Owning a boat seems fun and amazing as you can take a break from the land and hit the waters anytime you like. Even though having your own boat comes with many perks, there is still a big amount of work, care, attention, and maintenance that goes into it. However, some right … Read more
You might have gone on a cruise once and you loved to make waves on the waters. Going on a cruise can be a fun thing. You can arrange a party at your yacht, go fishing, wakeboarding, skiing, tubing, or just floating on the waters. After a long winter, it is a … Read more
Seasickness while sailing can convert the relaxing boat trip into a miserable experience. You don’t want to ruin your boat trip. Your dream cruise would become a nightmare if the motion of the ship is causing you seasickness. It is the result of a complex physiological reaction to motion. When the information … Read more
Owning a boat can be exciting, entertaining, and satisfying and can allow you to go on a relaxing ocean vacation anywhere, anytime you want. But fun and fantasy aside, owning a boat is not a cakewalk and can turn out to be a nightmare for you if you are not responsible and … Read more
If you are new to boating or a professional boater, you will make common mistakes that lead to consequences on the water. It happens when you are in hurry or you don’t pay attention to the maintenance of your boat. Some mistakes are embarrassing and some are costly mistakes. These common mistakes … Read more
Birthplace of S.L.C., Florida, Missouri. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in this house on 30 November, 1835, in the frontier village of Florida, Marion County, Missouri. The 6th child of John Marshall Clemens and Jane (Jean) Lampton Clemens, he was born two months premature and sickly, into a family comprising: brother Orion … Read more
Pilot At The Wheel Quote:~ My chief was presently hired to go on a big New Orleans boat, and I packed my satchel and went with him. She was a grand affair. When I stood in her pilot-house I was so far above the water that I seemed perched on a mountain; … Read more
Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994 Frederick Way, Jr., was a noted steamboat pilot and river historian who collected steamboat data throughout some 80 years of his life. Whether you are a steamboat historian or a genealogist whose ancestors traveled on the rivers, Way’s Packet Directory is bound to help in your research. Steamboats … Read more
GRAND REPUBLIC Salon ~ 1876 A view looking down the salon of Grand Republic’s Salon in 1876. GRAND REPUBLIC Cabin ~ 1876 Passengers photographed in the Cabin of the Grand Republic, 1876. Photographs of steamboat interiors were usuually taken without people in view, since it was the ornate architecture that the photographer sought to … Read more
‘St. Louis, Laclede’s Landing’ ~ 1885 Pierre Laclede and his 13-year old stepson Auguste Chouteau, arrived at the future site of St. Louis in 1763. They had set out from New Orleans with a small band of men, landing in November, eighteen miles downstream of the confluence with the Missouri River where … Read more
Printmakers Currier & Ives, headed by Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) and James Merritt Ives (1824-1895), produced some of the most popular American art of the 19th century. The company specialized in publishing inexpensive hand-colored lithographic prints for the growing American middle class. It is estimated that over 8500 lithograph titles were published by … Read more
‘Lewis & Clark: The Departure’ ~ May 14, 1804 Having left their winter camp at Wood River on the banks of the Mississippi adjacent the Missouri River confluence, the expedition at last broaches the swift, snag-studded waters of the Missouri. The 55-foot keelboat, fully loaded with supplies and trade goods, is rowed … Read more
Sam’s First Speech, Keokuk ~ 1856 As a young printer, Sam Clemens gave his first public speech in Keokuk, Iowa, on 17 January, 1856, at a meeting of the Typothetae, an association of master printers who celebrated annually on the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, the patron of all printers. He was boarding … Read more
Printer Anecdotes ~ 1851-56 After the tragic death of his father in 1847, Sam Clemens, aged 12, began doing odds jobs to assist the family finances, and in 1848 he began working as a printer’s devil for the Hannibal Gazette, apprenticed to Joseph Ament. The job entailed “setting” type by hand using … Read more
‘Steamboat Warping Through a Suck’ circa 1872 Navigating the Tennessee River was especially challenging for steamboats. Some ten miles below Chattanooga there was a narrow gorge called The Suck, also known as the Valley of the Whirlpool Rapids. This is a hand-colored woodcut of a steamer being tediously ‘warped through a suck’ on … Read more
‘New Orleans’ Quote: ~ Opposite the city the levee is so broad as to furnish a landing-place for all the bulky merchandise in which the trade of New Orleans mainly consists. The broad space is literally buried under the wealth of the Great Valley. Bales of cotton, hogsheads of sugar, barrels of … Read more
Jane Lampton Clemens (1803 ~ 1890) B: 18 June 1803, Lexington, Adair County, Kentucky. D: 27 October 1890, Keokuk, Iowa. Married: John Marshall Clemens, 6 May 1823, Columbia, Kentucky. Children: Orion, Pamela, Margaret, Benjamin, Samuel, Henry (See below). Mother of Samuel Clemens. The daughter of Benjamin Lampton and Margaret Casey, Jane was raised in Lexington, Kentucky. As a … Read more
St. Louis Levee ~ 1852 Steamboats in this scene of the St. Louis levee include the DUBUQUE, EXPRESS, HIGHLAND CHIEF and the AMULET. Steamers would often land two or three tiers deep here during the 1840s and 1850s. Note the covered wagon in the foreground. This is possibly the first photographic image of the St. Louis levee. Quote: ~ … Read more
‘Moonlight Encounter on the Mississippi’ In the 1800s large log rafts were floated down the Mississippi River from the pine forests in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The first documented raft taken through to St. Louis was in the charge of Henry Merill, who refitted it at the mouth of the Wisconson River, and delivered it … Read more
Night Stop on the Mississippi’ In this moonlit scene, a small sidewheeler lands against a levee with the Mississippi at flood stage. The landing places either rose with the river or were relocated, depending on the current. The flat-bottomed hull design of the riverboat, drawing as little as two-and-a-half-feet, afforded easy access … Read more
ECLIPSE Built: 1852, New Albany, Indiana. Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 350 feet, 1,117 tons. Cost: $375,000. There were several Eclipse boats. This was the largest sidewheeler to carry the Eclipse name, with 42-foot wheels, operating from New Orleans to Louisville. She was damaged beyond repair at New Orleans in 1860 when she was blown from … Read more
CITY OF ALTON Built: 1860, Madison, Indiana. Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 283′ x 40′ x 7′. Engines: 36′ – 9 ft. Operating between St. Louis and Alton, her master was Captain Mitchell, and in 1861 Captain Barnes. The CITY of ALTON was involved in one of the first acts of daring in the Civil … Read more
C.J. CAFFREY Built: 1861, Louisville, Kentucky, as J.H. BALDWIN. Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Converted to sternwheel 1874. Size: 173 tons. Originally the J.H. BALDWIN, and built for the Louisville-Cumberland trade, under Captain McGuire, she was captured by the U.S. in the spring of 1862 on the Cumberland River. She was sold for $12,000 to steamship agents … Read more
ALEX SCOTT Built: 1842, Jeffersonville, Indiana. Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 266′ x 34′ x 8′, 709 tons. Engines: 25’s x 10 ft. Boilers: Six boilers. Paddlewheels: 30′ diameter with 15′ buckets, 28″ dip. Named for Captain Alexander Scott, and built by a veteran of the river, Captain John C. Swan, her principle owner and master, this … Read more
CITY of NEW ORLEANS Built: 1881, by Howard & Co., Jeffersonville, Indiana. Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 290′ x 48′ x 8′ 5″. Engines: 26’s – 10 ft. Boilers: Five boilers, each 44″ by 30 ft., four flues. Paddlewheels: 38 ft. diameter, with 15 ft. buckets. One of ten Anchor Line boats built between 1880-87 without … Read more
CITY OF HICKMAN Built: 1890, by Howard & Co., Jeffersonville, Indiana. Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 285′ x 44′ 5″ x 9′ 5″. Engines: 26’s – 10 ft. Boilers: Five boilers. Paddlewheels: 26 ft. diameter. Capacity: 200 passengers, 2,100 tons. Built for the Anchor Line, the CITY of HICKMAN had 38 staterooms and 72 berths and cost $66,000 (one … Read more
FAR WEST Built: 1870, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Type: Sternwheel wooden hull packet. Mountain riverboat. Size: 190′ x 33′ x 6′. Engines: 15’s – 5 ft. Boilers: Three boilers Capacity: Could carry 200 tons and 30 cabin passengers, drawing only 20 inches, un-ladened. Operating on the Missouri, Yellowstone and Osage Rivers, the FAR WEST earned a place in history in 1876, … Read more
BELLE OF CALHOUN Built: 1895, St. Louis, Missouri. Built at the Carondelet Marine Ways, Carondelet, Missouri, and completed at the St. Louis wharf. Type: Sternwheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 180′ 9″ x 36′ 4″ x 4′ 7″. Engines: 15’s – 6 ft. Boilers: Two boilers, each 44″ by 26 ft. The BELLE OF CALHOUN was named for Miss … Read more
PHIL SHERIDAN Built: 1866, Cincinnati, Ohio Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 227′ x 35′ 6″ x 6′, 728 tons. Engines: 22’s – 7 ft. Boilers: 4 boilers, each 40″ x 26 ft. with five 9″ flues. Operating on the Upper Mississippi River, the PHIL SHERIDAN was owned first by the Cincinnati and Wheeling Line before being sold … Read more
‘BIG’ MISSOURI Built: 1845, Cincinnati, Ohio. Type: Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 304 feet, 886 tons. This is a 1850 lithograph of the MISSOURI, also called the BIG MISSOURI because it was the largest steamboat on the river below Louisville before the launch of the SULTANA in 1848. It operated mainly between St. Louis and New Orleans and was … Read more