Riverboat Virginia: Maiden Voyage, 1895-1896

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-from the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Wednesday, January 1, 1896

VIRGINIA LEAVES

Cincinnati with a Brilliant Passenger List and Big Manifesto.

PROBABLY REACH WHEELING

Early Thursday Morning—Given a Warm Reception by the West Virginia Towns, Who Take Pride In Her on Account of Her Name—A Description of Her Magnificent Cabin—A Veritable Floating Palace—Accident to Clerk Oliver at the Wharfboat-General River News and Levee Gossip.

Special Correspondence.

CINCINNATI. Dec. 30.—The magnificent new steamer Virginia, the latest addition to the fleet of the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati packet line, left here this afternoon at S o'clock for Wheeling and Pittsburgh, with a brilliant passenger list and enough freight to make Captain Calhoun think of the palmy days of the river back in the 'fifties "befo' the wah." The new boat is indeed a floating palace, by long odds the finest steamboat over sent to the upper Ohio. Her cabin is the special feature to which the officers point with pride—It is the finest river parlor on western waters, without doubt. The Lincrusta Walton finish, plate glass and hundreds of electric lights combine to make the cabin a dream of beauty at night. It is safe to predict that passengers on the initial trip up the river will be staunch adherents of the new craft.

The West Virginians who have come aboard at Cincinnati feel that the state has been indeed honored in the naming of the new boat. News from upper river points is to the effect that the river towns, especially those in
West Virginia, are going to give the Virginia a reception that will be remembered. Of course, WheelIng is not counted on giving the boat an elaborate reception on account of the early arrival. By the way, the Virginia
will probably prove one of the fastest boats on the river, improvements in her machinery making it possible for her big wheel to make thirty revolutions per minute, several more than the average. On this trip, however, no effort in the way of fast time will be made. The Virginia should reach Pittsburgh Thursday morning about 7 o'clock.

- R.M.A.

An Ovation at Huntington.

Special Dispatch to the Intelligencer.

HUNTINGTON, W. Va.. Dec. 31 — No steamboat for years was ever given a grander reception than the new Virginia, which reached here to-night late. Her arrival was hailed with the booming of cannon and the shouting of three thousand throats on both sides of the river. The new steamer was pronounced the handsomest ever seen at this port.
 

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