Steamboat!
By: Breanna Henke!
The cruise of your life
Have you ever wanted to take a little cruise down the river? Well now here is your chance! On June 6th from 12:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. there will be FREE rides. To reserve for a special occasion contact me at bhenke@bpsapps.org
Hope to see you there!
Advantage
- Before steamboats, travel on the river was limited to rafts, flatboats, keelboats, and other craft that had no engine to propel and guide them.
- By the 1830's, trains started to compete with steamboats and eventually took away a lot of business.
Raft
Flatboat
Flatboats were large, box-like vessels made of rough lumber and could be nearly 100 feet long. Flatboats could carry up to 100 tons of cargo and were used only when going downstream. After arrival at their destination, the flatboats were usually broken up and the lumber used to make them sold.
Keelboat
Keelboats could be as large as 80 feet long and, unlike flatboats, moved goods upstream with men using oars. But all of these boats were very slow and not much faster than transport on land.
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton (1765-1815), American inventor, civil engineer, and artist, established the first regular and commercially successful steamboat operation. Robert Fulton didn't actually invent the machine he is most commonly associated with (the invention of the first steamboat is generally credited to John Fitch). But, Fulton's efforts and innovations are what helped to successfully shape and commercialize the steamboat invention.