Trivia 10-26-15 Captain, My Captain

[Trivia Master]

By May 17th, 1864, after encountering strong fortifications but little resistance, Union forces under Gen Jefferson C. Davis occupied the town of Rome, Georgia. Two steamboats were docked there on the Coosa River – the Laura Moore and the Alphfretta. To prevent the boats from being captured, the crews raised steam and headed south under cover of darkness. The Captain of one of the steamers would do what no other pilot had done before - or since. Taking advantage of flood waters, he would navigate the Laura Moore all the way down the Coosa, where he turned her over to Confederate authorities at Mobile, AL. His success in steering the Laura Moore through the dangerous rapids of the Coosa is recognized as the most daring exploit ever attempted on any Alabama river. Who was this steamboat Captain?

credit: @lelliott19

 

[Copperhead-mi]

Captain Cummins Lay.
Source: Rome News-Tribune, June 10, 1865

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

The Laura Moore II was christened in a ceremony on June 6th, 2014 at Back Forty Beer Co. before her maiden voyage on Lake Neely Henry from the Coosa Landing boat launch. During the ceremony, Riverkeeper Frank Chitwood recounted the story of Laura Moore II's namesake, the Laura Moore and Captain Cummins Lay, then Executive Director Justinn Overton poured the Coosa River's finest craft beer, Back Forty, over the bow of the boat as the crowd cheered in unison "TO THE SEA! TO THE SAILORS BEFORE US! TO THE LAURA MOORE II!"

The Laura Moore was a steamboat that 150 years ago nearly to the day of the christening of Laura Moore II was in Rome, Georgia at the headwaters of the Coosa when the Union army took the city during the Civil War. As recounted in Harvey H. Jackson's Rivers of History, Captain Cummins Lay snuck the Laura Moore out of Rome at night and steamed to Greensport (modern day Neely Henry) before riding large floods through Wilsonville and eventually on to Montgomery, passing over treacherous rapids along the way with names like Devil's Staircase, Hell's Gap, The Narrows and Butting Ram Shoals. The Laura Moore is the only powered boat to have ever successfully navigated the entire Coosa River from Rome to Wetumpka. It has repeatedly been described by local historians as a feat that "will doubtless stand as the most daring exploit ever attempted on any river in Alabama."

http://coosariver.org/about/ourfleet/

 

[nextcity]

Cummins Lay

 

[Stony]

Cummins McBride Lay
source-http://www.riverboatdaves.com/areas/coosa-1.html

 

[Reb]

"Captain Cummins Lay took this steamboat down the entire
length of the Coosa, including the rapids known as the
Devil's Staircase to escape the advancing Union army--the
only steamboat to ever manage that run."
(From the book "Rivers of History: Life on the Coosa, Tallapoosa, Cahaba
and Alabama" by Harvey H. Jackson.)

 

[ErnieMac]

Captain Cummins Lay.

 

[FarawayFriend]

Captain Cummins Lay

"Captain Cummins Lay piloted steamer Laura Moore across rapids of Lower Coosa at high water to Mobile in escape from Union forces at Rome
First and only time a boat of that size had made that journey "
http://www.caria.org/timeline.html

http://discoverstclair.com/traveling-the-backroads/locks-of-the-coosa/

http://www.riverboatdaves.com/areas/coosa-1.html

 

[donna]

It was Captain Cummins Lay.

 

[adisciu9]

Captain Cummins Lay

 

[spurs716]

Captain Cummins Lay

 

[TinCan]

Captain Cummins Lay

 

[MRB1863]

Captain Cummins Lay took this steamboat down the entire length of the Coosa, including the rapids known as the Devil's Staircase to escape the advancing Union army--the only steamboat to ever manage that run.

 

[Sbc]

By May 17th, 1864, after encountering strong fortifications but little resistance, Union forces under Gen Jefferson C. Davis occupied the town of Rome, Georgia. Two steamboats were docked there on the Coosa River – the Laura Moore and the Alphfretta. To prevent the boats from being captured, the crews raised steam and headed south under cover of darkness. The Captain of one of the steamers would do what no other pilot had done before - or since. Taking advantage of flood waters, he would navigate the Laura Moore all the way down the Coosa, where he turned her over to Confederate authorities at Mobile, AL. His success in steering the Laura Moore through the dangerous rapids of the Coosa is recognized as the most daring exploit ever attempted on any Alabama river. Who was this steamboat Captain?

credit: @lelliott19

Captain Lay of Laura Moore

 

[rhettbutler1865]

By May 17th, 1864, after encountering strong fortifications but little resistance, Union forces under Gen Jefferson C. Davis occupied the town of Rome, Georgia. Two steamboats were docked there on the Coosa River – the Laura Moore and the Alphfretta. To prevent the boats from being captured, the crews raised steam and headed south under cover of darkness. The Captain of one of the steamers would do what no other pilot had done before - or since. Taking advantage of flood waters, he would navigate the Laura Moore all the way down the Coosa, where he turned her over to Confederate authorities at Mobile, AL. His success in steering the Laura Moore through the dangerous rapids of the Coosa is recognized as the most daring exploit ever attempted on any Alabama river. Who was this steamboat Captain?

credit: @lelliott19

Captain Cummins Lay.

 

[Brenal]

Captain Cummings Lay.

 

[Northern Light]

Cummins Lay Lay
Comments: "Captain Cummins Lay took this steamboat down the entire length of the Coosa, including the rapids known as the Devil's Staircase to escape the advancing Union army--the only steamboat to ever manage that run." (From the book "Rivers of History: Life on the Coosa, Tallapoosa, Cahaba and Alabama" by Harvey H. Jackson.)

 

[SonnyP]

Captain Lay

 

[SonnyP]

By May 17th, 1864, after encountering strong fortifications but little resistance, Union forces under Gen Jefferson C. Davis occupied the town of Rome, Georgia. Two steamboats were docked there on the Coosa River – the Laura Moore and the Alphfretta. To prevent the boats from being captured, the crews raised steam and headed south under cover of darkness. The Captain of one of the steamers would do what no other pilot had done before - or since. Taking advantage of flood waters, he would navigate the Laura Moore all the way down the Coosa, where he turned her over to Confederate authorities at Mobile, AL. His success in steering the Laura Moore through the dangerous rapids of the Coosa is recognized as the most daring exploit ever attempted on any Alabama river. Who was this steamboat Captain?

credit: @lelliott19

 

[SonnyP]

Captain Lay