Rebuilding the Mary Powell

At the end of the 1862 season, on October 20, Captain Anderson had the Mary Powell hauled out and lengthened. Although this was not an unheard of practice, it was not common. The Powell was cut in half between her paddle wheels and boilers and lengthened by 21 feet, increasing her overall length to 288 feet and also increasing her interior saloons and passenger capacity. Because this improvement was made after just one year in service, no known images of the Mary Powell with her original dimensions exists. However, if you look at photographs post-lengthening, you can see the distance between the paddle wheels and the boiler cylinders on her deck. This change gave her unique and easily recognizable proportions, with her paddlewheels slightly forward, instead of near the center of the boat, and helped contribute to her famous silhouette.