River Queen (steamboat)

Sidewheeler ferry River Queen
History
OwnerFall River lines, Vineyard Company, Nantucket & Cape Cod Steamboat Company, and Mount Vernon & Marshall Hall Steamboat Company[1]
BuilderBenjamin C Terry
Completed1864[1]
Out of service1911
FateBurned to the waterline
General characteristics
Tonnage426
Length181 ft (55 m)
The Peacemakers by George Peter Alexander Healy, 1868, depicts the historic 1865 meeting on the River Queen
Sidewheeler ferry River Queen at the wharf in Nantucket, probably during U.S. Grant's nostalgic visit aboard the historic steamer on Aug. 27, 1874.

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.

  1. ^ a b Dayton, Fred Erving (1925), "Nantucket Sound", Steamboat Days, Frederick A. Stokes company, pp. 243–5