failure after failure attested the numerous and embarrassing
difficulties by which it was surrounded. For although all the
early boats were capable of being propelled through the water, and
although the last was usually better than those which preceded it,
it was long a doubtful question, whether the invention could be
made practically useful upon our western rivers, and it was not
until five years of experiment and the building of nine expensive
steamboats, that the public mind was convinced by the brilliant
exploit of the Washington, which made the trip from Louisville to
New Orleans and back in 45 days."[235]
The substitution of machinery for manual labor occasioned a
vast diminution in the number of men required for the river
navigation. A steamboat with the same crew as a barge, was able
to carry ten times the burden,[236] and perform her voyage in a much
shorter space of time.
The complete success attending the experiments in steam navigation
made on the Hudson and the adjoining waters previous to 1809,
turned the attention of the principal projectors to the idea of
its application on the western rivers; and in the month of April
of that year, Mr. Roosevelt of New York, pursuant to an agreement
with Chancellor Livingston, and Mr. Fulton, visited those rivers,
with the purpose of forming an opinion whether they admitted of
steam navigation or not.[237] Mr. Roosevelt surveyed the rivers from
Pittsburg to New Orleans, and as his report was favorable, it was
decided to build a boat at the former town. This was done under his
direction, and in the course of 1811 the first boat was launched
on the Ohio.[238] It was called the New Orleans, and intended to ply
between Natchez, Mississippi, and the city whose name it bore.[239]
In October it left Pittsburg for its experimental voyage.[240] On
this occasion no freight or passengers were taken. Mr. Roosevelt,
his wife, and family, Mr. Baker, the engineer, Andrew Jack the
pilot, and six hands, with a few domestics, formed her whole
burden. There were no wood yards at that time and constant delays
were unavoidable. Late at night on the fourth day after quitting
Pittsburg, they arrived in safety at Louisville, having been but 70
hours descending upwards of 700 miles. The small depth of waters in
the Rapids prevented the boat from pursuing her voyage immediately,
and during the consequent detention of 3 weeks, in the upper
part of the Ohio, several trips were successfully made between
Louisville and Cincinnati. Then the waters rose, and in the course
of the last week in November the voyage was resumed, the depth of
water barely admitting the passage of the boat.[241] They reached
their destina tion at Natchez, at the close of the first week in
January, 1812,[242] having passed through a severe earthquake on
the way. The Louisiana Gasette notices her arrival at New Orleans
on January 11th.[243] This steamboat continued to run between New
Orleans and Natchez, making her voyage average seventeen days. She
was wrecked in 1813 or 1814.[244]
From 1812-1817, the following steam boats were built and launched
upon the Ohio River. The Comet, a boat of 25 tons was built at
Pittsburg. She descended to Louisville in the summer of 1813;
reached New Orleans in the spring of the year 1814; made two
voyages from thence to Natchez, and was there sold.[245]
The steamboat Vesuvius of 400 tons was launched at Pittsburg in
December 1813, designed as a regular trader between the falls of
Ohio and New Orleans.[246] In April, 1814, she sailed from Pittsburg,
having been successfully tested in several trial trips of four
and five miles up and down the Ohio and Monongahela.[247] Her voyage
from Pittsburg to Shippingsport was made in 67½ hours, from
Shippingsport to Natchez in 125½ hours, from Natchez to New Orleans
in 33 hours, total 227 hours.[248] She was employed for some months
between New Orleans and Natchez, and was finally destroyed by
fire.[249]
The steamboat Enterprise, built on the Monongahela, arrived at
Pittsburg in July, 1814, designed as a packet between that place
and the Falls of the Ohio. She was tried against the current of the
Monongahela, unusually high and rapid for the season, and made 3½
miles an hour, and then returned with the stream in ten minutes.[250]
Having reached New Orleans, the Enterprise made five trips to the
Balize, and one to the Rapids of Red River. One of the trips to
Natchez was made in four days, a distance of 313 miles, against the
strong current of the Mississippi River, without the aid of sails.
Another trip from New Orleans, to Beardstown, 1500 miles against
the current was made in 25 days.[251] In August, 1815, this steamboat
reached Brownsville, in ballast, having discharged her cargo at
Pittsburg. The Enterprise was the first steamboat that ever made
the voyage to the mouth of the Mississippi and back. The voyage up
the rivers, about 2200 miles, was made in 54 days, 20 days being
employed in loading and unloading freight at the river towns.[252]
The Buffalo, of 285 tons, was launched at Pittsburg in July 1814,
designed to ply between that place and Louisville, once a month.[253]
The Despatch, owned as well the Enterprise, by the 'Monongahela
and Ohio steam-boat Company ' was built at Bridgeport in 1815, and
was expected to pass through the water at the rate of nine miles
an hour.[254] The Etna, in 1816, performed a voyage from the Falls
of Ohio to New Orleans in 15 days.[255] The Oliver Evans, built at
Pittsburg in 1816, was intended for the conveyance of passengers
and goods on the Ohio and Mississippi.[256] The Washington, built
at Wheeling in 1816,[257] was the boat which made the voyage from
Louisville to New Orleans and returned in 45 days, convincing
the public that steamboat navigation on the western waters would
succeed.[258] Her boilers were on the upper deck, and she was the
first boat on that plan.[259] The James Monroe, the Franklin and the
Harriett, were also built at Pittsburg.[260]
That the importance of the steamboat to the commerce of New Orleans
was clearly recognized as early as 1815, is shown by the following
newspaper article. "We have had undoubted proofs of the good
effects of the steamboat navigation between this city (New Orleans)
and Natchez, and why not extend its beneficial effects to the Ohio
and to the different navigable streams emplying into that river.
The want of public spirit, properly directed has retarded the
salutary object so long. If enterprising men would propose and
form associations and companies for building steamboats on the
different navigable waters west of the Allegheny mountains it is
reasonable to suppose that few men of capital would withhold their
support ... surely interest most clearly points out something like
the foregoing plan to immediately operate in favor of the trade of
the rivers Ohio and Mississippi. The steamboats now in use cannot
carry one twentieth part of the goods that might be in demand from
this city.... Experience alone will establish what size of boats,
or draught of water will be best for the navigation of both rivers
... it appears very reasonable, however, to suppose that the boats
of small draught of water would be best calculated for the Ohio,
taking into consideration the different stages of the water and
how subject that river is to fall very low.... To the commercial
interest of New Orleans the steam navigation is of immense
consideration, the vast sums of money annually paid in Philadelphia
and Baltimore for goods, and carried over the mountains in wagons,
would concentrate here. View the course of trade. The merchants
of Cincinnati, Lexington, Nashville, and the small towns in the
western states, after the extreme labor, anxiety and expense of
getting their goods carried from the seaboard by land, are obliged
to receive produce in payment, which is floated down to this
city, and converted into money for the coffers of the New York,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore importers--whereas, if the steamboats
were in complete operation, the whole western states could be
supplied with every kind of goods here, and on better terms than
they now are from Philadelphia and Baltimore ... but certainly
it is not chimerical to say that if exertions are not made by
individuals, or companies through views of gain or otherwise to
bring more steamboat tonnage into use for the western trade, it
would have been better (as it relates to that trade) that the steam
boats had never been in operation--then the old laborious, tedious
barging would have continued in full vigor."[261]
The steamboats, making occasional trips up and down the river,
created great excitement along the banks, and at the towns and
villages their arrival and landings were great occasions.[262] These
boats were a queer style of water craft, as they had not assumed
the forms that were afterward found to be suited to the river
navigation. Their builders copied the models of ships adapted to
deep water, and the boats all drew too much water to be available
in the dry season, so that they could not be used on the upper Ohio
more than about three months in the year. They looked just like a
small ship without masts. Some of them were of peculiar models, and
all of them had very little power in comparison with boats built
later. The first boats had no more decking than a common sailing
vessel. Very few of them could make over 2 or 3 miles against the
stream when it was strong.[263]
When Fulton commenced steamboat building, be patented the side
paddle wheels, and held a monopoly of that form of boat. Niles
notes the following incidents arising from this monopoly.
"Mr. Livingston of New Orleans under a patent of the State of
Louisiana, as the assignee of Fulton and Livingston's exclusive
right to navigate the Mississippi and its waters, by steam, so
far as respects the navigation from New Orleans to and up the Red
River, has prevented the steamboat Despatch, of Pittsburg, from
taking a return cargo at New Orleans, though it appears she is
worked by machinery quite distinct from that under the aforesaid
patent. He has, however, permitted her to go out of the limits
of the State without incurring a penalty. The procedure appears
likely to create much sensation in the "western world."[264] "The
Louisville Correspondent" announces a second attempt of the
Livingston steamboat company to interrupt the steam navigation of
the Mississippi by boats not under their charter. The procedure
excites much sensibility in the western world."[265] "The question
of Fulton and Livingston's privilege is again agitated by a suit
brought in the federal court of New Orleans, against the steamboat
Constitution. We wait with anxiety the result of a question
involving the most prominent interests of W. America."[266] The
evasion in many of the western boats consisted of placing a wheel
on each side of the keel at the stern of the vessel, so that the
wheels were out of sight from behind.[267]
The General Pike, built at Cincinnati in 1818, and intended to ply
as a packet between Maysville, Cincinnati, and Louisville, is said
to have been the first steam boat constructed on the western waters
for the exclusive convenience of pass engers. The length of her
cabin was 40 feet, the breadth 25 feet, in addition to which there
were fourteen state rooms.[268]
The Post-Boy, built at New Albany, in 1819, was intended for the
conveyance of mail between Louisville and New Orleans, under an
act of Congress, passed March, 1819. This was the first attempt on
western waters to carry the mail in steam boats.[269]
Steamboats now multiplied rapidly on the western rivers. In 1817,
nine were building on the Ohio and Mississippi, sufficient to make
the total number of twenty on those waters.[270] In 1818 there were
about twenty-five boats,[271] and the Weekly Register of November 7,
says, "Our Western papers inform us of the launching of several new
steamboats, and they seem to be building by dozens."[272] The trade
between New Orleans and the upper and adjacent country was carried
on in this year, by twenty steamboats carrying about 4000 tons,[273]
although about nine-tenths of the entire trade was still carried
on in the usual craft.[274] Nuttall in 1819, says that there were at
that period, about seventy-five steamboats upon the Mississippi
and its tributaries, but that owing to the general and unfavorable
fluctuation in the commerce of the United States, the number had
become greater than their actual employment would warrant.[275] The
boats ascending to a point below the Falls were from 300 to 500
tons burthen.[276] Of the 40 boats, built since 1812, 7 had been
wrecked, burned, or abandoned, 33 were still plying from place to
place, and 28 new ones were building in 1819.[277]
From this time on, the boats multiplied very rapidly; 72 were
employed in 1821;[278] in 1826 the navigation of the Mississippi
and Ohio was carried on in 95 boats;[279] in 1827, 109 steamboats,
averaging 170 tons were employed in the trade of these rivers;[280]
and in 1829, about 200 boats, whose tonnage may be stated at 35,000
tons, were plying on these rivers.[281]
"The following is a list of the steamboats built on the western
waters from 1811-1830."
_Now Running_ _Lost or Worn Out._
1811- 1
1814- 4
1815- 3
1816- 2
1817- 9
1818- 25
1819- 27
1820- 7 1
1821- 6 1
1822- 7 2 5
1823- 13 5 8
1824- 13 9 4
1825- 29 26 4
1826- 52 48 4
1827- 25 22 3
1828- 31 29 3
1829- 42 42
Not Known 25 5 20
----- ---- ----
321 188 133
"Add to this number 188, 15 boats finished this spring (1830) and
now running, and 10 built in the last, and the whole number now
running on the western waters will be 213. Of this number 86 were
built at Cincinnati."
Of the 133 lost or worn out there were
Worn out-- 57
Lost by snags 35
Burned 14
Lost by collision 2
By other accidents 25
-----
133[1]
[1] Niles, Weekly Register, XXXVIII., 97.
As the steamboats were perfected, their speed was greatly
increased, rendering communication between the different ports
easy and rapid. In 1817, a steamboat made the voyage from the
Falls to New Orleans, with a full cargo, in seven days.[282] The
steamboat Vesuvius, in the following year, made the passage from
Louisville to New Orleans, 1600 miles, in the same space of
time.[283] The average speed of a vessel heavily laden was about 60
miles a day.[284] In 1819, the James Ross, coming from New Orleans
to Louisville, made the voyage in 14 days.[285] In 1824 the passage
from New Orleans to Shippingsport was made in 11 days and 2½ hours,
said to be the shortest passage by 12 hours that was ever made up
to that time.[286] In 1826 the passage down was made in 6 days, as
against 12 to 14 days in 1817; and from 10 to 14 days were required
to come up stream as against 22 days in 1817.[287] The steamboat,
Lady Washington performed a voyage, in 1827, from Pittsburg to
Nashville and back, 2600 miles, in less than 17 days.[288] In The
same year, the Huntress made the voyage from New Orleans to
Louisville, in 8 days and 11 hours, having lost 10 hours in a
fog.[289] The first boat ascending the Allegheny, 1827, proceeded up
the river at four or five miles an hour, and returned at the rate
of ten miles an hour.[290] A shipment made in 1827, from the port of
New York via New Orleans, by the ship Illinois, reached St. Louis
in 29½ days. The distance was 3300 miles, and there was a delay of
probably two days at New Orleans while the goods were transferred
from ship to steamboat.[291]
In 1818, rates for passengers from New Orleans to the mouth
of the Ohio was $95; from New Orleans to Shawneetown $105; to
Shippingsport $125; children from 2 to 10 years at half price;
children under two at one fourth price; and servants at half
price.[292] The passage up the river to the Falls, in 1819, cost
$100, including provisions; from Shippingsport to New Orleans the
cost was $75.[293] The passage up the river to Cincinnati from New
Orleans in 1823 was $50; Cincinnati to New Orleans, $25; Cincinnati
to Louisville, $4; Louisville to Cincinnati, $6; Cincinnati to
Pittsburg, $15; Pittsburg to Cincinnati, $12; Cincinnati to
Wheeling, $14; and from Wheeling to Cincinnati $10.[294] In 1827
the passage up the river to Louisville was about eight pounds,
which included every expense of living. Many of the vessels carried
seven hundred passengers, besides merchandise.[295] A year later, the
regular charge for a cabin passenger was $35 from New Orleans to
Louisville; for a deck passenger the rate was $10, $2 being struck
off, if they were willing to assist in carrying wood.[296] By 1830
passage from Louisville to New Orleans and back was reduced to $30
each way.[297]
Steamboats with their safety barges in tow were to be seen on the
Ohio. The Merchant from Pittsburg to Cincinnati, having in two her
safety barge with 95 passengers, in 1826, was the first attempt of
the kind. The barge had 52 berths and 3 cabins. The steamboat had 2
cabins.[298]
Goods were carried, about the year 1818, at 6¼ cents per pound
weight,[299] by 1820 the increase of craft, together with the
decreasing quantity of goods imported, had lowered the freight
from New Orleans to the Falls of the Ohio to 2 cents per pound.[300]
In 1829-1830 goods were delivered at the wharf of Cincinnati for
one dollar per hundred pounds, from Philadelphia by way of New
Orleans.[301]
The larger boats, on account of the shallowness of the water,
usually ascended no farther than Shippingsport.[302] The navigation
of the Ohio was often obstructed part of the year by large masses
of floating ice.[303] From the middle of February or the first of
March to the end of June, and in October or November were the best
seasons for navigating the Ohio.[304]/
The steamboats were in constant danger from Planters, Sawyers,
and Wooden Islands in the river. A Planter was a tree rooted fast
to the bottom of the river and rotted off level with the water.
Sawyers were less firmly rooted, and rose and fell with the water,
being more dangerous when they pointed down stream. Wooden Islands
were logs accumulated against planters.[305] From 1822-1827, the
loss of property on the Ohio and Mississippi by snags alone,
including steam and flat boats, and their cargoes, amounted to
$1,362,500. The losses on the same items, from 1827-1832, were
reduced to $381,000 in consequence of the beneficial action of the
snag boats.[306] These boats, constructed under the direction of the
government, were successful in removing these obstacles at small
expense, and with great facility.[307]
As the settlements and business of the valley of the Ohio
increased, the danger, delay, and expense of passing the Falls
of that river, became a subject of general solicitude. Men of
intelligence and enterprise, who were engaged in the river trade
at Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and the intermediate towns, having
been subjected to the inconvenience and expense caused by that
obstruction, from the first settlement of the country, began to
discuss the question, whether the difficulty could not be removed.
William Noble, an enterprising merchant of Cincinnati, found that,
at the time when the commerce of the West was in its infancy,
the loss sustained by traders residing above the Falls, amounted
in one year to $80,000, including storage, drayage, cooperage,
commissions, and the wages of hands during the delay.[308]
The Falls were impassable for steamboats, except during the high
floods which usually occurred in the spring and continued for a
few days only at a time. They were passed by means of a laborious
and expensive portage, extending from Louisville to Shippingsport,
a distance of two and a half miles.[309] To remedy these
inconveniences, the Louisville and Portland Canal was built round
the Falls.[310] The first steamboat that passed through the Canal was
the Uncas, on December 21, 1829.[311] This work,which was intended as
a great benefit to the commerce of the West, seemed to have failed
in accomplishing that purpose, for the following reasons: I. During
the greater part of the year it afforded the only outlet for the
productions of the larger portion of the Ohio Valley, and the only
channel of ingress for the valuable imports of the same region. It
was found that boats of great length were those of the greatest
speed, and best suited to the navigation of the rivers, and the
character of the trade. The length which was found most convenient
was greater than the dimension of the locks of the Canal, and thus
the boats best adapted to the trade between Pittsburg, Cincinnati,
and other ports on the upper Ohio, and St. Louis or New Orleans,
were excluded from that commerce, and a smaller class of boats,
which were much less profitable, were exclusively employed.[312]
II. The width of the Canal was such that steamboats could not pass
each other within it, nor could a loaded boat work her way through,
but by a great effort, which occasioned a great loss of time.
III. Excessive tolls were levied, thus imposing an unjust burden
upon the owners of the boats navigating the Ohio. The government,
as a stockholder, participated in these profits.[313]
In spite of these various adverse conditions, steamboats on the
Ohio and Mississippi rapidly increased, and gradually took the
place of the slower and more clumsy draft which had formerly
enjoyed a monopoly of the carrying trade on those rivers.
FOOTNOTES:
[235] Hall, J., The West, 10-11.
[236] Hall, J., Sketches, II., 72.
[237] Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler, I., 104-105.
[238] Ibid. Peck, J. M., Annals, 592. Thomas, D., Travels, 272.
[239] Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler, I., 105.
[240] Ibid. Louisiana Gasette, October 9, 1811. "A steamboat was
advertised to sail from Pittsburg for this place on the 20th
Ult. She is intended, we are informed, to be a regular packet
between New Orleans and Natchez."
[241] Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler, I., 105-106. Peck, J. M.,
Annals, 593.
[242] Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler, I., 109. Peck, J. M., Annals,
593. Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 173. Says that the
boat descended from Pittsburg to New Orleans in 259 hours.
[243] Louisiana Gasette, January 11, 1812. p. 3. col. 3.
[244] Hall, J., The West, 123.
[245] Ibid., 123.
[246] Niles, Weekly Register, VI., 197.
[247] Niles, Weekly Register, VI., 198.
[248] Ibid., VI., 320.
[249] Hall, J., The West, 124. Niles, Weekly Register, X., 400.
[250] Niles, Weekly Register, VI., 320.
[251] Ibid., VIII., 320.
[252] Ibid., VIII., 404.
[253] Niles, Weekly Register, VI., 320. Louisiana Gasette, July
5, 1814. "She has two cabins, and four State rooms for private
families, and will conveniently accommodate 100 persons with
beds." Louisiana Gasette, July 26, 1814. "The steamboat Buffalo
arrived at Maysville on Thursday in 48 hours from Pittsburg."
[254] Niles, Weekly Register, VIII., 404.
[255] Ibid., X., 96.
[256] Ibid., XI., 106.
[257] Ibid., X., 349.
[258] Hall, J., The West, 125-126.
[259] Ibid.
[260] Ibid.
[261] Louisiana Gasette, October 24, 1815.
[262] Howells, W. C., Recollections, 73.
[263] Ibid., 74.
[264] Niles, Weekly Register, X., 231-232. June 1, 1816.
[265] Ibid., XI., 208. November 23, 1816.
[266] Ibid., XIV., 312. June 27, 1818.
[267] Howells, W. C., Recollections, 74.
[268] Hall, J., The West, 127-128.
[269] Hall, J., The West, 127-128.
[270] Niles, Weekly Register, XIII., 112.
[271] Birkbeck, M., Notes, 133. "from 50 to 400 tons burthen."
[272] Niles, Weekly Register, XV., 175.
[273] Ibid., XIV., 439.
[274] Birkbeck, M., Notes, 135.
[275] Nuttall, T., Travels, Early W. Travels, XIII., 317.
Flint, J., Letters, Early W. Travels, IX., 286. "Says that there
were 60 boats."
[276] Nuttall, T., Travels, Early W. Travels, XIII., 67.
[277] Niles, Weekly Register, XVI., 144.
[278] Ibid., XX., 416.
[279] Niles, Weekly Register, XXIX., 305.
[280] Ibid., XXXIII., 181.
[281] Hall, J., The West, 129.
[282] Ibid., XII., 143.
[283] Ibid., XV., 267.
[284] Birkbeck, M., Notes, 133.
[285] Niles, Weekly Register, XVI., 319.
[286] Ibid., XXVI., 251.
[287] Niles, Weekly Register, XXIX., 305.
[288] Ibid., XXXII., 35.
[289] Ibid., XXXII., 229.
[290] Ibid., XXXII., 148.
[291] Ibid., XXXII., 224.
[292] Ibid., XV., 384.
[293] Faux, W., Memorable Days, Early W. Travels, XI., 197.
[294] Niles, Weekly Register, XXV., 95.
[295] Bullock, W., Journey, Early W. Travels, XIX.
[296] Hall, B., Travels, III., 368-369, 349, 128-129.
[297] Flint, T., History and Geography. Appendix, 212.