Sidewheeler ferry River Queen
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History | |
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Owner | Fall River lines, Vineyard Company, Nantucket & Cape Cod Steamboat Company, and Mount Vernon & Marshall Hall Steamboat Company[1] |
Builder | Benjamin C Terry |
Completed | 1864[1] |
Out of service | 1911 |
Fate | Burned to the waterline |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 426 |
Length | 181 ft (55 m) |
The River Queen was a sidewheel steamer launched in 1864. It soon became closely associated with President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant while operating on the Potomac River, and was used for an unsuccessful peace conference in 1865 during the last year of the American Civil War. Later it operated as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket during the late 19th century. Late in its career, it returned to the Potomac as an excursion vessel, and in 1911, it was destroyed in a fire.