This towboat, which served as a president of the United States during a war, is currently rotting in Louisiana
A historic towboat that formerly functioned as President Roosevelt’s Mississippi River headquarters in the1940s when the President oddly had to check the river during the year he guided his country into World War 2 has been discovered in the abandoned state, according to EERIE photographs.
Pictures of the interior’s crumbling walls, with the remains of a kitchen area still visible, doors hanging off their hinges, and ceilings collapsing, are unsettling.
Other arresting images depict the boat’s rotting exterior as it is beached on a lush bank.
The eerie photos, which were captured by Sacramento, Californian artist, animator, and photographer Skyler Brown (25), portray Mamie S. Barrett at Deer Park, Louisiana, in the United States.
He remarked, “I’ve been photographing deserted places all around the world for a while now.
“Before going anywhere, I always do research on the area to discover hidden, off-the-beaten-path destinations.
“In August 2014, while driving through the American South for this particular project, I heard reports about a largely deserted steamboat somewhere along the Mississippi River.
“At the time, there wasn’t a lot of information available online regarding the boat or its whereabouts, but after poring through satellite imagery, I discovered what I thought to be the boat. But until I got there and saw it for myself, I wasn’t really sure it existed.
The 124-foot-long vessel was built in 1921 at the Howard Shipyard in Jeffersonville, Indiana, for a price of$145K (£108K). In 1923, it was sold to the US Army Corps of Engineers and moved to Florence, Atlanta.
The Mamie S. Barrett, a vessel that was once owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was President Roosevelt’s base of operations when he toured and examined the Mississippi River. The yacht was retired after 24 years and sold to a construction business.
Mamie S. Barrett’s ownership changed multiple times throughout the ensuing years. The Harbour Point Yacht Club in Weston Alton, Missouri, used the boat as a clubhouse and restaurant in 1949.
These photos were taken with a Canon EOS 70D by Skyler, who described how he manages to capture the beauty of deserted locations.
“I always examine the place first, both to identify the best viewpoints and to make sure it’s safe to enter before I start capturing images at an abandoned spot,” he stated.
“I prefer to be methodical and organize it so that it runs as smoothly as possible, but there is a lot of improvisation required because you never know what you’ll find inside.
“Normally, I try to take as many images as I can in a reasonable length of time. For this series, a ten-minute timeframe was used to take all of the images of the ship’s interior.
“I always strive to be respectful of the setting and its history whenever I shoot in a site like this. I try not to cause any more damage to the building by damaging things, making a lot of noise, or doing anything similar.
The boat was given new owners in 1981, and they moved it to Eddyville, Kentucky. The Mamie S. Barrett had a thorough renovation at this time and was turned into a restaurant.
The Mamie S. Barrett was included in the National Register of Historic Places in April of 1983. It was transformed into a showboat with a restaurant and theater with 120 seats in the ensuing years.
There is little chance that the antique yacht will ever be restored to its former splendor due to a fire that occurred in 2017.
