Reference
- SteamboatsSteamboats are ships powered by steam, which propels the rotation of large paddle wheels that move the vessel through water. Steamboats were a vital element of the U.S. transportation system from their invention in the late eighteenth century until the late nineteenth century. Because steamboats generate their own consistent source of power, typically generated through the burning of coal, and could operate in shallow waters, they had an unprecedented ability to navigate rivers and other inland waterways, and were particularly valuable for traveling upriver and against currents that other vessels could not surmount. Steamboats were also used in the deep coastal waters along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Their use for the transport of people and goods was central to the development of the U.S. economy after independence and before the proliferation of rail lines in the late 1800s.
The first workable steamboat was demonstrated by John Fitch (1743–98) in 1787 on the Delaware River. Although he built several steamboats and received a patent for his design in 1791, Fitch struggled to demonstrate the commercial viability of his technology and lost the support of his backers. However, the impetus to create steam-powered vessels was not dead. Among many who sought to improve upon Fitch's start were John Stevens and Robert Fulton, who both built and operated steamboats in the early nineteenth century. From these origins, steamboats proliferated.
By 1817 dozens of steamboats were in operation on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their tributaries. By 1840 there were more than 200 on the Mississippi alone, and by 1860 this number had swelled to more than 1,000. Mississippi steamboat traffic and trade pushed New Orleans to exceed New York City in volume of shipping by 1850, with New Orleans' outbound cargo accounting for more than half of the nation's total exports. Steamboat technology was put to use on many kinds of vessels, but packets that carried passengers and cargo from city to city were the most common kind; these vessels made settlement possible by permitting travel from West Virginia in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West, and from Minnesota in the North to Louisiana in the South.
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Perspectives
Steam
In 1807, Robert Fulton, using an English mail-order steam engine, chugged four miles an hour up the Hudson River, passing into popular folklore as the inventor of the steamboat. However, the true first passenger steamboat in America, and the world, was built from scratch, and plied the Delaware River in 1790, almost two decades earlier. Its inventor, John Fitch, never attained Fulton's riches, and was rewarded with ridicule and poverty. Considering there was not a single working steam engine in America in the early 1780s, Fitch's steamboat's development was nothing short of remarkable. But he faced competition from the start, and he and several other inventors fought a string of bitter battles, legal and otherwise. Steam tells the dramatic story of Fitch and his adversaries, weaving their lives into a fascinating tale including the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. It is the story behind America's first important venture in technology, the persevering and colorful men that made it happen, and the great invention that moved a new nation westward.
Steamboat Seasons
This historical novel is the sequel to Steamboat Seasons and Backwater Battles, following our Captain and his steamboat during the year after the American Civil War. He finds little remains unchanged of his life, his livelihood, and his country. His love, Ann, rejoins him, but conflicts arise. Consignments fade away as the Southern economy is wrecked, and it may be years before its recovery. The newly freed African Americans have not realized any true benefits the end of slavery promised. Labor disputes and competition from the railroads and the dangers on the rivers cause the Captain to reassess his life. A deadly conspiracy stalks his boat up and down the Mississippi and onto the Missouri River-and ends in a final confrontation.
Exploding Steamboats, Senate Debates, and Technical Reports
By 1838, over two thousand Americans had been killed and many hundreds injured by exploding steam engines on steamboats. After calls for a solution in two State of the Union addresses, a Senate Select Committee met to consider an investigative report from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, the first federally funded investigation into a technical.
Steamboat Seasons and Backwater Battles
This is the story of a young man with the ambition to crawl his way up in Victorian society by leaving the farm and signing onto a steamboat. After becoming a certified pilot, he is quickly swept up in the war he does not understand that divides the country and threatens his goals. He witnesses the militarization of the steamboat trade and the coming rise of the railroads. When the boat is acquired by the War Department for conversion to a "tinclad" gunboat, he and other skilled men are contracted to the Navy and find themselves in the thick of the fighting on the western rivers. There, they must grapple with the moral complexities and the human and economic consequences of the war. The battles and locations are real, and the tale reveals the trials and tribulations of forming a navy on the western rivers. Such topics as boat acquisition, manning, and arming are presented in detail. Others such as leadership and race relations of the era are as well. This story is a unique and colorful over-the-shoulder look at steamboat life and the war on the rivers.
The Steamboat Phoenix and the Archaeology of Early Steam Navigation in North America
The Steamboat Phoenix and the Archaeology of Early Steam Navigation in North America offers an in-depth exploration of the archaeological and cultural aspects of early American steamboat development. It also tells the story of Phoenix, the second steamer to operate on Lake Champlain and the world's earliest archaeologically studied steamboat wreck. In doing so, this book provides a unique insight into early perceptions of steam navigation, including both the wonder and fear elicited by the comfort and efficiency they promised and the hazards with which they came to be associated. The advent of steam navigation contributed significantly to the economic transformation of early America, facilitating trade through the transportation of goods along the country's lakes, rivers, and canals. Despite their significant role, however, few details on the construction and operation of early steamboats have survived in historical documents. This book helps address this gap by examining the archaeological record. Using Phoenix as a case study and comparing it with the archaeological remains of other contemporary steamers, this book offers a detailed and extensive insight into the development of early steam propulsion and of steamboat culture in America, as well as a look at what life was like on board through the analysis of recovered artifacts and contemporary accounts. With over 90 illustrations, including a reconstruction of the steamboat, The Steamboat Phoenix and the Archaeology of Early Steam Navigation in North America is ideal for archaeologists and maritime historians, but also for those with a general interest in American maritime history.
Commercial Importance of Steamboats
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The commercial importance of steamboats on the Missouri cannot be underestimated. Owners and pilots were preoccupied with speed.
Robert Fulton's Steamboat
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowArtist Robert Fulton turned to science and invention to make a living. His steamboat design revolutionized travel on the Hudson River and played significant roles in the development of New York City and in America's growing economy.
Steamboats and Factories in America
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Continue your study of American industrialization with a look at the steamships, canals, and railways that opened up the great continent. Then, turn to a series of great inventions in the 19th century, including the McCormick reaper, the John Deere steel plow, the telegraph, and the Colt revolver.
Online Resources
- Archaeology of the Early 19th-Century American Steamboat PhoenixIn September 1819, the passenger steamboat Phoenix caught fire on Lake Champlain and sank off of Colchester Shoal, Vermont, depositing a store of archaeological data on the design and use of early American steamers. The wreck is believed to be the earliest example of a steamboat that has yet been investigated archaeologically, and has been used as a case study for the early development of steam propulsion in North America.
- The Flawed "Tools of Empire": Clive Dewey, Steamboats on the IndusDespite the deceptively modest range of historical processes and geographical coverage suggested by its title, Clive Dewey's Steamboats on the Indus: The Limits of Western Technological Superiority in South Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. 360. $130) is a book of importance not only for social scientists and engineers interested in the history of science and technology, but for scholars and practitioners engaged in the study of South Asia, Western colonialism, and cross-cultural transfers. The author specifically focuses on dominant assumptions about the ways in which the advantages of industrialization made possible the rise of the West and its colonization of much of the rest of the world.
The Titanic Disaster
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowThe RMS Titanic sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 (ship's time) on Sunday, 14 April 1912. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 (ship's time; 05:18 GMT) on Monday, 15 April, resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.