(Sorry, out of stock...SOLD for $85.00) Steamboat "Robert E. Lee" Kit, by Lindberg. A classic model kit from Lindberg, this is the rare 1979 issue of the famous "Robert E. Lee", in MINT CONDITION, PARTS STILL ON TREES IN ORIGINAL UNOPENED POUCHES. The box has some slight compression on the front, nothing major. This is a great 1/163 scale plastic model kit that finishes out at 22" long! The "Robert E. Lee", nicknamed the "Monarch of the Mississippi," was a passenger steamboat built in 1866. It was named for the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, and gained its greatest fame for beating the then-current "Natchez" in an 1870 steamboat race. The race was from St. Louis, Missouri to New Orleans, a distance of 1,154 miles...and the "Lee" made it in 3 days, 18 hours and 14 minutes, incredible for its day. The captain of the "Lee" ensured victory by removing excess weight, not allowing passengers, and prearranged barges to increase the speed of refueling. To this day no commercial boat has beaten the speed record set by the "Lee" during the race. Unfortunately, 12 years later in 1882 the "Lee" met the same fate as many of her contemporaries: burning (at Vicksburg, Mississippi) after just having all of her wooden superstructure repainted...went up like a tinderbox with the loss of 21 lives. Anyway, an historic vessel and a great model kit. Out of stock.