The Idaho was a paddlewheeler built in1864 by C & R Poillon Shipbuilders for the New York and Brooklyn Ferry Company originally and served as a ferry on the East River in New York City. She had recently been bought by the Jacksonville Ferry Company to serve the route between Jacksonville and South Jacksonville and was being towed south, by the tug Luckenback, to Jacksonville, FL. With the Idaho in tow, the Luckenback left Norfolk, VA on Sunday, Feb. 17, but by Monday was encountering heavy seas off the North Carolina coast. The ferryboat quickly filled with water and sank. The captain and 3 crew members escaped only with the clothes on their back. She was lost off Cape Hatteras.
NOTE: The Idaho was assigned a probable name after some dives and research by the Association of Underwater Explorers in 2006. While the ID isn't definitive (IOW, no named artifacts have been recovered), the circumstantial evidence seems consistent and strong.
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