Brownsville teen restores sternwheeler’s finials
BROWNSVILLE – Relics from the Algiers sternwheeler, which once plied the Mississippi River, have been restored by a Brownsville teenager for display in his hometown.
Jacob Bohna restored two of the boat’s finials to help him earn the rank of Eagle Scout and to also honor his late grandmother, who was a local historian with an interest in Brownsville’s rich boat-building past.
“He did that for us, but also in memory of his grandmother. That was sweet,” said Norma Ryan, a member of Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp.
The historic steamship Enterprise was built in Brownsville, and it became the first boat of its kind to complete the 2,200-mile, round-trip voyage between Pittsburgh and the Gulf of Mexico two centuries ago. By 1857, more than half of the steamboats on the Mississippi River were built in stages at as many as 10 towns between Brownsville and Pittsburgh.
The Algiers was constructed in 1925 at Howard Shipyard and Dock Co. in Jeffersonville, Ind., to be used as a ferry on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, La. It was 144 feet long and had the capacity to carry 40 cars and 800 passengers, according to the University of Louisville’s digital archives.
The vessel was sold in 1958 to a couple in Sanibel Island, Fla., whose plans to convert it into their home never materialized, and it later was dismantled.
The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation purchased the finials and the boat’s sternwheel in 1982, saving them from the scrap heap with plans to display them at Station Square in Pittsburgh.
The ornamental tops to the boat’s smokestacks ended up in storage until they, along with the sternwheel, were donated to BARC by the foundation, Ryan said.
“They donated them to BARC because they felt this is where they belonged,” Ryan said.
She said the finials were shown to Bohna when he approached her organization looking for a project for Boy Scout Troop 650.
“That appealed to him immediately,” Ryan said, adding the teen recognized them as something that would honor his grandmother, Margaret Johnson, who died about 10 years ago.
“That was a perfect project to honor both the town’s history and her memory,” Bohna said.
He said restoring the finials was difficult because there were heavy and “solid rust” when he began working on them. Parts of them needed to be welded back together, and both were then coated with black rust-proof paint.
The finials have been installed for permanent display outside BARC’s Flatiron Building at 69 Market St.