NICHOLAS ROOSEVELT'S 1811 STEAMBOAT NEW ORLEANS
extracts from A Chronological History of the Origin and Development of Steam Navigation by George Henry Preble (1895)

[This begins with a chronological history of early experiments with steamboats, which I have not copied here in detail -- KWD]

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On the 17th of March 1811, a steamboat built by Fulton and Livingston was launched at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, under the superintendence of Mr. Roosevelt, as the agent of Messrs. Fulton, Livingston, & Co., of New York. She was a stern-wheel boat, and was the first steamboat ever run upon the Western waters of the United States. She was painted with a bluish-colored paint, and passed New Madrid, Missouri, at the time of the earthquake in December of that year. Mr. Scowls, who in 1853 was a wealthy citizen of Covington, Kentucky, was a cabin-boy on board.

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INTRODUCTION OF STEAMBOATS ON THE WESTERN WATERS

First Trip of the "New Orleans" from Pittsburg to New Orleans

[footnote 2: This account of the "New Orleans'" first voyage is condensed from "The First Steamboat Voyage on the Western Waters," by J.H.B. Latrobe, Baltimore, October, 1871, 32 pp, 8vo, Fund Publication No. 6, of the Maryland Historical Society. Mrs. Roosevelt was a sister of Mr. Latrobe, and alive when he wrote this narrative. This successful voyage of the "New Orleans" down the Ohio and Mississippi antedates the first voyage of the "Comet" on the Clyde, which commenced to ply between Glasgow and Helensburgh January, 1812, with only a speed of five miles an hour.]

1811. -- Prior to the introduction of steamboats on the Western waters the means of transportation thereon consisted of keel-boats, barges, and flat-boats. The two former ascended as well as descended the stream. The flat-boat, or "broad horn," an unwieldy box, was broken up for its lumber on arrival at its place of destination. . . .

[This is not copied here since it is a condensed version of J.H.B. Latrobe's earlier publication, which is availaable in full elsewhere on this site. -- KWD]


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