How the

Steamboat

affected early

American travel

Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Body A. What steamboats are B. What they were used for C. Dangers D. Used in Battles

III. Conclusion IV. Bibliography

What do you think of when you hear the word steamboat? Do

you think of large boilers making steam to power the boat? How about

huge smokestacks spewing out soot and flames that could ignite a fire

at any moment? These water-crafts are very versatile. Steamboats, or

riverboats as they were sometimes called, were used for travel,

transportation, recreation, and naval melees.

Steamboats were large iron boats that were used in many ways. People and goods could easily be transported from place to place. There were also many dangers involved with steamboat travel. Because they were powered by steam that means fire. Smoke and soot came spewing out from the smokestacks but that was not all. Fire and sparks emerged from the smokestacks also. This is what posed a problem, and because of it many fires broke out. If the boiler became too hot boats themselves might even blow up! Even with these dangers steamboats were very popular. They were stronger and more powerful than sailboats. These boats would could be used in many battles. They could withstand a lot more than wooden boats were able to despite being slower and less maneuverable. Many famous battles were fought with steamboats. They would fire powerful cannons mounted on their sides. These ironclad steamboats could endure much more punishment than their wooden cousins. Many goods were moved from port to port by steamboats. Usually these big boats were loaded down with cotton. Every free inch of space was used. These goods were then exported to other cities or countries. As the years went by steamboats improved so that there were less

problems and so they worked much better. Nowadays steamboats are

seldom used but they are still an important part of our history.

Bibliography 1.Phil Ault, Whistles Round the Bend (Dodd, Mead & Company,1982) 2.Anita Albrecht Buck, Steamboats on the St. Croix (North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc., 1990) 3.http://www.steamboats.org/

1. Stage: A special characteristic of the paddlewheelers are the swinging landing stages. One or two of these stages are fixed with ropes at the bow of the boat. The passengers are entering and leaving the boat by walking over these stages.
The flat hull of a paddlewheeler enables the pilot to stop at nearly every place at the banks and moor the boat with ropes e.g. at some trees. Then, after lowering the stage, the passengers can leave the boat. For this reason, especially sternwheelers do not need any special landing places.

2. Stacks: The stacks are some of the most popular characteristics of the steamboats. They rise high above the boat, sometimes 30 feet or more.
Most of the boats have two stacks, but some have only one. Often the stacks can be lowered to pass low-clearance-bridges. But at some bridges even this does not work, because the clearance is just too low.

3. Pilot House: At the top of all the more or less magnificent superstructure of the paddlewheelers there is the pilothouse. From here the pilot had the best overview across the river. So he (or sometimes she) could see sandbanks or other trouble early enough to avoid them.
From the pilothouse there were speaking tubes to the engine room, a tiller rope to the rudders at the stern of the boat and pedals to ring the ships bell and to activate the steam whistle. Even until early this century the pilothouses had no front window, so the wind sometimes makes it hard to withstand the cold by the pilot. For this reason there always had been a stove in the pilot house, so the pilot didn't freeze, at least not from the rear side. There was a bench there also. The second pilot or a guest could sit there and wait to or talk to the pilot. The pilots used to talk about the river and told each other about everything that was new about the river. That was important because the riverbed of the Mississippi often changed dramatically.

4. Calliope: A calliope is a steam-powered organ. The sound of this musical instrument is similar to the steam or air-pressure powered organs. A calliope is a "must" on every steamboat.
The calliope on the mighty, old amusement and excursion steamers did part of the entertainment for the passengers and the waiting people at the landings.

5. Paddlewheel: There are two types of paddlewheels: the sternwheel and the sidewheel. The sternwheel uses to be more effective, but made some problems for the hull construction, especially the wooden ones, because of its heavy weight. Therefore the construction of a side-wheeler was easier.
On the other hand side-wheelers were necessary for snagboats (for clearing the river from tree trunks) or as railroad ferries.

6. Hull: The paddlewheelers on the U.S. inland rivers have a very broad and flat hull. This gives the boat great buoyancy. So even the very big boats have a very low drought. This was a most important characteristic of the boats, because they had to go far up the rivers even in the summer months, when there was little water in the rivers.
The second, also very important advantage of the flat hull was the fact, that there was usually no damage, when a boat hits a sandbank. This happens very often, because the rivers, especially the Mississippi was not the same as a day or a week before.
One big problem in building a steamboat, especially when building a wooden construction, was the heavy weight of the boilers, the engine and the paddle wheel. Only massive bracing with a difficult-to-build hog chain system all over the boat prevented the boat from braking in two or more parts. Later, when hulls were built from steel, this problem was almost solved.

7. Whistle: Every paddlewheeler needs at least one steam whistle. Whistles with three different sounds were preferred. Some of the boats had up to five whistles. Of course, the whistles run with steam. The high-pressure directly from the boiler makes the whistles sound.
The whistles could warn other boats when there was fog or by night. The whistles also announced the boat to the next landing. Similar to the ship’s bell, the pilot could use the whistles to give signals and orders to the engineers at the steam engines.
8. Cabin Decks: Of course the transportation of passengers was one of the important functions of the steamboats. But they were also used as the only chance to transport big loads of cotton and other agricultural products.
Passengers, who just wanted to get from one place to another as cheap as possible spent their time aboard somewhere between the cotton and the other load at the main deck. More comfortable but often very expensive travelling was offered at the cabin decks. Only the rich people could afford to have a cabin and to have dinner at the great salons.

9. Steam Engine: The most important part of a steamer is - of course - the steam engine and the boilers. In early times heated by wood, then by coal and today by diesel, the boilers are producing hot steam, which powers the engine with its enormous pressure. The engine then transforms the steam pressure to paddlewheel-rotation.
The engineer was an important man, because he was the one to control the engine and the only one who knew about the pressure, the boiler possibly could resist without bursting and causing a total disaster. The higher the pressure, the faster the boat. So the engineers often had to go to the limits, because the boat had to go as fast as possible.
Many steamboats (and their passengers) died by boiler explosions. Such explosions also could be dangerous for the cities. As a boat explosion happened at the landing or nearby, often parts of the cities burned down, too.