Spread Eagle (steamboat)

The Spread Eagle was a steam-driven sidewheel riverboat that transported passengers, goods and supplies to the forts and trading posts along the Missouri River between 1857–1864.

The Spread Eagle was constructed by Captain Benjamin Johnson who sold the vessel to the American Fur Company upon her arrival at Saint Louis, Missouri.

[2][3] Spread Eagle carried goods and plied trade from Saint Louis to Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

[2] In early 1859 the American Fur Company sent two vessels up the Missouri River, commanded by Joseph LaBarge and his brother, John, with its annual outfit of men and supplies.

The American Fur Company, determined to be the first to arrive at Fort Benton, departed Saint Louis with the Spread Eagle, commanded by Captain Robert E. Bailey, and piloted by William Massie.

[4] The two vessels were less than fifty feet (15 m) apart, when Bailey, realizing he was about to be out-maneuvered and fall behind, ordered the pilot, William Massie, to intentionally put his rudder to port, and plunge the bow of his boat into the Emilie close to her boilers.

[6] LaBarge, observing the event from the pilot-house, was not expecting such tactics and could not believe that even the American Fur Company would resort to such a ploy when human life hung in the balance.

[6][9][b] When the Spread Eagle returned to Saint Louis charges were preferred against Bailey for his reckless endangerment to passengers of, and damage to, the Emilie.