... the stern wheel steamboat "SS Natchez IX" is the 9th New Orleans riverboat to carry the name. She was launched in 1975 and is powered by a pair of engines, originally built in 1925, for the riverboat "Clairton". The steering gear, the bell and whistle are also salvaged from earlier, deceased steamboats. The Natchez operates out of the Toulouse Street Wharf, in the French Quarter, offering 2 hour tour rides, dinner and romantic evening cruises on the mighty muddy Mississippi River. The first Natchez was a double side-wheel, paddleboat laid in New York City in 1823... mostly running freight with passenger service, back and forth between Natchez and Vicksburg, Mississippi and down into New Orleans, Louisiana. She was destroyed by fire in 1835. New Orleans is known as the Crescent City, the Big Easy and the Birthplace of Jazz... and of course, the best gumbo on earth... I've visited three times... I love that Gumbo !