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The cry of “Steamboat ho!” was heard up and down the mighty Mississipp during the 19th and early- 20th centuries. These calls declared the departure or arrival of, well, steamboats, which carried cargo and passengers to various ports along “the highway of America.” The first steamboat on the Mississippi, the New Orleans, was christened in 1811. Soon, the New Orleans proved how profitable steamboats could be, and by the 1830s there were more than 1200 of them traveling the great river and helping America expand from east to west.
There were all sorts of steamboats on the river back then-- gambling boats, showboats, and of course passenger boats. Some steamboats were even all three! A showboat, sort of like a modern cruise, would include the performance of a play while customers were ushered up and down river. Gambling boats were notoriously dangerous, with card sharks and cheats lying in wait to con the gullible out of their money. Steamboat travel, itself, could also be very dangerous. An estimated 4000 people died from accidents during the time steamboats ran up and down the Mississippi. Snags (hidden trees in the water that the steamboat could run into) were a very big problem. Also, the boiler of a lot of steamboats weren’t built to the specifications of each individual ship, and could explode. Some 500 steamboats had boiler explosions. Often a boiler explosion would not only kill the immediate crew from the force of the blast, but also kill many of the ship’s passengers due to drowning as the ship sank. Boiler explosions could also cause fire and cause passengers to die of smoke inhalation or from burns. To date, the largest loss of life due to a ship’s accident in American history is from the steamboat Sultana in 1865. It exploded and caught the port on fire at Memphis. Some 1800 lives were lost. The earliest steamboats took about four weeks to go from one end of the Mississippi to the other. As the steamboats’ pilots got smarter and their boats got better, this was eventually reduced to about four days. There were even several great races between steamboats, with heavy betting on both sides. Mark Twain himself longed to be a steamboat captain growing up, and actually earned his pilot’s license-- but the Civil War cut his mariner career short. Regardless, Twain always held steamboats, the men who worked on them, and the culture around them in high regard-- so much so, he even used his steamboat experience to come up with his name! See, Mark Twain’s REAL name was Samuel Longhorn Clemens-- who chose his pen name of Mark Twain from a term used by crews of steamboats to classify safe sailing water. “Mark twain” literally meant 2 fathoms of water below (12 feet) and signified safe water or water without submerged snags or rocks that could sink the boat. There are still some boats fashioned like steamboats that travel the Mississippi to this day, a reminder of the time when the mighty Mississippi was the highway of America. |
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GLOSSARY
Boiler the enclosed iron cylinder in which water was heated to create steam on a steamboat.
Card Shark a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at card games like poker.
Fathoms a unit of length equal to six feet, usually used in reference to the depth of water.
Gullible easily persuaded to believe things.
Snags a tree or branch embedded in a lake or stream bed that’s a hazard for steamboats.
Card Shark a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at card games like poker.
Fathoms a unit of length equal to six feet, usually used in reference to the depth of water.
Gullible easily persuaded to believe things.
Snags a tree or branch embedded in a lake or stream bed that’s a hazard for steamboats.
