Steamboat

A steamboat is a steam-powered ship. Steamboats were the first ships able to quickly travel independent of current and wind. Although they were popular for only a short time, steamboats were an important stepping stone in naval technology.

Steamboats used a boiler to create steam. The steam powered a large paddle wheel that propelled the boat. Unfortunately, steamship boilers were incredibly unstable. If left unattended, the pressure inside the boiler could build to a dangerous level and cause the boiler to explode. Such explosions were powerful enough to destroy an entire ship.

Background

Before the first steamboats, ships were powered by sails or oars. These ships required a strong wind to move at a useful speed. Sailing against a river's current was a difficult and unreliable task. Some merchants built cheap, simple vessels to ship goods downriver. The merchants then disassembled and sold their vessels because piloting them back to their point of origin against the current could take many months. It was often faster to abandon their vessels and travel home overland.

The first steam engine was invented by Thomas Savery in 1698. However, the engine was not designed to move boats. The first steam engine was built to pump water from mines. A boiler created steam that was pushed through the mechanics of the pump. The steam created a vacuum inside the pump, which sucked the water upward from the mine. Boilers were a new and experimental technology, however. Early boilers were incredibly unstable, and boiler failures could result in catastrophic explosions.

Ten years later, the engine was refined by a blacksmith named Thomas Newcomen. Newcomen's engine was significantly more efficient and a much larger commercial success than Savery's. It still suffered from many of the same mechanical problems, though. The repeated rapid heating and cooling of the metal weakened it, making the machine more prone to failures.

The steam engine continued to be refined over time. Other famous steam engines were the Watt atmospheric engine and the double-acting piston and rotative engine. These were used in manufacturing, riverboats, ocean-going ships, and even locomotives. Steam engines were a cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution, making early factories possible and making trade easier than ever before. While large factories existed before the Industrial Revolution, they were primarily powered by water wheels. For this reason, they could be built only on fast-flowing rivers. With steam engines, factories could be built anywhere.

Overview

Major rivers have always been used for trade. However, large rivers, such as the Mississippi River in the United States, are particularly difficult to navigate by boat. These rivers have shallow sections that make them impassable to most ocean-going vessels. Many contain sharp rock formations, powerful currents, and narrow, winding turns. In the early 1800s, wide, flat-bottomed vessels called keelboats were used to carry goods through large, southern waterways. They usually carried goods toward major port cities, such as New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama.

As steam engines grew in popularity, several inventors began to experiment with using steam to power ships. John Fitch was the first American to succeed at the endeavor. He built a forty-five-foot-long ship that first launched in 1787. The ship was powerful enough to travel upstream quickly and easily. To capitalize on his invention, Fitch quickly constructed several more steamboats. Unfortunately, Fitch's steamboats were more expensive to build and operate than other ships of the time. While their creation was a remarkable feat of engineering, the steamboats were a commercial failure.

Fitch's design inspired engineers Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston to design their own steamboat. The pair began work on the design in 1806. After a full year of trials and construction, they debuted the steamboat Clermont. It began making regular ferry trips along the Hudson River, often between Albany and New York City. Because the steamboat made the trip faster than any ship before it, the ride quickly grew in popularity. The Clermont became the first commercially successful steamboat and paved the way for others of its kind.

Most steamboats shared a similar design. Steamboats were wide, with a shallow, flat hull. This allowed them to easily navigate shallow rivers. The hull supported multiple decks. The lowest deck, and the deck on which most passengers boarded the ship, was called the main deck. The main deck contained the engines, boilers, and machinery essential to the boat's operation. The deck immediately above the main deck was called the boiler deck. It contained most of the ship's cabins and passenger accommodations. The uppermost deck of the ship was called the hurricane deck. This is where the pilot house, which housed the ship's controls, was located. From the pilot house, the captain had a 360-degree view of the area surrounding the ship. The captain was able communicate with the crew without leaving the pilot house, usually through a series of bells and pipes.

The mechanical mechanisms were fueled by a boiler attached to the ship's paddle wheel. The paddle wheel was a large wheel covered in evenly spaced, long planks. The steam engine rotated the wheel, which pushed the steamboat through the water. Paddle wheels were usually located at the rear or on one side of the ship. If a steamboat's paddle wheel was fixed to the rear of the ship, the ship was called a stern-wheeler. If fixed to the side, the ship was called a side-wheeler.

Steamboats were built with a wide variety of purposes in mind. Many steamboats were built as ferries that carried large numbers of people from one location to another. Others were built with additional cargo space and were used to quickly transport goods. Some smaller steamboats were built as tugboats. Tugboats are small boats designed to push and pull larger barges in ports and rivers. Some steamboats, commonly called showboats, were designed to hold lavish parties that traveled from city to city. They contained full saloons, luxury accommodations, theaters, ballrooms, and musical acts.

While very efficient, travel by steamboat was dangerous by today's standards. Although boiler technology improved over time, steamboat boilers were still unstable. A boiler contained large amounts of highly pressurized steam meant to power the steamboat's paddle wheel. If the boiler failed or was compromised, the resulting explosion could destroy the entire ship. Most steamships survived for less than five years before they were disabled by a boiler failure or some other mishap.

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