Editing Steamboat (section)

===United States===
[[File:SteamboatBenCampbellb.jpg|thumb|A typical river paddle steamer from the 1850s-the ''Ben Campbell'']]
{{See also|Steamboats of the Mississippi|Economic history of the United States#The early 19th century}}
[[File:Riverboats at Memphis.jpg|thumb|right|Mississippi Riverboats at [[Memphis, Tennessee]] (1906)]]

====Origins====
The era of the steamboat in the United States began in [[Philadelphia]] in 1787 when [[John Fitch (inventor)|John Fitch]] (1743–1798) made the first successful trial of a 45-foot (14-meter) steamboat on the [[Delaware River]] on 22 August 1787, in the presence of members of the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|United States Constitutional Convention]]. Fitch later (1790) built a larger vessel that carried passengers and freight between Philadelphia and [[Burlington, New Jersey]] on the Delaware. His steamboat was not a financial success and was shut down after a few months service, however this marks the first use of marine steam propulsion in scheduled regular passenger transport service.

[[Oliver Evans]] (1755–1819) was a [[Philadelphia]]n inventor born in [[Newport, Delaware]], to a family of [[Welsh people|Welsh]] settlers. He designed an improved high-pressure [[steam engine]] in 1801 but did not build it<ref name="Semmens, 97-99" >{{cite book
 |last1=Semmens |first1=P.W.B.
 |last2=Goldfinch |first2=A.J.
 |title=How Steam Locomotives Really Work
 |year=2003 |orig-year=2000
 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford
 |isbn=978-0-19-860782-3
 |ref={{harvid|Semmens|Goldfinch|2000}}
 |pages=97–99
}}</ref> (patented 1804).<ref name="Thomson2009">{{cite book
|last=Thomson | first=Ross
|title=Structures of Change in the Mechanical Age: Technological Innovation in the United States, 1790–1865
|url=https://archive.org/details/structuresofchan0000thom |url-access=registration |year=2009
|publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press
|isbn=978-0-8018-9141-0 }}</ref>
The Philadelphia Board of Health was concerned with the problem of dredging and cleaning the city's dockyards, and in 1805 Evans convinced them to contract with him for a steam-powered dredge, which he called the ''Oruktor Amphibolos''. It was built but was only marginally successful.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Kimes |first=Beverly
|title=Standard catalog of American Cars 1805–1942
|year=1996
|publisher=Krause publications
|isbn=0-87341-428-4
}}</ref> Evans's high-pressure steam engine had a much higher [[power to weight ratio|power-to-weight ratio]], making it practical to apply it in locomotives and steamboats.{{sfn|Thomson|2009|p=34}} Evans became so depressed with the poor protection that the US patent law gave inventors that he eventually took all his engineering drawings and invention ideas and destroyed them to prevent his children wasting their time in court fighting patent infringements.

[[Robert Fulton]] constructed a steamboat to ply a route between New York City and [[Albany, New York]] on the [[Hudson River]]. He successfully obtained a monopoly on Hudson River traffic after terminating a prior 1797 agreement with [[John Stevens (inventor, born 1749)|John Stevens]], who owned extensive land on the Hudson River in New Jersey. The former agreement had partitioned northern Hudson River traffic to Livingston and southern to Stevens, agreeing to use ships designed by Stevens for both operations.<ref name="Turnbull 1928, p. 243">{{cite book |first=Archibald D. |last=Turnbull |title=John Stevens, an American record |url=https://archive.org/details/johnstevensameri00turn |location=New York |publisher=The Century Co |date=1928 |page=[https://archive.org/details/johnstevensameri00turn/page/243 243]|isbn=978-0-8369-6994-8 }}</ref> With their new monopoly, Fulton and Livingston's boat, named the ''Clermont'' after Livingston's estate, could make a profit. The ''Clermont'' was nicknamed "Fulton's Folly" by doubters. On Monday, 17 August 1807, the memorable first voyage of the ''Clermont'' up the Hudson River was begun. She traveled the {{convert|150|mile|km}} trip to Albany in a little over 32 hours and made the return trip in about eight hours.

The use of steamboats on major US rivers soon followed Fulton's 1807 success. In 1811, the first in a continuous (still in commercial passenger operation {{as of|2007|lc=y}}) line of river steamboats left the dock at [[Pittsburgh]] to steam down the [[Ohio River]] to the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] and on to New Orleans.<ref>{{cite web |website=Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh |url=http://www.carnegielibrary.org/locations/pennsylvania/history/pghsts3.html |title=Pittsburgh World Firsts: By Event |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714001640/http://www.carnegielibrary.org/locations/pennsylvania/history///pghsts3.html |archive-date=2007-07-14}}</ref> In 1817 a consortium in [[Sackets Harbor, New York]], funded the construction of the first US steamboat, ''Ontario'', to run on [[Lake Ontario]] and the Great Lakes, beginning the growth of [[Lake steamers of North America|lake commercial and passenger traffic]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Cumberland |first=Barlow |title=A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38542/38542-h/38542-h.htm#Page_18 |year=1913 |page=18 |location=Toronto |publisher=The Musson Book Company, Limited |access-date=29 July 2019}}</ref> In his book ''[[Life on the Mississippi]]'', [[river pilot]] and author [[Mark Twain]] described much of the operation of such vessels.

====Types of ships====
By 1849 the shipping industry was in transition from sail-powered boats to steam-powered boats and from wood construction to an ever-increasing metal construction. There were basically three different types of ships being used: standard [[sailing ship]]s of several [[Sail-plan#Types of ships|different types]],<ref>{{cite web |first=Jerry |last=Wilkinson |url=http://www.keyshistory.org/ASS-Amer-Sail-Ships.html |title=Early American Sailing Ships |access-date=2 February 2011 |website=Keys Historeum}}</ref> [[clipper]]s, and [[paddle steamer]]s with paddles mounted on the side or rear. River steamboats typically used rear-mounted paddles and had flat bottoms and shallow hulls designed to carry large loads on generally smooth and occasionally shallow rivers. Ocean-going paddle steamers typically used side-wheeled paddles and used narrower, deeper hulls designed to travel in the often stormy weather encountered at sea. The ship [[hull (watercraft)|hull]] design was often based on the clipper ship design with extra bracing to support the loads and strains imposed by the paddle wheels when they encountered rough water.

The first paddle-steamer to make a long ocean voyage was the 320-ton {{convert|98|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} {{SS|Savannah}}, built in 1819 expressly for [[packet ship]] mail and passenger service to and from [[Liverpool]], England. On 22 May 1819, the watch on the ''Savannah'' sighted Ireland after 23&nbsp;days at sea. The [[Allaire Iron Works]] of New York supplied ''Savannah's''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> [[engine cylinder]],<ref>Swann, p. 5{{clarify|reason=This short form reference missing matching citation;|date=July 2014}}</ref> while the rest of the engine components and running gear were manufactured by the [[Speedwell Ironworks]] of [[New Jersey]]. The {{convert|90|hp|kW|adj=mid}} low-pressure engine was of the inclined direct-acting type, with a single {{convert|40|in|cm|adj=mid|-diameter}} cylinder and a {{convert|5|ft|m|abbr=|adj=on}} stroke. ''Savannah''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> engine and machinery were unusually large for their time. The ship's [[wrought-iron]] [[paddlewheel]]s were 16 feet in diameter with eight buckets per wheel. For fuel, the vessel carried {{convert|75|short ton}} of coal and {{convert|25|cord|m3|lk=on}} of wood.<ref name=museum618>Smithsonian, p. 618{{clarify|reason=This short form reference missing matching citation;|date=July 2014}}</ref>

The SS ''Savannah'' was too small to carry much fuel, and the engine was intended only for use in calm weather and to get in and out of harbors. Under favorable winds the sails alone were able to provide a speed of at least four knots. The ''Savannah'' was judged not a commercial success, and its engine was removed and it was converted back to a regular sailing ship. By 1848 steamboats built by both United States and British shipbuilders were already in use for mail and passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean—a {{convert|3000|mi|km}} journey.

[[File:SS California Poster Sharpened.jpg|thumb|right|[[SS California (1848)]], the first [[paddle steamer]] to steam between [[Panama City]] and San Francisco—a [[Pacific Mail Steamship Company]] ship.]]
Since paddle steamers typically required from {{convert|5|to|16|short ton}} of coal per day to keep their engines running, they were more expensive to run. Initially, nearly all seagoing steamboats were equipped with mast and sails to supplement the [[steam engine]] power and provide power for occasions when the steam engine needed repair or maintenance. These steamships typically concentrated on high value cargo, mail and passengers and only had moderate cargo capabilities because of their required loads of coal. The typical paddle wheel steamship was powered by a coal burning engine that required firemen to shovel the coal to the burners.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~npmelton/psc_indx.htm |title=The Pioneer Steamer ''California'' 1848 – 1849 |first=Victor M. |last=Berthold |access-date=27 January 2011 |website=Rootsweb}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.apl.com/history/timeline/1848.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721110818/http://www.apl.com/history/timeline/1848.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 July 2012 |title=Steam Ship SS ''California'' specifications |access-date=27 January 2011}}</ref>

By 1849 the screw [[propeller]] had been invented and was slowly being introduced as iron increasingly was used in ship construction and the stress introduced by propellers could be compensated for. As the 1800s progressed the timber and lumber needed to make wooden ships got ever more expensive, and the iron plate needed for iron ship construction got much cheaper as the massive iron works at [[Merthyr Tydfil]], Wales, for example, got ever more efficient. The propeller put a lot of stress on the rear of the ships and would not see widespread use till the conversion from wood boats to iron boats was complete—well underway by 1860. By the 1840s the ocean-going steam ship industry was well established as the [[Cunard Line]] and others demonstrated.

The last sailing frigate of the US Navy, {{USS|Santee|1855|2}}, had been launched in 1855.<!---I don't think this is precisely correct, but the timeframe is about right--->

====West Coast====
In the mid-1840s the acquisition of Oregon and California opened up the West Coast to American steamboat traffic. Starting in 1848 Congress subsidized the [[Pacific Mail Steamship Company]] with $199,999 to set up regular [[packet ship]], mail, passenger, and cargo routes in the Pacific Ocean. This regular scheduled route went from [[Panama City]], Nicaragua and Mexico to and from [[History of San Francisco|San Francisco]] and [[History of Oregon|Oregon]]. Panama City was the Pacific terminus of the [[Isthmus of Panama]] trail across Panama. The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans to and from the [[Chagres River]] in Panama was won by the [[United States Mail Steamship Company]] whose first [[paddle wheel]] steamship, the SS Falcon (1848) was dispatched on 1 December 1848 to the Caribbean (Atlantic) terminus of the [[Isthmus of Panama]] trail—the [[Chagres River]].

The [[SS California (1848)|SS ''California'' (1848)]], the first [[Pacific Mail Steamship Company]] [[paddle wheel]] steamship, left [[History of New York City|New York City]] on 6 October 1848 with only a partial load of her about 60 saloon (about $300 fare) and 150 steerage (about $150 fare) passenger capacity. Only a few were going all the way to California.<ref>{{cite web |title=SS California (1848) |url=http://www.maritimeheritage.org/PassLists/ca022849.htm |website=Maritime Heritage |access-date=13 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990424163308/http://www.maritimeheritage.org/PassLists/ca022849.htm |archive-date=24 April 1999 }}</ref> Her crew numbered about 36 men. She left New York well before confirmed word of the [[California Gold Rush]] had reached the East Coast. Once the [[California Gold Rush]] was confirmed by President [[James Polk]] in his [[State of the Union address]] on 5 December 1848 people started rushing to Panama City to catch the SS California. The {{SS|California|1848|6}} picked up more passengers in [[Valparaíso]], Chile and [[Panama City]], Panama and showed up in San Francisco, loaded with about 400 passengers—twice the passengers it had been designed for—on 28 February 1849. She had left behind about another 400–600 potential passengers still looking for passage from Panama City. The ''SS California ''had made the trip from Panama and Mexico after steaming around [[Cape Horn]] from New York—see [[SS California (1848)|SS ''California'' (1848)]].

The trips by paddle wheel steamship to Panama and Nicaragua from New York, Philadelphia, Boston, via New Orleans and Havana were about {{convert|2600|mi|km}} long and took about two weeks. Trips across the [[Isthmus of Panama]] or Nicaragua typically took about one week by native [[canoe]] and [[mule]] back. The {{convert|4000|mi|km}} trip to or from San Francisco to Panama City could be done by [[paddle wheel]] steamer in about three weeks. In addition to this, travel time via the Panama route typically had a two- to four-week waiting period to find a ship going from [[Panama City, Panama]] to San Francisco before 1850. It was not before 1850 that enough paddle wheel steamers were available in the Atlantic and Pacific routes to establish regularly scheduled journeys.

Other steamships soon followed, and by late 1849, paddle wheel steamships like the SS ''McKim'' (1848)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.maritimeheritage.org/ships/ss.html |title=San Francisco Ships |website=Maritime Heritage |access-date=20 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709104807/http://www.maritimeheritage.org/ships/ss.html |archive-date=2011-07-09}}</ref> were carrying miners and their supplies the {{convert|125|mi|km}} trip from San Francisco up the extensive [[Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta]] to [[Stockton, California]], [[Marysville, California]], [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]], etc. to get about {{convert|125|mi|km}} closer to the gold fields. Steam-powered [[tugboat]]s and [[towboat]]s started working in the San Francisco Bay soon after this to expedite shipping in and out of the bay.

As the passenger, mail and high value freight business to and from California boomed more and more paddle steamers were brought into service—eleven by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company alone. The trip to and from California via Panama and paddle wheeled steamers could be done, if there were no waits for shipping, in about 40 days—over 100 days less than by wagon or 160 days less than a trip around [[Cape Horn]]. About 20–30% of the California Argonauts are thought to have returned to their homes, mostly on the East Coast of the United States via Panama—the fastest way home. Many returned to California after settling their business in the East with their wives, family and/or sweethearts. Most used the Panama or Nicaragua route till 1855 when the completion of the [[Panama Railroad]] made the Panama Route much easier, faster and more reliable. Between 1849 and 1869 when the [[first transcontinental railroad]] was completed across the United States about 800,000 travelers had used the Panama route.<ref>{{cite book |last=Delgado |first=James P. |author-link=James P. Delgado |title=To California by Sea |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |date=1996 |isbn=978-1-57003-153-3 |page=66}}</ref> Most of the roughly $50,000,000 of gold found each year in California were shipped East via the Panama route on paddle steamers, mule trains and canoes and later the [[Panama Railroad]] across Panama. After 1855 when the Panama Railroad was completed the Panama Route was by far the quickest and easiest way to get to or from California from the East Coast of the U.S. or Europe. Most California bound merchandise still used the slower but cheaper [[Cape Horn]] [[sailing ship]] route. The sinking of the [[paddle steamer]] {{SS|Central America}} (the ''Ship of Gold'') in a hurricane on 12 September 1857 and the loss of about $2&nbsp;million in California gold indirectly led to the [[Panic of 1857]].

Steamboat traffic including passenger and freight business grew exponentially in the decades before the Civil War. So too did the economic and human losses inflicted by snags, shoals, boiler explosions, and human error.<ref>{{cite book |first=Paul F |last=Paskoff |title= Troubled Waters: Steamboat Disasters, River Improvements, and American Public Policy, 1821–1860 |date=2007|isbn=978-0-8071-3268-5}}</ref>{{Rp | needed = yes | date=November 2012}}

====Civil War====
[[File:The Monitor and Merrimac.jpg|thumb|Chromolithograph depicting the [[Battle of Hampton Roads|''Monitor'' and the ''Merrimack'']]]]
[[File:U.S. gunboat Cairo (a.k.a. USS Cairo) - Mississippi River Fleet - Original.tiff|thumb|[[USS Cairo|USS ''Cairo'']]]]
During the [[US Civil War]] the [[Battle of Hampton Roads]], often referred to as either the Battle of the ''[[USS Monitor|Monitor]]'' and [[CSS Virginia|''Merrimack'']] or the ''Battle of Ironclads'', was fought over two days with steam-powered [[ironclad warships]], 8–9 March 1862. The battle occurred in [[Hampton Roads]], a [[roadstead]] in Virginia where the [[Elizabeth River (Virginia)|Elizabeth]] and [[Nansemond River]]s meet the [[James River]] just before it enters [[Chesapeake Bay]] adjacent to the city of [[Norfolk, VA|Norfolk]]. The battle was a part of the effort of the [[Confederate States of America]] to break the Union Naval blockade, which had cut off Virginia from all international trade.<ref>Musicant 1995, pp. 134–178; Anderson 1962, pp. 71–77; Tucker 2006, p. 151{{clarify|reason=These short form references are missing matching citations;|date=July 2014}}</ref><ref name=DeMeissner>{{cite book |last=de Meissner |first=Sophie Radford |title=Old Naval Days |url=https://archive.org/details/oldnavaldayssket00meisrich |date=1920 |publisher=Henry Holt |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oldnavaldayssket00meisrich/page/244 244]–251}}</ref>

The Civil War in the West was fought to control major rivers, especially the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers using paddlewheelers. Only the Union had them (the Confederacy captured a few, but were unable to use them.) The [[Battle of Vicksburg]] involved [[Monitor (warship)|monitors]] and ironclad riverboats. The USS ''Cairo'' is a survivor of the Vicksburg battle. Trade on the river was suspended for two years because of a Confederate's Mississippi blockade before the union victory at Vicksburg reopened the river on 4 July 1863. The triumph of Eads ironclads, and Farragut's seizure of New Orleans, secured the river for the Union North.

Although Union forces gained control of Mississippi River tributaries, travel there was still subject to interdiction by the Confederates. The [[Ambush of the steamboat J. R. Williams]], which was carrying supplies from [[Fort Smith National Historic Site|Fort Smith]] to [[Fort Gibson]] along the Arkansas River on 16 July 1863 demonstrated this. The steamboat was destroyed, the cargo was lost, and the tiny Union escort was run off. The loss did not affect the Union war effort, however.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA041.html |title=Watie's Regiment |last1=Franks |first1=Kenny A |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |year=2007 |access-date=31 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102050901/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA041.html |archive-date=2 November 2013 }}</ref>

The worst of all steamboat accidents occurred at the end of the Civil War in April 1865, when the steamboat ''[[SS Sultana|Sultana]]'', carrying an over-capacity load of returning Union soldiers recently freed from a Confederate prison camp, blew up, causing more than 1,700 deaths.

[[File:Sultana Disaster.jpg|right|thumb|The ''Sultana'' on fire, from ''Harpers Weekly'']]

====Mississippi and Missouri river traffic====
For most of the 19th century and part of the early 20th century, trade on the [[Mississippi River]] was dominated by paddle-wheel steamboats. Their use generated rapid development of economies of port cities; the exploitation of agricultural and commodity products, which could be more easily transported to markets; and prosperity along the major rivers. Their success led to penetration deep into the continent, where ''[[Anson Northup]]'' in 1859 became first steamer to cross the [[Canada–United States border|Canada–US border]] on the [[Red River of the North|Red River]]. They would also be involved in major political events, as when [[Louis Riel]] seized ''[[International (steamship)|International]]'' at [[Fort Garry]], or [[Gabriel Dumont (Métis leader)|Gabriel Dumont]] was engaged by ''[[Northcote (steamboat)|Northcote]]'' at [[Battle of Batoche|Batoche]]. Steamboats were held in such high esteem that they could become state symbols; the [[Iowa (steamboat)|Steamboat ''Iowa'']] (1838) is incorporated in the [[Seal of Iowa]] because it represented speed, power, and progress.{{Citation needed |date=November 2012}}
[[File:Mississippi River in Louisiana Steamboat Natchez.jpg|left|thumb|The ''Natchez'' operates out of New Orleans. There are other paddlewheelers on the Mississippi, but the ''[[Natchez (boat)|Natchez]]'' and the ''[[American Queen]]'' are the only two that are propelled by steam.]]

At the same time, the expanding steamboat traffic had severe adverse environmental effects, in the Middle Mississippi Valley especially, between St. Louis and the river's confluence with the [[Ohio River|Ohio]]. The steamboats consumed much wood for fuel, and the river floodplain and banks became deforested. This led to instability in the banks, addition of silt to the water, making the river both shallower and hence wider and causing unpredictable, lateral movement of the river channel across the wide, ten-mile floodplain, endangering navigation. Boats designated as snagpullers to keep the channels free had crews that sometimes cut remaining large trees {{convert|100|–|200|ft}} or more back from the banks, exacerbating the problems. In the 19th century, the flooding of the Mississippi became a more severe problem than when the floodplain was filled with trees and brush.{{Citation needed |date=November 2012}}

[[File:American Queen Eads Bridge.jpg|thumb|right|The ''[[American Queen]]'', the world's largest operating river steamboat]]
Most steamboats were destroyed by boiler explosions or fires—and many sank in the river, with some of those buried in silt as the river changed course. From 1811 to 1899, 156 steamboats were lost to snags or rocks between St. Louis and the Ohio River. Another 411 were damaged by fire, explosions or ice during that period.<ref>{{cite book |first=F Terry |last=Norris |chapter=Where Did the Villages Go? Steamboats, Deforestation, and Archaeological Loss in the Mississippi Valley |title=Common Fields: an Environmental History of St. Louis |editor-first=Andrew |editor-last=Hurley |location=St. Louis, MO |publisher=Missouri Historical Society Press |date=1997 |page=82}}</ref> One of the few surviving Mississippi sternwheelers from this period, ''[[Julius C. Wilkie]]'', was operated as a [[museum ship]] at [[Winona, Minnesota]], until its destruction in a fire in 1981. The replacement, built ''in situ'', was not a steamboat. The replica was scrapped in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/thursday-throwback-winona-s-wilkie-the-ugly-tug-that-got/article_5c0c91a7-2147-5852-a153-632d84bf7c36.html|title=THURSDAY THROWBACK: Winona's Wilkie, the ugly tug that got a makeover|last=Christenson|first=Jerome|website=Winona Daily News|date=September 2016 |language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}}</ref>{{Citation needed |date=November 2012}}

From 1844 through 1857, luxurious [[palace steamer]]s carried passengers and cargo around the North American Great Lakes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Niagara |at=Service history |url=http://www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org/explore_niagara_serv2.cfm |website=Wisconsin shipwrecks |publisher=University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute |access-date=10 July 2007 |archive-date=13 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713074203/http://www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org/explore_niagara_serv2.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Great Lakes passenger steamers]] reached their zenith during the century from 1850 to 1950. The {{SS|Badger}} is the last of the once-numerous passenger-carrying steam-powered [[Train ferry|car ferries]] operating on the Great Lakes. A unique style of [[bulk carrier]] known as the [[lake freighter]] was developed on the Great Lakes. The ''St. Marys Challenger'', launched in 1906, is the oldest operating steamship in the United States. She runs a Skinner Marine Unaflow 4-cylinder reciprocating steam engine as her power plant.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/stmaryschallenger.htm |title=St. Marys Challenger |first=George |last=Wharton |website=Boat nerd}}</ref>

Women started to become steamboat captains in the late 19th century. The first woman to earn her steamboat master's license was [[Mary Millicent Miller]], in 1884.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pXbYITw4ZesC&pg=PA621|title=The Encyclopedia of Louisville|last=Kleber|first=John E.|date=2001|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=0813128900|pages=621|language=en}}</ref> In 1888, [[Callie Leach French]] earned her first class license.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12325931/|title=Runs a Steamer|date=23 February 1898|work=The Wichita Daily Eagle|access-date=6 May 2018|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> In 1892, she earned a [[Sea captain|master's license]], becoming the only woman to hold both and operating on the Mississippi River.<ref name=":0" /> French towed a showboat up and down the rivers until 1907 and boasted that she'd never had an accident or lost a boat.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=https://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/women/changing/river.htm|title=Women & The Sea|website=The Mariner's Museum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106051200/http://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/women/changing/river.htm|archive-date=2011-01-06|url-status=dead|access-date=7 May 2018}}</ref> Another early steamboat captain was [[Blanche Douglass Leathers]], who earned her license in 1894.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/09/01/steamboats-female-pilots-and-the-rio-grande-by-darlene-franklin/|title=STEAMBOATS, FEMALE PILOTS, AND THE RIO GRANDE! by Darlene Franklin – Petticoats & Pistols|date=1 September 2012|work=Petticoats & Pistols|access-date=7 May 2018}}</ref> [[Mary Becker Greene]] earned her license in 1897 and along with her husband started the [[Delta Queen Steamboat Company|Greene Line]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19887074/|title=Records show there were at least|date=2 December 1970|work=Quad-City Times|access-date=7 May 2018|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

=====Steamboats in rivers on the west side of the Mississippi River=====
Steamboats also operated on the [[Red River of the South|Red River]] to [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]], Louisiana.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

In April 1815, Captain Henry Miller Shreve was the first person to bring a steamboat, the Enterprise, up the Red River.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

By 1839 after Captain [[Henry Miller Shreve]] broke the [[Great Raft]] log jam had been 160 miles long on the river.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brock |first1=Eric J. |last2=Joiner |first2=Gary |title=Red River Steamboats |date=1999 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-0168-0 }}{{page needed|date=April 2022}}</ref>

In the late 1830s, the steamboats in rivers on the west side of the Mississippi River were a long, wide, shallow draft vessel, lightly built with an engine on the deck. These newer steamboats could sail in just 20 inches of water. Contemporaries claimed that they could "run with a lot of heavy dew".<ref>[https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/us-history/steamboats] Encyclopedia | United States History | Steamboats</ref>

====Walking the steamboat over sandbars or away from reefs====
Walking the boat was a way of lifting the bow of a steamboat like on crutches, getting up and down a sandbank with poles, blocks, and strong rigging, and using paddlewheels to lift and move the ship through successive steps, on the helm. Moving of a boat from a sandbar by its own action was known as "walking the boat" and "grass-hoppering". Two long, strong poles were pushed forward from the bow on either side of the boat into the sandbar at a high degree of angle. Near the end of each pole, a block was secured with a strong rope or clamp that passed through pulleys that lowered through a pair of similar blocks attached to the deck near the bow. The end of each line went to a winch which, when turned, was taut and, with its weight on the stringers, slightly raised the bow of the boat. Activation of the forward paddlewheels and placement of the poles caused the bow of the boat to raise and move the boat forward perhaps a few feet. It was laborious and dangerous work for the crew, even with a [[Steam donkey]] driven capstan winch.

====Double-tripping====
Double-tripping means making two voyages by leaving a cargo of a steamboat ashore to lighten boats load during times of extremely low water or when ice impedes progress. The boat had to return (and therefore make a second trip) to retrieve the cargo.<ref>[https://www.steamboats.org/history-education/glossary/walkig_the_boat.html] Walking the boat | Steamboating Rivers</ref><ref>copied from [[Steam donkey]] see that article for references | 
https://epdf.pub/the-steamboat-era-a-history-of-fultons-folly-on-american-rivers-1807-1860.html | The Steamboat Era: A History of Fulton's Folly on American Rivers, 1807–1860 | Author: S. L. Kotar | J. E. Gessler | 2009 | Pages 33 & 267</ref>

====Piston Rings, Steel replaced cotton seals, 1854====
1854: John Ramsbottom publishes a report on his use of oversized split steel piston rings which maintain a seal by outward spring tension on the cylinder wall. This improved efficiency by allowing much better sealing (compared to earlier cotton seals) which allowed significantly higher system pressures before "blow-by" is experienced.<ref name="ReferenceA">copied from the Wikipedia article [[Timeline of steam power]], see that article for references</ref>

====Allen Steam Engine at 3 to 5 times higher speeds, 1862====
1862: The Allen steam engine (later called Porter-Allen) is exhibited at the London Exhibition. It is precision engineered and balanced allowing it to operate at from three to five times the speed of other stationary engines. The short stroke and high speed minimize condensation in the cylinder, significantly improving efficiency. The high speed allows direct coupling or the use of reduced sized pulleys and belting.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

====Boilers, Water Tubes, Not Explosive, 1867====
{{Timeline-event|date={{Start date|1867}}|event= [[Stephen Wilcox]] and his partner [[George Herman Babcock]] patent the "Babcock & Wilcox Non-Explosive Boiler", which uses water inside clusters of tubing to generate steam, typically with higher pressures and more efficiently than the typical "firetube" boilers of that time. [[Babcock & Wilcox]]-type boiler designs become popular in new installations.}}<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

====Triple Expansion Steam Engine, 1881====
{{Timeline-event|date={{Start date|1881}}|event= [[Alexander Carnegie Kirk|Alexander C. Kirk]] designs the first practical [[triple expansion]] engine which was installed in [[SS Aberdeen (1881)|SS ''Aberdeen'']].}}<ref>Day, Lance and McNeil, Ian (Editors) 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=m8TsygLyfSMC&dq=the+aberdeen+1881+napiers&pg=PA694 ''Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology''] Routledge, {{ISBN|0-203-02829-5}} (P. 694)</ref><ref name="ReferenceA"/>

====Steam Turbine, 1884====
{{Timeline-event|date={{Start date|1884}}|event= [[Charles Algernon Parsons]] developed the [[steam turbine]], used in early electrical generation and to power ships. The efficiency of large steam turbines is considerably better than the best [[compound steam engine|compound piston engines]], and they are much simpler, more reliable, smaller and lighter. Steam turbines eventually replaced piston engines for most power generation.}}<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

====20th century====
The ''[[Belle of Louisville]]'' is the oldest operating steamboat in the United States, and the oldest operating Mississippi River-style steamboat in the world. She was laid down as ''Idlewild'' in 1914, and is currently located in Louisville, Kentucky.<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Belle of Louisville |website=Belle of Louisville |url=http://www.steamboats.org/traveller.html |access-date=26 July 2014}}</ref>

Five major commercial steamboats currently operate on the inland waterways of the United States. The only remaining overnight cruising steamboat is the 432-passenger ''[[American Queen]]'', which operates week-long cruises on the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers 11 months out of the year. The others are day boats: they are the steamers ''[[Chautauqua Belle]]'' at [[Chautauqua Lake|Chautauqua Lake, New York]], ''[[Minne-Ha-Ha II|Minne Ha-Ha]]'' at [[Lake George (village), New York|Lake George, New York]], operating on Lake George; the ''[[Belle of Louisville]]'' in [[Louisville, Kentucky]], operating on the Ohio River; and the ''[[Natchez (steamboat)|Natchez]]'' in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating on the Mississippi River. For modern craft operated on rivers, see the [[Riverboat]] article.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Steamboat Traveler |website=Steamboats |url=http://www.steamboats.org/traveller.html |access-date=26 July 2014}}</ref>