PHOTO ARTICLE: America’s Mary Rose

Today I wanted to bring you one last photo piece from my trip to Kansas City. This one is all thanks to one of my besties, Bart, who took me to see something quite special. This article is about a ship I didn’t even know existed, but one that has blown my mind. It’s a time capsule preserving pioneer life in the mid-19th century.

The Steamship Arabia was built in 1853 in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. 171ft long, she boasted paddle wheels on her side that were 28 feet across, as well as steam boilers that would be wood fuelled. She could gun it at about five miles an hour, and saw early service on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers before she was bought by one John Shaw and went to live on the Missouri; the longest river in the US. It rises in Montana, then flows for 2,341 miles until it flows into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis. Humans have been dependent on the river for more then 12,000 years, and in the early 19th century it had become the lifeblood of Westward expansion. Hence the American Indian Wars that occurred when those who had lived alongside the waterway for centuries were suddenly subjected to an influx of settlers. First came the fur trappers, then pioneers followed in the 1830s. Initially, they travelled in their covered wagons, but by 1856 a roaring trade had sprouted with ever-increasing numbers of steamboats who could carry not only people relocating west carrying everything they owned in better comfort, but also vast quantities of supplies needed to sustain growing populations in the west.

In March 1856, the Arabia was sold again, this time to Captain William Terrill and William Boyd, and she had found what was to be her permanent (but short-lived) home, running pioneers and goods along the Missouri. In all, she would make fourteen trips before disaster struck. She had already almost sunk at the off, when she collided with an unseen obstacle, possibly a rock or a sand bank and had to be repaired in Portland. On 5th September, she wasn’t so lucky. On this occasion the Arabia set out on a regular run. At Quandaro Bend, near Parkville, Missouri, she collided with a section of tree lurking under the surface, and this time the damage was fatal. The hull was ripped open and water poured in. The river was only 15 feet deep at this point, and so though she was doomed everybody got off safely. The only casualty was a mule that was tied up and who everybody forgot in the panic, but the upper decks were still sticking out of the water.

By the following morning, however, before they had time to get anything off her, the Arabia had rapidly sunk into the riverbed and only the smokestacks and pilot house remained visible. A few days later, even those were gone. Then she was forgotten. The river shifted course, by half a mile and Kansas City grew up around her. The Arabia now lay under a farmer’s field. A group tried to get to her in 1897, on account of the rumours of vast quantities of whiskey that had gone down with her, but then, nothing. The family were dimly aware that there was supposed to be a steamboat somewhere on their land, but nobody had preserved the memory of exactly where.

Enter a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs in 1987. Bob Hawley and his sons, Greg and David, became obsessed with finding the Arabia. Using old maps, nerding out in archives and using a proton magnetometer to detect disturbances beneath the soil, they only went and found her. The farmer gave them permission to faff about on his land on the condition that they were done by the time he needed to plant the next spring, and so with two friends, Jerry Mackey and David Luttrell, who conveniently owned a digger, they got to work. Shield your ears modern archaeologists, because to get to grips with the layout beneath their feet they drilled multiple holes until they struck the hull, and marked a perimeter with chalk. Then they hit a snag, because though the Arabia was under 45 feet of soil, she was sitting in a giant pocket of underground water.

Twenty irrigation pumps were brought in, and drained the area at a rate of 20,000 gallons (US) a minute. The Arabia saw the light of day again on 26th November 1988. Within days, a treasure trove of artefacts began coming up. Many were still carefully packed, and the mud had preserved them in stunning fashion. Pieces of the hull were salvaged too, with boilers and the anchor. Then the five men did something remarkable. Instead of selling the contents off, they decide to preserve it and share it with the world. And so in Kansas City you can visit their collection and see a stunning snapshot of the old west. Amazingly, there are as many as 18 more ships like this that the Hawley family would love to try and repeat their success on. So if you happen to be a benevolent millionaire, these real life Dirk Pitts would love to hear from you. In the meantime, there are still piles of artefacts to be treated and preserved. What follows are all the photos I can cram in of their haul…