NATCHEZ — Natchez prides itself on providing hospitality, but few visitors have been welcomed with parades, dinners, balls and baseball games.

All of those events and more were planned for one visitor 100 years ago — a boat.

But the boat causing the stir wasn’t just any boat. It was the battleship the USS Mississippi, which stopped in Natchez for five days on the final leg of a publicity cruise promoting the ship and the U.S. Navy.

The boat dropped anchor on May 20, 1909, but preparation for the ship’s arrival started months in advance.

“There was a committee for everything — a committee to entertain officers, a committee to entertain sailors, a committee for the parade, a committee to oversee the gift giving,” said Cheryl Munyer, curator for the Natchez National Historical Park. “And they all had reports published in the newspaper about their progress.

“The ship coming to Natchez was a great source of pride and excitement for the people of Natchez.”

And when the ship arrived, the town was ready.

“The store owners decorated their storefronts like it was Christmas except everything was in a nautical theme,” Munyer said.

And everyone knew when the ship had finally arrived.

“Lemule P. Conner was the first to see it,” Munyer said. “And he signaled for the ferry to blow its whistle. After that every whistle in Vidalia and Natchez blew and every bell fitted with a clapper rang to let people know the ship was rounding the bend.”

The battleship was commissioned in 1908 in Pennsylvania and decommissioned in 1914. The building of the ship cost over $4 million. It sailed as part of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet and represented the United States in 1909 at the inauguration of the Cuban president in Havana.

The ship was later given to Greece and sailed as part of the Royal Hellenic Navy. At that time, it was renamed the Lemnos. The ship was sunk in 1941 by the Germans.

During the 1909 trip that brought the USS Mississippi to Natchez from New Orleans, the ship made other stops along the river, but according to the ship’s captains John C. Fremont said the displays of adoration in Natchez were far superior to welcomes received elsewhere.

Fremont told The Daily Democrat newspaper the reception in Natchez “capped the climax and excelled anything of the kind he had ever witnessed in his career.”

And that statement is hard to argue since the list of activities included parties, dances, dinners and multiple gifts.

Any activities for sailors were planned in duplicate since not all of the sailors could leave the ship at once. Shortly after the ship dropped anchor, the gift giving began.

“Each officer on the ship received a gold watch fob with a charm of a Natchez Indian on the bluff and each sailor received a silver watch fob and charm,” Munyer said.

A watch fob is a chain or strap attached to a pocket watch.

Those gifts were given in addition to gifts given by the City of Natchez and the State of Mississippi. Natchez presented the ship’s captain and crew with a silver punch bowl, waiter, ladle and crystal cups. The set was christened while the ship was in Natchez when the ship’s officers hosted a reception and dance aboard the ship for Natchezians.

“The punch bowl cost $1,500 which at that time was a huge deal since most workers only made 22 cents and hour,” Munyer said.

The State of Mississippi presented the ship with a 63-piece silver service set valued at $7,200.

“The ladies and children of Natchez also went door to door collecting funds to buy the latest Victor Victrola phonograph for the ship,” Munyer said. “But they didn’t stop there, they even presented them with some of the most popular records, too.”

The Mississippi State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution gave a silver candelabrum that held five candles.

The punch bowl given to the ship from Natchez, the candelabrum and several of the ship’s yearbooks were given to the Daughters of the American Revolution and are housed at Rosalie, the group’s Natchez property.

The ship’s bell is also on display in the courtyard at Rosalie. The figurehead of the ship is displayed on High Street in Jackson.

The ship’s stay in Natchez wasn’t just town news, word of reached neighboring towns and cities and discounted train fares were provided for people coming from Bastrop, La., Lake Providence, La., and other areas.

A round trip fare from Lake Providence was $3.50, and round trip fare from Bastrop was $2.

It is estimated that more than 30,000 people viewed the trip, and more than 20,000 people paid 25 cents for the ferry ride to board the ship.

One group of area children were given special access, Munyer said.

“There was a headline in the newspaper that said ‘The best trip of all,’” she said. “A group of town bachelors took 160 orphans to the ship. The paper said they were running around, chatting and giggling.”

It seems those who saw the ship in 1909 were witnesses to the last big ship to sail up the Mississippi River to Natchez and were justified in their excitement.

“Now, with all the bridges over the river, ships like that can’t sail up the river,” Munyer said. “I don’t expect we will see anything like it again.”