The New Orleans began her 45 year career in September 1871 when the Pusey and Jones Company in Wilmington, Delaware began construction of Hull #101 for The Cromwell Steamship Company. The New Orleans was built to be an iron hulled, two-masted, steam-powered schooner. Originally, the New Orleans hull was built to be 240 feet long, 31 feet wide, with a depth to the keel of 26 feet, and was rated at 1425 gross tons. The gross tonnage was later increased to 1564 gross tons, as the New Orleans was was re-surveyed to 249 feet overall length. A single 48" cylinder Pusey and Jones inclined engine with a 60" stroke was powered by two 14'10" diameter x 9' long boilers. In 1872, when the Steamship New Orleans took to the seas, she was outfitted to carry passengers and goods between New York and New Orleans in the finest of style. During October 1891, the New Orleans had two new boilers installed, but the New Orleans at that point was almost twenty years old, and the faster, more luxurious steamers took over most the passenger trade. The New Orleans did continued as a passenger/freight steamer until the turn of the century, but carried more freight than passengers. In 1899, Cromwell Steamship Lines sold the steamship New Orleans to the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company for $60,000. The New Orleans was placed on scheduled passenger runs on the Baltimore-Savannah route, and eventually the placed on the company's Philadelphia-Providence freight route. Eventually, the Merchants and Miner's Line was able to realize a fair profit by selling its Providence freight steamers New Orleans, Itasca, and Alleghany in 1915. The New Orleans at first was chartered, in March 1915, to the Baltimore and Carolina Steamship Company for trading out of Baltimore to Wilmington, Georgetown, and Charleston. Then in early May 1915, the steamship New Orleans was sold to the Boca Grande Steamship Company On October 11, 1917, the New Orleans foundered in a heavy gale and sank south of Cape Henlopen, Delaware. One of the crew drown, and the rest were rescued by a passing ship and landed in Boston, MA on Oct 13, 1917. The location of the New Orleans wrecksite is still a mystery and the New Orleans may yet be discovered, however, some local researchers contend the wrecksite known as the Subwreck may actually the long sought resting place of the steamship New Orleans.