The riverboat that was struck by a large tanker ship and capsized at New Orleans on Friday, sending passengers into the Mississippi River, had made multiple visits to Henderson in recent years.
The luxury paddlewheeler American Heritage moored at the Henderson riverfront three times the past two years for passengers to come ashore and visit the city, including Sept. 1-2, 2025 as well as July 1 and Aug. 31 this year.
Henderson Tourist Commission Executive Director Abby Dixon said the ship also stopped here multiple times under a previous name, Queen of the Mississippi. So, the ship was no stranger to Henderson, and many Hendersonians saw and photographed her.
Her owner, American Cruise Lines, first posted on Facebook a confirmation Friday afternoon that its 11-year-old passenger ship had been involved in a collision while docked at the Port of New Orleans.
The very first comment to that post came from the Henderson Tourist Commission.
“We always look forward to welcoming American Cruise Lines guests and crew when they dock in Henderson, Kentucky,” it read. “We are grateful to hear that everyone has been accounted for and are thinking of all those affected. We wish those hospitalized a safe and speedy recovery.”
The American Heritage, which reportedly had 180 passengers and crew aboard, was docked at the Port of New Orleans at the time of the mid-day collision. Remarkably, the U.S. Coast Guard later “confirmed all passengers and crew are accounted for, with no reported casualties following the collision on the Mississippi River.”
At a dockside news conference late Friday afternoon, New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno reported that 32 passengers were in local hospitals, though none with critical injuries. News reports on Saturday indicated that several people remained hospitalized.
The mayor said recovering all passengers and crew alive was “truly a miracle on the Mississippi.”
Videos obtained and posted online by The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans show surreal scenes immediately before and after the collision.
One 29-second video, shot by a passenger from her cabin’s balcony, shows the 520-foot-long asphalt tanker Atlantic Asphalt sailing toward the cruise ship. After a few seconds, the tanker’s anchor chain can be seen being released, then going taut as the anchor presumably hit the river bottom but failed to halt the tanker.
The tanker turned toward what appears will be a direct and imminent collision with the passenger’s balcony. She retreated back into her cabin, saying, “Oh, gosh, hang on, hang on baby, hang on baby, come on!” to her male companion as he begins retreating as well.
The posted video stops before the collision. Whether those two passengers suffered any injuries wasn’t clear.
Equally stunning is a dockside video shot by a bystander who marveled, “Wow! Wow! Man!” in disbelief as the American Heritage over the course of about 45 seconds went from listing at perhaps 30 degrees to capsizing onto its port (left) side while passengers fitted with orange life preserver jumped from the ship into the muddy river and swam toward the dock, which was several yards above the water line.
Some passengers on an upper deck on the starboard (right) side of the ship can be seen scurrying over deck railings before settling on the side of the upright hull of the vessel.
At one point in that video, what sound like a woman’s screams can be heard, though it’s not evident whether it was from someone on the ship, in the water or on shore. As the doomed cruise ship settled on its port side, apparently onto the river bottom, screeching metal can be heard.
In yet another video, Chief of Coast Guard Sector New Orleans Melanie Burnham at a Friday afternoon news conference attributed the collision to “some type of a loss of steering” although the exact reason why hadn’t yet been determined.
Hendersonians familiar with the ship and its visits here remained stunned Saturday.
“The American Cruise Line fleet, and river cruising in general, is part of our culture and we’re proud to be part of it, and seeing the news and the coverage, it gives you shivers seeing something like that happening,” tourism director Dixon said.
“I’m glad everyone’s safe,” she said. “Whenever you’re in this business–I’ve been working American Cruise Line and building relations (with them) over the past decade—those are our friends, and our thoughts are with them. Even though everyone’s safe, I can’t imagine what those passengers and crews experienced at the moment.”
Henderson musician Zeb Hargis and his father, Mark, performed twice for American Heritage passengers when the ship stopped here the past two years.
“It was definitely surreal, I’ll say that” of the videos of the ship capsizing, Hargis said.
The Hargises never got to sail overnight on the Heritage, as they have for Viking ships and other cruise lines that have stopped in Henderson.
“I’ve stepped foot on it,” Hargis said. “Both times they stayed in Henderson we played for passengers as they came off and got on.”
With the Heritage having been designed to look vintage, he said, “It was definitely a step back in time, but definitely up to date. Clean and up to date. It was beautiful inside.”
He’ll never see the ship again. “That’s the sad part,” Hargis said. “We enjoyed playing for them. That’s one less boat we’ll get to play for.”
Henderson photographer Debbie Bridwell Scott has taken numerous photos of the American Heritage and other riverboats that have called on Henderson.
“I never boarded the ship but was always excited for the paddlewheels to dock at the riverfront,” she said in a message. “I’d grab my camera and head into downtown.
“I’ve been taking images of the American Heritage for about six years,” she said. “It used to be called the Queen of the Mississippi. To me the paddlewheel ‘Queens’ bring back the romance of river travel. I love taking photos of them on our riverfront.”
“What I picture is the American Heritage at our riverfront,” Dixon said. “It’s very sad to note that she won’t be back to see us again.”
