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Historical Data
The Sergeant Floyd was launched at the Howard
Shipyards of Jeffersonville, Indiana on May 31, 1932. She
was purchased by the U.S. Government for the Army Corps of
Engineers. Her mission was light towing, survey and
inspection work on the inland waterways under the
jurisdiction of the Missouri River Division of the Corps of
Engineers.
The vessel was named in memory
of Sergeant Charles Floyd, an engineer soldier who
accompanied Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their epic
1804 expedition to the Pacific Northwest. The only fatality
of that journey, Floyd is believed to have been the first
American soldier to die in the then-newly purchased
Louisiana Territory. The site of his burial is now called
Floyd’s Bluff, and is marked by a stone obelisk near Sioux
City, Iowa.
The Sergeant Floyd was
originally powered by two 400 HP diesel engines which were
replaced in 1962 by two 600 HP engines, each driving a
single screw propeller. She has a steel hull and main deck
superstructure and wooden upper decks, typical of diesel
towboat architecture of that period. Approximate speed was
said to be 11 knots in calm water. Construction cost was
approximately $131,970.
Flying the flag of the Kansas
City District, Corps of Engineers, the Floyd was a
primary workhouse in Missouri River improvement work from
1933 until 1975, moving men, equipment and supplies, and
setting navigation buoys along the river. In later years, as
major navigation improvement projects were completed and
newer, more economical equipment became available, her role
diminished. She was on the verge of decommissioning when
Congress authorized her conversion for a final historic
task — a floating Bicentennial exhibit for the Army Corps of
Engineers. For 18 months the Sergeant Floyd toured
the inland and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, bringing to
thousands of Americans the story of how the Army Corps of
Engineers contributed to the development of our country.
After
the Bicentennial she was decommissioned and moored in St.
Louis where an attempt was made to employ her as a floating
museum. In 1983, the Floyd was again offered for sale
as surplus property by the Department of General
Services. Aware of the vessel’s historic significance to the
Siouxland area, the City of Sioux City obtained the
Sergeant Floyd and brought her to the community where,
now permanently dry-docked, she serves as a combined state
tourist welcome center and river museum.
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