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A Part Of The History Of Transportation Series The steamboat has played an important role in the transportation history of the world. Inland and ocean transportation were changed greatly by the addition of the steam engine to the boat. Reliable shipping schedules were possible once ships were freed from the fickleness of the winds. The boat was the first vehicle in which steam was successfully utilized because boats could be enlarged to accommodate the early heavy steam engines. French nobleman Claude-François-Dorothée, Marquis de Jouffroy d'Abbans was an early pioneer in steamboat operations. His first attempt, on the Doubs River in France, 1776 was unsuccessful. It used ‘ducks feet’ propulsion, which proved impractical. His second boat in 1783 utilized two paddlewheels for propulsion. The boat ran upstream for fifteen minutes. At 327,000 pounds the boat was seriously overloaded. This and the furious pounding of the motor tore the boat to pieces. Although both his attempts were failures, the concept of using steam engines on boats was proved to be feasible by his second run. John Fitch in 1786 operated the first successful steamboat on the Delaware River. His boat achieved a top speed of 6 MPH. Difficulty in manufacturing the engine caused him to stop. Robert Fulton accomplished the goal of the first practical steam boatin history during the year 1807. His boat, the North River Steamboat, cruised from his partner’s Clermont estate on the Hudson River to Albany, New York. This run of approximately forty miles was accomplished in about eight hours. His paddlewheel design became the standard boat design on inland and coastal waters all over the world in just a few years. Fulton’s first riverboats were designed for the deeper eastern American waterways and didn’t fare so well in the shallower western rivers. He built a boat called the New Orleans to run down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. The New Orleans departed Pittsburgh, Pennsylvannia in September, 1811. It traveled down the Ohio to Louisville, Kentuckey, where it had to wait for the river to rise before it could navigate the Falls of the Ohio region. When the water finally rose, the boat had to navigate in water only five inches deeper the boat drew. Coincidentally, the catastrophic New Madrid earthquake struck as the boat slipped into a pool of water just below the Falls. The shock waves of the quake threw water out of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, felled trees into the rivers, and just created a general mess. After many delays, the boat finally did reach New Orleans, but it never made the trip again. Rivers like the Ohio, Missouri, and Red Rivers needed boats with shallower drafts. These boats were eventually built, and river traffic at ports along these rivers blossomed. Paddlewheelers designed to cross the ocean were developed a little later. The Savannah, a converted coastal packet became the first paddlewheeler to cross the Atlantic. It departed Savannah Georgia on May 24, 1819 and arrived in Liverpool, England on the twentieth of June, 1819. Other ships made the trans-Atlantic crossing at irregular times until the British Cunard Line began a regular schedule in 1840. It was 1847 before American ships - the Herman and Washington began service between America and Europe. The ocean going ships of this era were wooden paddlewheelers also equipped with masts to use to take advantage of favorable winds when they occurred. Freshwater paddle-wheelers were limited to the larger rivers and lakes. Canals were narrower than rivers and travel was discouraged because the turbulence induced by the paddles caused bank erosion. The more serviceable screw propeller was developed by American inventor John Stevens. Successful runs were made using a twin propped boat. Manufacturing problems involving the steam engine caused him to stop work. In 1836 Swede John Ericsson and Englishman Francis Pettit Smith were more successful. One of the earliest ships to use the screw propeller was called the Great Britain. This ship was also noteworthy because it also had an iron hull. The ship was beached during a storm. After withstanding severe wind and seas for over a year, the ship was re-floated. The experience with the Great Britain dispelled the prejudice shipbuilders had against using iron for ship-building. Early steam ships used cylinder motors for power, with coal as fuel. In the 1890’s the steam turbine was developed. Modern steamers use turbines powered by oil. Some warships and submarines use nuclear power plants to heat the water to turn the turbines. Combustion Engine History Back To Transportation History |