AMERICAN STEAMBOAT TRAVEL.
The railway system of the United States had its beginning about fifty
years ago, and is consequently a third of a century behind the
adoption of the steamboat. According to the best authorities, the
first American steamboat that carried passengers and made regular
trips was built by John Fitch, at Philadelphia, and was the successor
of two experimental boats by the same inventor. She ran on the
Delaware river during the summer of 1790, and made altogether more
than two thousand miles, at a maximum speed of seven and a half miles
an hour. Fulton built the _Clermont_ in 1806, and her regular trips
began in 1807, seventeen years later than the achievement of Fitch.
From this beginning, river-navigation by steam was spread through the
United States till it reached every stream where boats could ply, and
some where they were of no use. Of late years the steamboat interest
has declined in some parts of the country, owing to the extension of
the railway system; but it is still of great magnitude, and will
doubtless so continue for many years to come.
American steamboats are undisputedly the finest in the world, and
every foreigner who visits the United States looks with wonder at our
floating palaces. Whether on eastern or western waters, the result is
the same. The most ordinary boat surpasses the finest that English or
European rivers or lakes can show.
The largest and most elaborate of the eastern boats are on the Hudson
river and Long Island sound; the finest of the western boats are on
the Mississippi. Some of those that connect New York and Albany and
New York and Boston are capable of carrying six hundred first cabin
passengers with comfort, and they have been known to transport as many
as a thousand. On the night-boats there is a general sleeping-room
below deck, and a bed in this locality is included in the ticket.
Separate rooms on the upper deck must be paid for extra; but they are
worth their cost in the privacy, better ventilation, and superior
accommodations that they afford, besides being easier to escape from
in case of accidents. The saloons are large, and elaborately
furnished; and, if the boat is crowded to repletion, the sofas are
used as sleeping-places by those who were not lucky enough to obtain
rooms or beds below. Sometimes extra beds are put up in the saloon and
lower cabin, so that the place looks not unlike a hospital, or the
dormitory of a charity school.
A crowded steamboat at night is the paradise of the pickpocket, who
frequently manages to reap a rich harvest from the unprotected
slumberers. Even the private rooms are not safe from thieves, as their
occupants are frequently robbed. On one occasion, some thirty or more
rooms on a sound steamer were entered in a single night. The
scoundrels had obtained access to the rooms in the day-time, and
arranged the locks on the doors so that they could not be properly
fastened. The night traveler on the steamboats plying in eastern
waters should be very particular to fasten his door securely, and if
he finds the lock has been tampered with he should report the
circumstance to an officer or to one of the stewards. The windows
should be looked after as well as the doors, and the rules that apply
on railways to social games of cards with polite strangers should be
remembered on steamboats.
Where steamboats are in competition with railways their fares are
generally much cheaper, owing to the longer time consumed on the
route. Where time is not an object the steamboat is the preferable
conveyance, as the traveler is not inconvenienced by dust, the
ventilation is better, means of circulation are far superior, and on
river routes there is a better opportunity to study the scenery.
Tickets may be bought and rooms secured at the offices at the terminal
points in advance, and they may also be had on board the boats at the
time of departure. It is needless to add that the earlier they are
taken the better is the choice of rooms.
Meals are not included in the price of the ticket. They are served on
nearly all boats, sometimes at a fixed price, as at the railway
stations, and sometimes _a la carte_. The latter system appears
to be gaining in popularity, as it is now adopted on many lines that
formerly adhered to the old method.
On the great lakes there are propellors on the general model of the
ocean steamer, and in summer they ply to all the principal ports.
Interesting excursions may be made on these steamers, provided the
traveler is not disturbed by a little roughness of the water now and
then; of late years the voyage around the lakes has become highly
popular, and is very pleasurable in Summer. Paddle steamers also
abound on the lakes, but they do not equal those of the Hudson and
Long Island sound, either in size or in the splendor of their
accommodations.
On the Western rivers the model of the boat differs materially from
the Eastern one. The main saloon is quite above the engine-room, which
is on the lower deck, where the freight is piled and the steerage
passengers are congregated. The Eastern and lake boats are propelled
by low-pressure engines, while the craft of the Mississippi and its
tributaries are generally high-pressure, and sometimes work a hundred
and thirty pounds to the square inch. Explosions are less frequent now
than formerly, but there are still enough of them to make traveling a
trifle hazardous. Not infrequently fifty or a hundred lives will be
lost by a steamboat explosion, and on one occasion the number of
deaths by the blowing up of a steamboat and her consequent destruction
by fire exceeded fifteen hundred.
Steamboat racing was once one of the amusements of the Mississippi and
is not altogether unknown at present, though it has greatly declined.
In the annals of the West there are many famous races recorded, where
large sums of money were risked on the result, and where the
passengers were as much excited over the event as the owners of the
boats. In 1853 there was a race from New Orleans to Louisville,
between the steamers _Eclipse_ and _Shotwell_, on which seventy
thousand dollars were staked by the owners of the rival craft, and
probably the private bets were fully equal to that amount. The two
boats were literally "stripped for the race;" they were loaded to the
depth that would give them the greatest speed, and their arrangements
for taking fuel were as complete as possible. Barges were filled with
wood at stated points on the river and dropped out to mid-stream as
the boats approached; they were taken alongside and their cargoes of
wood transferred without any stoppage of the steamer's engines. At the
end of the first twenty-four hours the _Eclipse_ and _Shotwell_ were
side by side, 360 miles from New Orleans. They continued in almost
this way to Louisville, and, though the race was supposed to have been
won by the _Eclipse_, there was so much dispute about it that the
wager was never paid.
Passenger travel on the Western rivers has been greatly reduced in the
last twenty years, owing to the creation of lines of railway parallel
to the rivers, and the majority of the boats now running are far
behind those of the palmy days between 1850 and 1860. Fares are lower
than on the railways, and they include rooms and meals as of old, but
the table is less bountifully supplied than formerly, and the number
of servants is not so large. There is less competition, and the
schedule of fares is generally adhered to. In the old days there was
comparatively little regularity, and the clerk or captain of each boat
could do pretty much as he liked about terms to passengers. On the Red
river the clerks were accustomed to graduate the fare according to the
locality where the passenger came on board. The more fertile and
wealthy the region, the higher was the price of passage. Travelers
from the cotton districts paid more than those from where tobacco was
the staple product, and those from the sugar country paid more than
any other class. With few exceptions there was no ticket system, every
man paying his fare when it best suited him to do so. At present _on
a changé tout cela_.
The departure of a steamboat from one of the great landings is a
matter of some uncertainty. If she is advertised to leave at a certain
time, those familiar with the business will understand that she will
not leave before that hour, and her departure after it will be guided
by circumstances. She will go when her freight and passenger-list are
sufficiently full to make the trip a profitable one, unless she
belongs to a line performing a regular service, in which case she is
held to her schedule. The writer once took passage on a Mississippi
steamer that remained at the wharf twenty-nine hours after her
advertised time, and all the while she had steam up and her whistle
was blown every half hour or so to indicate that she was "just going."
And a friend of his once took passage on a steamboat from St. Louis to
Cincinnati before the days of the railway. He lived on board for
nearly a week with the boat tied up to the landing. At the end of that
time the trip was abandoned, as the boat could not obtain a cargo for
Cincinnati, and the passage-money was refunded in full.
When you go on board a Western steamboat proceed at once to the office
and pay your fare. The clerk will hand you the key to your room or
assign you to a berth in one that already contains a passenger, and
then you can make yourself at home. You will find the manners of the
Western waters more free than those of the East, and it is quite
possible that your room-mate, if you have one, will commence the
cultivation of your acquaintance with an invitation to drink; the
custom of shooting a man who declines this politeness does not prevail
at present, and the records of its having ever occurred are shrouded
in obscurity. Western and Southwestern passengers are often rude and
uncouth, but the rudeness is almost always unintentional, and the
coarse exterior is very apt to cover a warm heart. The stranger will
find much to amuse and interest him, and there are few places where
human nature can be studied to better advantage than in the saloon of
a Western steamboat.
The gambler once flourished on the Mississippi. He is less abundant
than of yore, but the supply is still quite equal to the demand. He is
generally not so polished as his confrere of the eastern boats and
railway trains, but his ways are no less winning, so far as the taking
of money is concerned, and he goes much further in the science of
cheating. The unsophisticated stranger who takes a fourth hand with a
trio of the light-fingered fraternity, "just to make up a game," might
as well hand over his pocket-book at the start, unless he prefers
going through the form of losing his cash.
Never be in a hurry on a western boat, as the time of arrival at your
destination is a matter of more or less uncertainty. Delays at the
landings, to take or discharge freight, are sometimes vexatious, and
the journey may require double the time that was expected at the
start. In the season of low water the boat is liable to get aground,
and may lie there for hours, days, or even for weeks, before she is
again afloat.
The dangers of the western waters are greater than those of the east.
The boats are more liable to take fire, owing to their form of
construction, and, as their engines are on the high-pressure
principle, the chance of explosion of the boilers is much greater. The
navigation of the rivers is hazardous, as the sand-banks are
constantly shifting, and the course to be followed by the pilots is
rarely the same for three months at a time. Snags and sawyers present
dangers quite unknown to eastern waters, and in the Missouri river
especially they are very numerous. A snag is a log or tree-trunk
imbedded in the bottom of a river, with one end at or near the
surface. The current causes it to incline down stream, and it is more
dangerous to an ascending boat than to a descending one. The flat
bottom of the boat is pierced by it, and sometimes the craft is
impaled as one might impale a fly with a pin. On one occasion, on the
Missouri river, some twenty years ago, a snag pierced the hull of a
steamer, passed through the deck and cabin, and actually killed the
pilot in the wheel-house. The sawyer is a tree that is loosely held by
the roots at the bottom of the river, while its branches are on the
surface; the current causes it to assume a sort of sawing motion, and
hence its name. It is nearly if not quite as dangerous as the snag,
and some of the pilots hold it in greater dread, for the reason that
sawyers frequently change their position, while the snags, being more
firmly imbedded, are less likely to drift away.
The current of the lower Mississippi is very strong, and it is a
common remark that when a man falls into that stream his chances of
escape are small. Many good swimmers have been drowned in it, and the
great majority of those who dwell on its banks have a wholesome dread
of attempting to bathe in its waters.
When we go westward beyond the valley of the Mississippi we find very
few inland lakes and streams that are navigable. Great Salt Lake
maintains a steamer or two for excursion purposes, and the waters of
California had at one time a fair-sized fleet of boats that navigated
San Francisco bay and the streams flowing into it. Their importance
has diminished since the construction of the railway, and at present
the steamboats of the Golden State are of no great consequence. Those
that exist are managed more on the eastern than on the Mississippi
system, but the rates are generally higher than on the Atlantic coast.
The Columbia river and its navigable tributaries have some thirty odd
boats, most of them of small size, and intended to run where there is
little water. The models in use are a modification of those of the
Hudson and Long Island sound, and the rooms on the boats intended for
night travel are generally large and comfortable. In going up the
river from Portland, Oregon, the regular boats leave at five o'clock
in the morning, and travelers making that journey will find it to
their advantage to sleep on board instead of spending the night at the
hotel and rising at an unseasonable hour in the morning.
On all the river steamers of America it is advisable to get a forward
room rather than one near the stern. There is less jarring of the
machinery, less heat from the engines, and, when the water is rough,
there is less "pitching." On the other hand, there is more danger from
collisions, and, on the Mississippi boats, a greater chance of being
blown up. You pay your money, and you take your choice. But don't
trouble yourself about accidents; don't put on your life-preserver
before you go to sleep, as timid persons have been known to do; and if
anything should happen try to face the danger coolly, and do the best
you can. If you have occasion to don a life-preserver, be sure to
fasten it well up under the arms, and not around the waist. In the
proper position it will support the head above water, while, if
fastened around the waist, it is apt to sustain the lower part of the
body and submerge the head. If compelled to take to the water, divest
yourself of the greater part of your clothing, and have your feet
bare, or, at best, only stockinged. Ladies should reject their corsets
under such circumstances, as they are serious hindrances to breathing
in the water, and it is hardly necessary to say that long skirts are
great impediments to swimming, or even to floating. Some persons have
recommended their retention, on account of their buoyancy; but this
only lasts for a few moments. As soon as they become soaked with water
they become heavy, and have a tendency to drag the wearer down, rather
than to support her.