T. Staples and also known as the Big Jim, was a Tombigbee River sternwheel paddle steamer that ran a route between Mobile and Demopolis, Alabama, during the early 20th century.

She was destroyed during 1913 in an explosion while docked on the Tombigbee, roughly six miles (10 km) north of the current Coffeeville Lock and Dam.

[1][2] The disaster caused the ship to enter southwestern Alabama folklore, with tales that its sinking had been foretold by supernatural occurrences.

One week after his death, on January 10, 1913, his former steamboat was destroyed in a boiler explosion while about four miles (6.5 km) away from Bladon Springs, at Powes Landing (31°48′58″N 88°10′54″W / 31.81598°N 88.18167°W / 31.81598; -88.18167).

[2][3] Kathryn Tucker Windham immortalized the supposedly supernatural aspects of the disaster with the short story "The James T. Staples, Doomed Steamboat of the Tombigbee" in her Jeffrey's Latest 13 More Alabama Ghosts.