In 1832, Jeremiah Diller, a successful Louisville cabinet maker, purchased the recently constructed Heroine from her builders in New Albany, Indiana, a town situated across the Ohio River and slightly west of Louisville, Kentucky. Heroine was the only vessel known to have been owned by Diller, which was common for the time and place, since most western river steamboats were small-scale operations owned by a single businessman or a limited number of investors. Heroine was also similar to her contemporaries in that she tramped the western rivers, taking on whatever cargo and passengers were available and delivering them to ports between Louisville and New Orleans. At various times during her career, she carried bales of cotton, immigrants, foodstuffs, businessmen, and even supplies and volunteer troops for the Texas Revolution. During June of 1836, William Fairfax Gray of Virginia took passage on Heroine from Vicksburg, Mississippi to Louisville. Initially, he described the steamer as “a sorry old boat,” but towards the end of his journey he revised his opinion, writing “The officers…are very attentive. The steward, an old black man, is the best steward I have seen on the western waters.”

Six years after her construction, Heroine was considered an old vessel in a trade that often sank or retired vessels in less than half a decade. In the winter of 1838, she was running a scheduled packet service between Vicksburg and various ports on the Red River when she was hired to transport the annual re-supply of provisions to the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Towson, Oklahoma. The steamer was one of the first boats to pass through the channel in the “Great Raft” (a more than 100 mile long log jam on the lower Red River), newly-opened by Henry Shreve in March. The crew laboriously worked the boat up the shallow, treacherous river as far as Jonesborough, Texas (near modern Davenport), a mere four miles (6.4 km) short of the Fort Towson landing. Hampered by low water, Heroine paused briefly in Jonesborough before beginning the final push upriver on May 7, 1838. Shortly after departing, the steamer met disaster two miles (3.2 km) east of its destination when she struck a log and sank. Everyone escaped the wreck safely and the engine and some cargo were salvaged before a sudden rise in the river filled the hold with sand. The wreck remained visible for five years before a great flood in 1843 shifted the river channel and buried the vessel until it was re-exposed in 1991.

Watercolor of The Paddle Steamer "Ouishita" on the Red River, Louisiana Territory (1968.271), by Richard G.A. Levigne, courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum.

The identification of the Red River Wreck as Heroine is based on numerous lines of evidence. Based on its construction and location the wreck can be securely dated to 1838–1845. The Red River Wreck has evidence of a single centerline mounted engine, which were rapidly supplanted by twin-engine configurations beginning in 1840. The wreck is also situated upstream of the “Great Raft,” which made the upper Red River impassable until March 1838. During that brief period of time, the only known vessel to sink in this location that matches the dimensions of the Red River Wreck was Heroine. Furthermore, Heroine was reported to have sunk while carrying stores for U.S. troops and recent excavations have recovered cargo that not only matches the reported losses (soap, pork, and flour), but is marked “U.S.A” (during this period “A” abbreviated “Army” rather than “ America”).

Research on the steamboat Heroine continues in an effort to learn more details of her career.