simoneaux Vacante wrote a story on the New Camelia. Here are some excerpts from that article, which was published in the Times Picayune....
"On the weekend, many boaters flock to the Tchefuncte River to enjoy the serene landscape that lines its banks as it winds down river to the mouth where the river meets Lake Pontchartrain. As boaters enjoy their outing, many are unaware of the vast treasures that lie on the river floor beneath its gentle waves.
"The New Camellia, a grand, side wheel steamer that graced Southern waters for nearly 75 years is resting on the bottom of the Tchefuncte River near the old ice house canal
"Built in Wilmington, Del., in 1847, the steamer began its Southern maritime career around 1862 in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain bearing the name Zephyr. It was first used in the area during the Civil War as a dispatch boat for Gen. Benjamin Butler, a federal commander of the captured city of New Orleans. After the war, the 123-ton steamer was purchased by New Orleans cotton merchant August Bone and was given a Southern name, the Camellia. In 1879, she was rebuilt using the same hull and christened the New Camellia.
"The New Camellia became a way of leisurely travel between New Orleans and resorts on the north shore and the Gulf. She featured a large dining room and dance hall where guests were entertained by musicians as she glided across the open waters of Lake Pontchartrain on to her north shore destination. Photos of the New Camellia show women dressed in their Sunday best clutching their parasols as they enjoyed the view overlooking the railing.
"As years passed, each owner of the New Camellia took pride in grand old boat, bragging about the prettiest hull of any steamer in the country. In 1915, the New Camellia was damaged in a hurricane, but remained in service until 1917. It was then that the grand old lady made her downward spiral from belle of the ball to a boarding house for men employed to build World War I ships by Jahncke Shipyard in Madisonville.
"Docked on the banks of the Tchefuncte River near the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, the grand steamer traded beautiful dresses worn by its passengers for flannel shirts and towels hanging out to dry. In its final years, the lower deck was even the home to clucking chickens kept in a makeshift chicken coop.
"After becoming too weak, on Jan. 18, 1920, the New Camellia gradually slipped into it's underwater grave."
POPULAR LAKE EXCURSIONS.
New Orleans Times Democrat July 28, 1912
What the New Camelia Is Doing for the Summer Can't-Get-Aways.
One of the chapters in the history of Lake Pontchartrain and the boats that ply its waters is recorded in the steamer New Camelia, which just now, aside from its regular trips, is making special Wednesday and Sunday excursions.
Built in the early 70s, the Camelia was originally run in the Mandeville and Covington trade, with regular trips to Pass Christian and other points. Several years later, coming into the possession of Capt. W. G. Coyle, in 1878 the boat was entirely rebuilt.
In 1882 she was again rebuilt, and so thorough was the work that to-day nothing remains of the original boat but the walking beam.
In creating the New Camelia, the old lines of her hull were carefully preserved. but to distinguish her from the first boat and preserve her identity in perpetuity, "New" was prefixed to the name.
The New Camelia lost nothing in its evolution into a modern boat, and at no time in its history has been the victim of marine disaster, or marred its record as a safe and reliable passenger and excursion host. The officers and crew have for years been identified with the lake trade. From father to son, during recent years, the Hanovers have been in command, the present Capt. Hanover succeeding his father.
Pilot Bernard Johnson is famous for never having missed a landing on the darkest or stormiest night. Engineer John Eppin and his assistant are both "old-timers." Chief Officer Emile Palmer is a deep water sailor, who shifted his allegiance from ocean to lake, and has been so long on the New Camelia that he seems part and parcel of it. Purser A. Bonnecaze is an expert, ever on the alert for the care and comfort of his passengers, 500 being the big boats's capacity.
Chef Eugene Mugnier is in charge of the restaurant, and his brother, Charles Mugnier operate the liquid refreshment department. All in all, a more trustworthy or competent set of men never operated a boat, and aside from the pleasures of the trip itself, they largely contribute to the comforts and enjoyments of the passengers.
Wednesday or Sunday excursions on the New Camelia bring much enjoyment. especially to those who have never enjoyed a trip across Lake Pontchartrain at twenty-two miles to Mandeville, at better than eleven knots an hour, thence to Lewisburg and up the beautiful Tchefuncta river, past historic Madisonville, the old-time cotton port of Louisiana. Houltonville, the lumber town, and finally to Pineland Park, where there is a two-hour lay over for enjoyment under the giant oaks.
This is just an outline of what the Camelia offers on excursion days, nearly a hundred miles on the water, going in the morning and returning the same evening. To those who do not care to be hampered with baskets and picnic under the trees at Pineland Park, regular meals or a la carte on board, personally prepared by Mungnier, can be had.
