Showboat Facts
A Few Facts About the General Jackson Showboat
- Name: "General Jackson," after the first steamboat to operate on the Cumberland River in 1817 which was named after General Andrew Jackson.
- Launch Date: April 20, 1985
- Built By: Jeffboat, Jeffersonville, Indiana
- Christening: July 2, 1985
- Capacity: 1,200 passengers, 157 crew
- Length: 274 feet; 300 feet including gang plank
- Beam: 63 feet, 6 inches (width)
- Height: 55 feet, fixed: 77 feet to top of folding stacks
- Draft: 7 feet
- Engines: 2 Caterpillar 3512's; 1050 h.p. per engine; 880 kw generators
- Motors: Two 600 h.p. General Electric motors turn the paddlewheel - 1,200 h.p. total
- Speed: 13 mph top speed; 4-8 mph average speed
- Paddlewheel: 36 feet long, 24 feet in diameter; weighs 36 tons
- Fuel: #2 diesel fuel with a 15,000 and a 6,000 gallon tank; Consumes 35-65 gallons per hour
- Weight: 1,489 tons dead weight
- Bow Thruster: 200 h.p. prop
- Search Light: Xenon bulb; 120 million candle power
- Dock: 195' x 35' barge
- Mooring Cell: Large cylinders on each end of the dock filled with sand and rock, topped with concrete and used to support and secure the barge/dock
- Cumberland River: Navigable for 381 miles; Gaylord Opryland is at mile 197.5 average depth - 15 to 25 feet; normal (pool) level is 385 feet elevation. A round-trip to downtown and back is 14 miles. The headwaters are in Harlin County, Kentucky, and the mouth is at Smithland, KY where it joins the Ohio River.