<P> In 1887 , the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the river dock in Natchez , Mississippi . The Reconstruction era had ended a decade earlier , and white - dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation and Jim Crow rules . The boat 's owner , Cap'n Andy Hawks , introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee . A fistfight breaks out between Steve Baker , the leading man of the troupe , and Pete , a rough engineer who had been making passes at Steve 's wife , the leading lady Julie La Verne , a mixed - race woman who passes as white . Steve knocks Pete down , and Pete swears revenge , suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie . Cap'n Andy pretends to the shocked crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed . The troupe exits with the showboat band , and the crowd follows . </P>
in the musical show boat what is the name of cap'n andy 's boat
Cotton Blossom