PS Alice Dean (1863)

The Alice Dean in 1863
Name	Alice Dean
Owner	Commodore Thompson Dean
Operator	James H. Pepper
Port of registry	Cincinnati Sanitation Commission
Route	Cincinnati to Memphis
Ordered	Commodore Thompson Dean
Builder	Sam Hambleton
Cost	$60,000
Yard number	Cincinnati Shipyards
Laid down	Scuttled July 9, 1863
Launched	1863
Christened	Alice Dean
Completed	March 1863
Maiden voyage	March 1863
In service	4 months
Fate	Burned
Notes	This Naval and landbattle has been expurgated from The records of Morgan's Raid
General characteristics
Class and type	Woodenhull sidewheelSanitary Packet steamer
Tonnage	880
Length	182 feet
Decks	4
Propulsion	Side-wheel

PS Alice Dean, which had a capacity of 880 tons, was a side-wheel, wooden-hulled packet steamer. It was launched from Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, in 1863, running a scheduled route between Cincinnati and Memphis, Tennessee. Its captain was James H. Pepper.

In June 1863 the Alice Dean served as a Union troop transport, carrying Federal forces from Memphis to join General Ulysses Grant's siege of Vicksburg.^[1] In July of that year, Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his cavalry undertook a large scale raid from Tennessee through Kentucky and then across Indiana and Ohio. While crossing the Ohio River into Indiana at Brandenburg, Kentucky, the raiders captured the Alice Dean. Using the Alice Dean as a ferry, Morgan's troops were transported to Morvin's Landing, near Mauckport, Indiana. Morgan's Raiders had already appropriated a small packet named and used her as a decoy to hail down and capture the Alice Dean. After using the two boats for their purposes, Morgan's men burned the Alice Dean. The McCombs was spared because its owner/captain was a friend of Morgan's second-in-command, Basil W. Duke. The machinery was salvaged in the fall of 1863 and auctioned off to the C.T. Dumont Co. for $4,500. Part of the Alice Dean is on display at the Battle of Corydon battlefield.^[2]

A towboat accident at Leavenworth, Indiana in August 1959 caused the water of the Ohio River to drop five feet, which exposed the hull of the Alice Dean. Local history buff took pieces of wood as plaques to commemorate the raid.^[3]

In 1965 the Heth Civic Club took up a collection and bribed a local contractor to move his crane to the site of the Alice Dean in an attempt to recover the ship. The ship was disturbed and several truck loads of wood were recovered. There is a rare video of the expedition.

In 2014, Clarence Merk, a local historian, with the permission from the Navy Heritage and History Command Center, took on the quest of locating and validating the wreck of the Alice Dean near Mauckport, Indiana. Merk applied for a permit from the USACE to determine the exact location and condition of the Alice Dean. Clarence Merk coordinated a training day, May 14, 2014 with the IDNR Conservation officers, with their sidescan sonar unit; Louisville Metro Police Dive Team, to put hands on the vessel for confirmation, and the US Coast Guard to validate the results. On May 14, 2014, Clarence Merk and his team located the Alice Dean, divers put hands on authenticating the Alice Dean. The sonar images show the Alice Dean is intact and submerged in 10 meters of water.

Clarence Merk presented his irrefutable research to the US General Services Administration Excess Property Division Treaasure Trove Division and became the DE Facto "Requestor of Record" of the Alice Dean. As a result of development the GSA Treasure Trove Division created a title for the Alice Dean and at the request of the NHHCC, transferred custody of the Alice Dean to the Navy on August 15, 2015, where it is now protected under the Sunken Military Crafts Act of 1947. The document was Transfer Order #122.

Clarence Merk partnered with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Archaeologists in June 2018 to complete the Nomination to Historic Places. That nomination is waiting on technical details from the proposed Phase 1 Research for submission.

Clarence Merk, in July 2018 sent out an RFP for Phase 1 Archaeological Research on the Alice Dean, and has contracted for the Services of Cross International Marine Projects, Pan American Consultants, and Archeologist Michael Murray. The proposed cost for complete mapping and 3D imaging is approximately $60,000.

In August 2018, Clarence Merk submitted a request for non-invasive research to the Department of the Navy and it was approved. A "Special Use" Permit was issued and will allow 3D mapping to begin when funding is secured.

Associated with this affair was "Sherman's Ride," in which a self-appointed Paul Revere, Jacob Sherman, mounted a horse and galloped upriver to head off the down-bound Grey Eagle to prevent her from falling into the hands of Morgan. He succeeded. The grateful owners of the Grey Eagle presented a bell to the citizens of Mauckport in appreciation, and it still is there.^[4]

Following the loss of Alice Dean, a second steamboat with the same name was built to replace her.

See also[]

• PS Alice Dean (1864)

References[]