1897 - The Sinking of The Favorite
Captain J. A. "Alf" Banks, standing at the helm of
the side wheeler Favorite, was having trouble fighting the swift waters of the Levisa Fork
of Kentucky's Big Sandy River. He had maneuvered the steamboat from the dock at Louisa
only a short time before as he continued his journey up the Big Sandy toward Paintsville,
Prestonsburg and Pikeville in the early hours of March 1, 1897. The sturdy steamboat had
left Catlettsburg well before darkness had fallen on February 28. It was now nearing 4:00
A. M.
Winter rains had turned the normally placid river into a raging torrent as water poured
from the mouths of small creeks and streams along the length of the river from the Ohio to
the docks at Pikeville.
Passengers on the Favorite appeared to be sleeping peacefully and the boat's enormous
cargo of flour, lumber, clothing, nails, a piano and other manufactured goods was lashed
tightly to the boat's decks and other cargo spaces.
Captain Banks had made this journey too many times, in fair weather and foul, to be
concerned about a rising river or a swift current. Likewise, the Favorite had, in her 27
years of service, seen many such nights and endured (and survived) every threat the muddy
river could devise.
Once in December of 1871, the boat was ice-bound below Louisa. Its passengers were
forced to seek shelter ashore until the tight grip of the ice on the side wheel paddles
could be broken. Tonight, however, her captain took comfort in the steady strokes of the
paddles as they slapped the water with an unceasing rhythm.
Nevertheless, Captain Banks kept a sharp eye on the unending twists and turns of the
Big Sandy, as well as its narrow channel and the boat's decks.
The Favorite was far from being the largest steamboat plying the Big Sandy in this last
decade of the 19th Century. When her engineer, Tom Parks, laid out the boat at South Point
her dimensions were 116 feet long, 16 feet wide and had a draught of 3 and ¸ feet.
Officially, however, she was listed as 103 feet long, 14.8 feet wide with a draught of 2.2
feet.
Captain Banks knew that his next challenge would come when he approached the mouth of
Georges Creek. The heavy run-off would have the creek rushing into the river at that
point. It was only a mile or two ahead.
Then as the Favorite rounded the next bend in the river, the captain's eyes widened in
shock and fear. There, in the middle of the river was a huge tree, lodged on what was
known as the Georges Creek Sand, in such a position that there was no room to steer around
it and no time to stop.
Banks reached for the rope to sound the boat's whistle and alert the passengers and
crew to the rapidly approaching danger. The proud boat struck the tree. It was as if a
giant hand had picked up the boat and thrown it against the bank of the river and then
back again on the sand bar. There it hung precariously with a gaping hole in its hull and
the river's cold water rushing in and around it.
The captain knew there was no hope of saving the faithful side wheeler. Passengers
began to crawl out onto the thick branches of a nearby tree. Three men leaped into the
water and swam to shore in the numbing chill. They had seen a farm house nearby and
decided to go for help.
All on board the Favorite were saved. Not a single life was lost and there were no
serious injuries among either passengers or crew. One of the passengers on board that
night was a young lady named Lizzie Syck, later Mrs. W. J. Walters, who has written a
vivid account of her experiences on that early morning March 1, 1897.
