On this day May 28, 1910, the Fox River steam paddle boat PAUL L. tipped over on her port side at Riverside Park in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  She had been unloading coal at her dock just east of the Main Street Bridge.  Too much of her cargo was removed from the starboard side and she rolled causing the ship’s mate and the cook to be tossed into the river.  No other injuries were reported.

Photo at top of page: PAUL L. on its side at Riverside Park, Oshkosh, May 28, 1910

  PAUL L. being lifted by barges, Riverside Park, Oshkosh, May 28, 1910

            By the next day she was righted thanks to being pumped out by a fire engine while cranes from barges lifted her and a tractor from shore pulled her upright. 

   PAUL L. being righted by barges, tractor, fire engine, Oshkosh, May 1910

            The PAUL L. was a wooden stern wheeler built in 1907 by George and James Ryan aka the Ryan Brothers in Oshkosh for the Oshkosh Steamboat Co. owned by Clark & LeFevre.  Named for Captain Paul LeFevre’s oldest son, she measured 123 feet in length with a 24.8 foot beam and a depth of 6 feet.  She served as an excursion boat as well as carrying coal and other freight from Green Bay to Oshkosh and from Oshkosh to Tustin on Lake Poygan.

            In 1921 the Clark & LeFevre Company sold her to Harry D. Meyer, R. C. Brown, Jr. and J. C. Thompson of Oshkosh.  In 1923 she was rebuilt, stripped of her machinery and upper decks and listed as a barge belonging to C. R. Meyer & Sons Co. of Oshkosh.  She was reported to be used as a sand dredge.   She also was reported to have sunk in 1923 at Appleton, Wisconsin, on the Fox River.  She was abandoned in 1926.

  PAUL L. under construction in 1907

            The PAUL L. is currently a dive site in the Fox River at Appleton near the Lawe Street Bridge.   She is about forty feet from shore in five to seven feet of water.

            A small percentage of the Great Lakes Marine Collection is Wisconsin riverboats but they are an important and interesting part of our marine history. 

Suzette Lopez

PHOTO CREDIT:  The Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.