Steamboat Natchez, New Orleans & The History of Mississippi River Steamboats

Photography and Text by Kerri McCaffety with Captain Clarke C. Hawley

The only true steam-powered on the Mississippi today, the Natchez is a memorial to the voluptuous curves and ornamentation of an earlier day, for the straight lines and flat planes of contemporary cheap construction were shunned. She has the full Mississippi packet bow treatment with twin stages and a lofty jackstaff. She is an honest sixteen miles-per-hour boat. She has never lost a race.

Frances Coppola says, "Kerri McCaffety turns the places she photographs into poems," and she certainly does in her nineteenth book, capturing the graceful, antebellum beauty of the Steamboat Natchez. In the text, McCaffety together with the original commander of the Natchez, Clarke C. Hawley tells one of the greatest stories of all time-the story of the Mississippi River and the Golden Age of Steamboats, the adventure and romance that inspired Mark Twain and captivated imaginations around the world.