According to evidence given before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1817 by Mr. Seth Hunt of Louisiana, there were then ten steam vessels running between New York and Albany, two between New York and Connecticut ports, four or five between New York and New Jersey ports, besides ferryboats on the Hudson and East Rivers. There were also steamers on the Delaware, between Philadelphia and Trenton, Newcastle, and Wilmington; also steamers from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, which crossed the estuary of the Chesapeake. Steamers had been to New London and New Hartford. The Powhatan steamer of New York was three days exposed to a gale in the open sea, after which it arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, and thence steamed up the James River to Richmond. At that time, according to this witness, there were on the Mississippi two steamers, the Etna and Vesuvius, which were each of 450 tons, carried 280 tons of merchandise, 100 passengers, and 700 bales of cotton.

Towards the middle of the last century numbers of steamboats were placed on the coastal and river services from New York. The Fulton ferryboats Union and William Cutting were both built in 1827; and in the following year the De Witt Clinton was built in Albany for the passenger service between New York and Albany; she was 571 tons gross, more than any of her contemporaries. A notable vessel, then the fastest steamboat ever built, was the Lexington, which began to run in 1835 between Providence and New York. As the railway companies were formed about the same time, the competition between the steamboat companies and the railways was lively and fares were reduced with American thoroughness. The Narragansett arrived at Providence in October 1836. She was fitted with a 300-horse-power horizontal engine, which was too heavy for her, for on her trial trip she rolled over with the directors of the company and their guests on board. Fortunately no lives were lost. In 1838, the John W. Richmond appeared as the rival of the Lexington and there were many exciting races between the two, but two years later the Richmond was sold for employment elsewhere. The Lexington was burnt in 1840, and the Richmond met with a similar fate three years later. The Fall River Line was established in 1847 and has maintained the service to the present day.

All these steamers were built of wood, and as they increased in size they developed a marked tendency to “sag,” that is, drop in the middle, or to “hog,” that is, drop at the ends. This tendency was overcome by an ingenious system of stump-masts and strutts, and iron ties, invented by Colonel Stevens. There are various methods of applying these stiffeners, and the peculiar framework of wooden arches and stump-masts which appears on so many American river steamers is due to the necessity of employing one or other of these systems for strengthening purposes. In some of the later vessels (as in the De Witt Clinton) these ties are put into the framework of the superstructure.

In construction, the development of American steamers on inland waters since Fulton’s time has proceeded on entirely different lines from those which marked the progress of river navigation in Great Britain. American river steamers were designed not only to cope with the traffic in narrower and shallower places, but to carry whatever was necessary in deeper waters, and at the same time get through the more difficult places somehow. The great distances to be travelled on the American rivers rendered necessary the provision of vessels carrying large quantities of cargo and extensive accommodation for passengers, whilst the bars occurring at intervals in the beds of the rivers made it compulsory that the vessels should be of light draught. The construction of English river steamers, on the other hand, has been conditioned by the comparative narrowness of the English rivers and the lowness of the many bridges which span them.

The Fall River Line boats were the pioneers of the modern type of Hudson River steamers, the first of them being the famous Bay State, plying between New York and Fall River. She was 315 feet long and 40 feet beam and of 1500 tons burden. Her engines were of 1500 horse-power. The Bay State, being intended for Long Island Sound work, was much more strongly built than those boats which were confined to the Hudson River Line. This vessel was both the largest and fastest craft of her day. She ran the distance from Fall River to New York in nine hours fifteen minutes, including a stop at Newport. In 1864 she was dismantled, and her hull was converted into a barge, her machinery being placed in a new steamer named Old Colony. Vessels followed each other in rapid succession, but although rival companies sprang up with considerable frequency, few of them lasted very long and their boats, if good enough, were sometimes acquired by the Fall River Company. One of the most dangerous competitors was the Merchants’ Shipping Company, which controlled fifteen steamers, and for which William H. Webb, the famous American shipbuilder, constructed those two historic boats, the Bristol and the Providence. The line lost two or three of its steamers in rapid succession, and had to suspend payment. The Bristol and Providence had each two hundred and twenty-three state-rooms. They were lighted by gas throughout, and were afterwards steam-heated. Each boat carried a band of music, and for the first time on an American merchant vessel the officers and crew were in uniform. In 1883 the first iron steamboat in Long Island Sound, the Pilgrim, was built. She had a double hull divided into ninety-six water-tight compartments. The Puritan followed her. The Plymouth was launched in 1890, and was burnt in dock ten years later, and in August of the following year the present Plymouth was launched. All these vessels were side-wheelers, the later ones being of steel, and having a speed of twenty miles an hour.

One of the finest vessels now afloat is the Commonwealth. She is 456 feet in length, 35 feet moulded breadth, 96 feet breadth over the guards, and has a depth of hull of 22 feet. She has sleeping accommodation for 2000 persons.

Like all steamers on the Fall River Line, the Commonwealth is built of steel. Seven doorless bulkheads extend to the main deck. The hull is double, and the space between the bottoms is divided into a great many water-tight compartments. She has also collision bulkheads on each side at the guards and a bulkhead athwart ship. Her engine is of the double inclined compound type, with two high-pressure cylinders 96 inches in diameter, all having a common stroke of piston of 9 feet 6 inches. The wheels are of the feathering type with curved steel buckets. Besides the usual auxiliary steam pumps, there is a large pump for use only on the fire-sprinkler system. Her speed is twenty-two miles an hour.

During the nineteenth century there was an equally striking development among the steamers of the various lines on the Hudson River. The Empire of Troy, to distinguish her from another steamer called the Empire built in the ’forties and belonging to a rival line, was then the largest river steamer in the world, being 307 feet over all and of 936 tons register. She was quickly superseded by the Hendrick Hudson of the Albany Line, which was the first Hudson River steamer to exceed a thousand tons. This in turn was eclipsed by the Oregon. The St. John, of 2645 tons, built in 1863, was the first to exceed 2000 tons, The Adirondack, of 3644 tons, was placed on the river in 1896, and in 1904 the C. W. Morse, of 4307 tons, appeared.

The Hudson River boats, after the first or experimental types of vessel, have always been famous for their speed and beauty no less than their comfort. One of the most famous of them all was the Alida. Two others, which raced occasionally, were the Oregon and the C. Vanderbilt, one notable contest in which they engaged being in 1847, for a stake of 1000 dollars. On the way back the Oregon ran short of fuel, whereupon the owners threw into the furnaces the furniture and everything else that would burn which they could lay hands on. The time of the run was 3 hours 15 minutes, which gave an average speed of 20 miles an hour. After the heroic sacrifice made by the Oregonians, it is satisfactory to learn that the Oregon won by 400 yards. The Alida and the Hendrick Hudson raced from New York to Albany, the former doing the voyage in 7 hours 55 minutes, the latter boat being 15 minutes longer on the voyage. The scheduled time of the present Hudson River Day Line steamers over the same water is 9 hours 30 minutes, from which it would appear that the boats of sixty years ago were as capable of fast travelling as are their palatial successors of the present day. One of these, a second Hendrick Hudson, was launched on the Hudson in 1907, a hundred years from the day of the Clermont’s first voyage up the river.

The decade from 1840 to 1850 was the golden age for steamboat proprietors on the Hudson River, as there was then no railroad competition, though there were several competitive steam-ship companies. In 1849 there were no less than twenty steamers on the route between New York and Albany, and the fares were cut as low as 12¹⁄₂ cents for the 145 miles. One of the steamers on the river in the ’forties was the Norwich. A few years later she was converted into a tug-boat, and up to the end of 1909 was still in active service. She has been repaired so often, however, that not much of her original hull is left, but her first engine is still in use. A steamer which is still held in affectionate memory by all frequenters of the Hudson River, the celebrated Mary Powell, was launched in 1861, and was never eclipsed in speed by any vessel until the modern torpedo-boats were built. She frequently covered 27 miles an hour. This remarkable boat came from the New Jersey yards of Messrs M. A. Allison. Originally she was 260 feet in length, but in 1874 she was increased to 286 feet, and again in 1897 to 300 feet. Her paddle-wheels were 31 feet in diameter, with 26 floats to the wheel, each float being 10¹⁄₂ feet long by 1 foot 9 inches wide and dipping 3¹⁄₂ feet. One vessel, the Glen Cove, attained notoriety if not fame by being the first to carry that novel musical instrument known as the calliope. Fortunately for New Yorkers, the innovation was not popular. The machine consisted of a large steam chest, on the top of which were arranged a number of valves according to the number of whistles to be blown. As a powerful calliope could be heard for a distance of some miles, and as the instrument frequently consisted of from eight to twelve whistles, and the selection performed upon it was of the “Shall we gather at the river” variety, it cannot be said that the English have been the only people to take their pleasures sadly. Three boats plying in New York Bay carried these excruciating instruments. The Glen Cove was sold with her calliope to ply on the James River in Virginia, and was sunk by the Confederates during the Civil War. The most aggressive calliope was carried on the Armenia. It had thirty-four powerful whistles.

In 1860, the Daniel Drew, a long and very narrow boat, reduced the time of the voyage to Albany to seven hours twenty minutes. It is impossible for the heavy steamers of the present day to travel on the up-river stages as fast as the lightly built boats of that time, but in the deeper waters of the lower river they are faster than the lighter vessels. A steamer of the latest type is the Robert Fulton, built for the Day Line by the New York Shipbuilding Company of Camden, N.J., and the W. and A. Fletcher Company of Hoboken. Her trials took place exactly 116 days after her keel was laid, and she began to run in 1909.

The development of the steam-ships on the lakes was no less remarkable than on the sea-coasts. At the outset the boats were of wood, which was gradually superseded first by iron and then by steel, and with the introduction of the latter has come also their greatest development in carrying capacity. The first steamer placed in service on the Great Lakes, above Niagara Falls, was launched in 1818, and bore the picturesque Indian name Walk in the Water, after a noted Wyandotte chief. She was of 338 tons gross and built at a spot which is now a part of the City of Buffalo. The machinery was furnished by Robert McQueen of New York, one of her owners.

By 1844 there were three large steamers of over 1000 tons each on the lakes, built wholly for the American passenger service from Buffalo. The first screw-propelled boat on the lakes was the Vandalia, built at Oswego in 1841. She was one of the earliest vessels to have her machinery placed right aft. By 1849 there were enrolled at Buffalo, which was the chief lake port, 29 side-wheelers, 18 of which were of from 500 to 1500 tons, and 10 screw-propelled boats of under 500 tons, but by 1862 the number of steamers had increased to 147 side-wheelers and 203 screw-propelled boats. The construction of the Welland Canal and the Sault Ste. Marie Canal with larger locks than hitherto had a most stimulating effect on lake shipping. American ingenuity devised freight-carrying steamers peculiarly adapted for work on the lakes. The largest boat on the Great Lakes is the William M. Mills, a “bulk-freighter.” She is virtually an immense box girder 607 feet in length, 585 feet length of keel, 60 feet beam, and 32 feet in depth, with triple-expansion engines. She is built on the hopper and girder system, and has a cargo hold 447 feet long without obstruction other than three screen bulkheads fitted for convenience in carrying grain; her cargo capacity is 514,505 bushels of wheat. She and her two sister ships can each carry 12,380 tons of ore. Her water-ballast tanks will take 7000 tons, and her pumps are so powerful that the whole of this quantity can be discharged overboard in three hours. The officers and crew are accommodated in a deck-house situated on the forecastle. Above this deck-house are the navigating bridge and steering-house. The engines are placed at the extreme end of the vessel, so that the whole space between the engine bulkhead and the forecastle is devoted to the cargo. The scantlings of the hull throughout are the heaviest on fresh water.

On the Mississippi River and its tributaries a type of large shallow steamers, propelled by immense side or stern paddle-wheels, was developed. These vessels were noted for their high superstructures and towering funnels. Racing was frequent among them.

In April 1838 the Mississippi River steamer Moselle, crowded from stem to stern with passengers for St. Louis, blew up. She had gone a little way up the river from Cincinnati for the purpose of exhibiting herself and of coming back past the city “a-flying.” As she stopped to turn, the boilers exploded, blowing the ship to fragments. The captain, who was in the pilot-house, was blown about eighty yards away; a boy on board was found dead on the roof of a house on shore. It was never known exactly how many perished, but the number is estimated at anything from one hundred to two hundred. One of the boilers was thrown ashore by the explosion, and in falling made a large hole in the pavement.[23]

Another accident of that year befell the steamer Oroonoko on the Mississippi. Her boilers blew up and, the wreck taking fire, about one hundred lives were lost, most of the victims being burnt to death. The engineer, before he died, said the boilers were full of water, and that his department was not in fault, but that the boilers were old and worn out and not fit for such a boat.[24]

About the same time two other steamers, the Pioneer and Ontario, were racing on the river near Cincinnati and collided. The Ontario ran purposely into the Pioneer, which returned the compliment by deliberately ramming the Ontario, killing one passenger, dangerously wounding two others, and smashing the Ontario’s guards. The Pioneer won that race, but intentional collisions were too much even for the sensation-loving public which patronised the racing Mississippi steamers and used to bet heavily on the result, and dangerous racing of this character was for a time tabooed.

One of the most famous races on record was that between the Eclipse and the Natchez, two magnificent vessels which were very evenly matched. It is recorded that the immense funnels of these two boats, as they tore along almost on a level with only a few feet between them, were red-hot, and that the blaze from their pine-fed furnaces made the dwellers on either side of the bank think that the vessels were on fire.

The finest passenger steamer which has ever been placed on the Lakes is, without exception, the City of Cleveland. The hull, built of mild steel, is divided into ten compartments by water-tight cross bulkheads extending from the keel to the main deck. The double bottom, which reaches nearly the entire length of the ship, is also divided into ten compartments, which can be used for water-ballast, and she has a steadying tank holding 100 tons of water and situated amidships to check the rolling in a heavy sea. The City of Cleveland is 400 feet over all, 390 feet keel, 54 feet across the hull, and has a depth of 22 feet. Like nearly all American paddle-steamers she is decked to the full width of the guards. She has seven decks, the main deck, which is of steel, being sheathed with wood to deaden the noise of the handling of cargo. Her electric plant provides 1500 lights, as well as a search-light of 50,000 candle-power. Her engine was constructed by the American Shipbuilding Company and consists of an inclined three-cylinder compound engine, the high pressure being arranged between the two low-pressure cylinders. The high-pressure cylinder is 54 inches in diameter and the low-pressure cylinders are each 82 inches and the stroke of piston is 8 feet. The paddle-wheels are 29 feet in diameter and are fitted with feathering blades, each of which is 14 feet long and 4 feet wide. This steamer makes two trips a day between Detroit and Cleveland, and is credited with having attained to a speed of twenty-four miles an hour.

The Canadian-built lake steamers are similar to those from United States yards, and a typical specimen of colonial construction is the Midland Prince, launched in 1907 by the Collingwood Shipbuilding Company of Collingwood, Ontario, which, like the Collingwood, is an immense freighter.

One or two “whalebacks,” a type designed for the Lakes by Captain McDougall, have been seen on the Atlantic occasionally, but they were not a great success. A vessel of this type visited Liverpool some years ago, the Charles Wetmore, and having her engines placed aft, and being built with a perfectly flush whaleback, without hatchways, and with a “scow and pig-snout” bow, was a decided curiosity. The ingenuity of her design and the excellent workmanship displayed in her construction impressed naval architects favourably, but there was nothing to show that she was superior as a cargo vessel to the single-deck steamers on this side of the Atlantic. The whaleback steamer is less in favour than it was, even in America, but a good many of them are still to be seen on the Lakes and the Pacific coast.