3. The Boudreaux Circus Ship & Reconstruction: Illustrated History of Landships, 1858-2008
All Rights Reserved, 2023. See Author's Note.
Author’s note: As far as we are aware, all images are taken from public domain sources; please inform the author of any mistakes in this regard. In terms of any original sketches, these are amateur attempts based on the author’s own archival research. He welcomes improvement from any professional illustrators interested in enhancing this work. ~ CAH, 2023
In memory of Dad, who taught me a love for all things historical, and in homage to William Pène du Bois, who opened up my imagination.
Part One: Introduction
Part Two: The Sally Ann
The Boudreaux Circus Showship, 1874
The Great Boudreaux Showship & Co. built upon the legacy of The Sally Ann and Civil War landships, bringing entertainment to thousands before her unfortunate demise.
Class: civilian commercial entertainment
Crew: 14
Capacity/Complement: circus company and animals (see below)
Construction: Blanchard & Bros, New Orleans, 1873-1874
Hull: wood
Buoyancy: 4 x hot air balloons, lofted, non-rigid, fabric
Buoyancy source: gas-powered pumps when in camp or port
Wheels/track: 12 x 96” wheels, 4 x 68” wheels (in front & back)
Propulsion: elephanti, winged balloons
Sail Plan: n/a
Power plant: n/a
Length: 154 ft
Beam: 46 ft
Decks: 2, incl. acrobats loft
Weight (empty): 68 tons
Clearance: 6 ft
Steering: elephanti (front, sides), wind tillers
Speed: .5 mph
Armor: n/a
Armament: one cannon, human, non-lethal
Communications: telegraph, limited
Other Transportation: detached balloon, Zebraback
Amenities: per a traveling circus
Fate: destroyed by fire, 1877
Considered one of the first great landships, the Boudreaux was almost three times longer and wider than The Sally Ann, although still tiny in comparison to later dreadnoughts and especially Cold War era landships.
The brainchild of former Union officer, Commodore Albius Forthright, the Boudreaux built upon the burgeoning idea of circus ships, made famous - unfortunately - by the disaster of the Royal Tar off of the coast of Maine in 1836. In 1872, PT Barnum took advantage of America’s expanding rail system to launch the world’s first circus train. But, as Commodore Forthright reasoned, that still left vast numbers of towns and cities unreached.
After hostilities began at Ft. Sumter, Forthright signed up for the First Maine Volunteers but through a series of mishaps too long for this retelling, ended up receiving his commission in the US Navy in the supply corps. He was soon assigned as a liason to the US Army Quartermaster corps as they began to develop their landship fleet with the help of Thaddeus Lowe. Forthright helped Lowe design and captain several of the ships used by the Union Army, thus finding himself in the unusual position of commanding army soldiers as a naval officer.
At the end of the war, Forthright ended up in New Orleans with the occupying Federal forces. Eventually, he was appointed by Ulysses Grant as second-in-command of Reconstruction efforts in the city, receiving the rank of Commodore to accord with his new authority. By all accounts, Forthright’s administration was efficient and fair-minded to all sides and races in New Orleans, the largest city in the South.
It was during his tenure in New Orleans that Forthright met and married Placide Boudreaux, a citizen of some distinction within the city. Placide helped Forthright develop his idea for a great circus landship - but not simply for commercial purposes. Together, they energetically recruited all manner of men and women to crew his ship and man his circus, drawing from the best New Orleans had to offer - black, white, mulatto, cajun, and even former pirates said to be descended from Pierre Lafitte.
There were at times tensions among the crew as former Yankee and Confederate soldiers learned to work together along with several freedmen. But Forthright used his position to make the Boudreaux an efficient and a peaceable ship, so that by the time he resigned his Navy commission in early 1874, she was ready to launch.
It is said that that Forthright wanted to name his landship, “The Peaceable Kingdom” after the famous 1840 painting by his fellow Quaker, Edward Hicks, but associates convinced Forthright that it would be best if she were given a more profitable name. Besides, it was also pointed out, there was no guarantee that the lions would in fact, not eat the monkeys if given a chance. Hence, The Great Boudreaux Showship & Co. was christened.
In terms of the circus itself, the Forthrights could not hope to compete with the larger enterprises such as Barnum & Bailey’s “Greatest Show on Earth.” But they did do their best to employ all the basic elements of a circus - trapeze artists, clowns, sideshow “freaks” and a human cannonball. On top of these acts, of course, were the exotic animals and their trainers, and for this, Forthright’s trading connections built during Reconstruction proved invaluable. He was able to attain tigers, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, one lion, and crucially, half a dozen elephants.
For ringmaster, Forthright hired his friend, Toussaint LeBlanc. Originally from Haiti, LeBlanc fled to New Orleans in the late 1860s during the civil unrest under the Salnave regime. His commanding presence and charisma won over both crew and circus and was a large part of the Boudreaux’s success during her brief career.
The circus company was much like any of the day, suited to their size. In addition to the performers, it included a number of carnies - ride jocks, poppers, joint runners and the like. In larger venues, the company set up several tents, much like other traveling circuses. Many of the supplies for these larger shows were carried in smaller wagons which accompanied the Boudreaux on her journey.
In smaller venues it made more business sense for the Boudreaux to erect one large tent on the deck itself, living up to its name as a true Showship, an historical feat unique to the Boudreaux. All in all, up to 30-40 men and women worked on the circus side of the Boudreaux in addition to the ship crew. It was a hard day’s work, but for the most part, made for a lively and happy existence.
In terms of the ship itself, the Boudreaux normally operated with a crew of fourteen: a captain, first officer, purser, quartermaster, sailmaster, sailmaker, cooper, signalman and coxswain, along with three drivers and two tillsmen. Forthright hired a captain, while giving himself the title of Commodore of the Circus, in charge of both ship and show. Placide helped with the overall business operations, and although given no official title, much of the crew affectionately referred to her as “La Patronne.”
The Boudreaux was buoyed by four balloons lofted high into the air, which also helped with propulsion when the wind was favorable, an idea Forthright borrowed from Lowe during the war. The four balloons were filled in camp by transportable, gas-powered pumps, also borrowed from the Union landship department. The difficulty with this system was that the Boudreaux was often forced to stop whenever the balloons became depleted, which meant that Forthright and company could never be in a particular hurry to get to their next show.
The two rearmost balloons were able to be detached for customer rides when the ship stopped for a performance. Retrieval proved problematic, however, and Forthright ceased offering this attraction after several weeks. Also problematic was Forthright’s plan to use telegraph to communicate upcoming showtimes, as running wire to nearby stations proved impractical. The zebras were also less cooperative in providing personal transportation than Forthright had hoped. More successful was the use of monkeys to deliver messages as a form of onboard communication.
The Boudreaux was propelled by elephant train (an “elephanti”), and an ingenious, but ineffective set of balloon-wings hooked up to the two front balloons, which were operated by personnel on deck. With twenty-four tons of elephant power already pulling, it is impossible to measure what effect the balloon-wings had, if any.
Steering was also far from perfect for this early design of landship. An elephant apiece set on the port and starboard sides were supposed to respond to commands given to them by their drivers. But frequent miscommunication and a lack of cooperation from the weather meant for many unplanned side journeys - to the delight of multiple small towns and Indian reservations. This is how The Great Boudreaux Showship Co. got its motto, still known today - “Wherever we go, there we show.”
As for The Great Boudreaux Showship & Co.’s career, like The Sally Ann, it has been well documented elsewhere. The sum of it is that the ship eased its way out of Louisiana into Texas in 1874, then eventually made its way across the Southwest territories and up into the central valley of California until it reached San Francisco, the Boudreaux’s final resting place. It is estimated that she entertained over 40,000 spectators in her brief 3-year career. The only recorded snag in her peaceable journey was a brief scrum between the clowns and a gang of “confounded larrikins” in Santa Fe.
In her three-year career, the Boudreaux enjoyed a happy, almost ark-like existence, a shining example of hope for the new world coming out of the strife of the American conflict, with the promise of Reconstruction. Yankee, Confederate, black, white and mulatto, former military officers and former slaves all labored together to bring joy to the faces of men, women and children across a vast swath of America.
But it would not last. Tragically, after giving their sixth show in San Francisco, the Boudreaux caught fire in the middle of the night on April 23, 1877. No cause has ever been determined but the previous week, Forthright and LeBlanc had both received death threats from anonymous “concerned citisens of the California republick.”
Thankfully, there were no injuries among man or mammal, but The Great Boudreaux Showship & Co. was through. Albius and Placide settled into San Francisco where they set up a trading company with interests in Shanghai. The crew scattered across the West, with most of the freemen ending up as sharecroppers in California, a fate little better than slavery.
LeBlanc returned to Port-Au-Prince, where he helped President Lysius Salomon establish Haiti’s postal system, becoming Haiti’s first postmaster general before being ousted by the coup of 1888. He died impoverished in his childhood home.
After 1877, Albius Forthright continued to exchange letters with many of his former crew and assisted them as best he could, but, like the nation, Forthright’s dream of creating a peaceable kingdom went up in smoke.
COMING UP NEXT: THE FIRST BRITISH COLONIAL LANDSHIP IN AFRICA, THE HML TRANSVAAL, 1879