File:Cotton packet 'Henry Frank' loaded with 9,226 bales of cotton, 2 Apr 1881.jpg

English: Louisiana - arrival of a consignment of nine thousand two hundred & twenty-six bales of cotton at New Orleans. from a photograph by E. M. Bidwell.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper 30 April 1881, page 145

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper—Text page 147:
THE COTTON INDUSTRY AT NEW ORLEANS.
The largest cargo of cotton ever floated on the Mississippi was carried by the steamer Henry Frank from Natchez to New Orleans during the first week in April. The steamer belongs to the Memphis and New Orleans Packet Company, and is 285 feet long and 52 feet beam, with 12 foot hold and 2,600 tons burden. She has 6 boilers, each 28 feet long and 42 inches in diameter, the cylinders 29 inches in diameter with 9 feet stroke. Her immense wheel is 28 feet in diameter, 28 feet wide, and her buckets 28 inches. The steamer left Memphis, March 24th, with 2,596 bales of cotton, of which 2,093 were compressed, and 500 sacks of cotton-seed meal. At Scannel, Helena, the mouth of the White River, and several other points, she added largely to her cargo, so that when she left Natchez, April 1st, for New Orleans, she had on board 9,226 bales. The total cargo was thirteen tiers high, and was so stowed that the vessel not only moved with ease, but presented a most graceful appearance. Our sketch shows the steamer as she appeared after her arrival in New Orleans.

The amount of cotton carried this season into New Orleans by the Henry Frank to date, in her ten trips, is 68,515 bales, an average of 6,851 bales each trip.

For several years past the cotton merchants and factors in New Orleans have been demanding increased facilities for transacting business, not the least of which are suitable Exchange accommodations. If any special argument were needed beyond what has already been urged to establish the question of necessity, the arrival of the Henry Frank would have been sufficient.