Humphrey & Dowerman Shipyard - Robet E. Lee steamboat build site

The Robert E. Lee, nicknamed the "Monarch of the Mississippi," was a steamboat built in New Albany, Indiana, in 1866. The hull was designed by DeWitt Hill, and the riverboat cost more than $200,000 to build.
It was named for General Robert E. Lee, General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States. The steamboat gained its greatest fame for racing and beating the then-current speed record holder, Natchez, in an 1870 steamboat race.

On West Main Street between the sewage plant and Thorntons

Displacement: 1467 tons
Length: 285.5 ft
Beam: 46 ft
Power: twin high-pressure steam engines; cylinder bore 40 inches; stroke 120 inches;
  eight iron boilers each 46 feet long and 27 inches in diameter, working steam pressure 120 lbs.
Propulsion: sidewheel.

Model in the Floyd County Historical Society/Padgett Museum


Shipyards in New Albany weren't large cranes, steel and welders. What you needed was a stretch of river bank, an army of carpenters and lots of wood.


Hey Day of Shipbuilding in New Albany - FC/NA Library
Robert E Lee Wikipedia