Steamboats on the Mississippi

The first steamboats

Steam reached America's rivers in the first years of the 1800s. In 1811 the first boat of a regular river service set off from Pittsburgh, ran down the Ohio into the Mississippi and continued to New Orleans. Until the railways spread, people favoured the steamboat over overland travel because it was quicker and more comfortable. The Mississippi ranks as the second-longest river in the United States, which gave those boats an enormous route.

A river full of boats

Before the Civil War the Mississippi at New Orleans was filled with steamboats, flatboats and sailing ships, and the port moved goods between the interior and the Atlantic world. River pilot and author Mark Twain described much of the operation of these vessels in Life on the Mississippi. The trade had a dark side too: boiler explosions were the main danger.

How a sternwheeler works

On a paddle steamer, a steam engine turns one or more paddle wheels. Sidewheelers carry a wheel on each flank, sternwheelers carry one at the stern, and a rare third kind sets its wheels into a recess in the middle of the hull. Each wheel is a big frame ringed with evenly spaced blades known as floats or buckets. Roughly its lowest quarter is in the water at any moment, and as the engine turns it the boat is pushed ahead or astern.

Nine boats named Natchez

The Steamboat Natchez that sails today is the ninth steamer to bear the name. The company says her predecessor, the Natchez VI, raced the Robert E. Lee in the most famous steamboat race of all time. The present boat was built at Bergeron Shipyard in Braithwaite, Louisiana, downriver from the French Quarter, and the company says she was launched in 1975. Wikipedia sometimes calls her Natchez IX.

Engines older than the hull

The Natchez's engines are older than she is. They were built in 1925 for U.S. Steel's sternwheeler Clairton, a towing vessel, and were fitted to the Natchez when she was built. Wikipedia describes them as two tandem-compound steam engines. The company says guests can walk through the engine room, which is the clearest way to see what drives the wheel.

A wharf and a company

The New Orleans Steamboat Company operates the Natchez from the Toulouse Street Wharf in the French Quarter. When the company launched her in 1975, it says, it revived more than a famous name. The same company runs the Riverboat City of New Orleans, and it offers evening dinner jazz cruises, daytime lunch sailings, weekend brunch jazz cruises and shorter sightseeing cruises, as well as private parties, school trips and weddings aboard its vessels.

The calliope and the riverboat

The calliope came out of the steamboat era. It was patented in 1855, and riverboats supplied the steam from their propulsion boilers. The company calls it a uniquely American instrument and says it has long been identified with the steamboat. Aboard the Natchez, a 32-note steam calliope sounds from the boat itself, with a plume of steam from each whistle.

The sister boat

The Riverboat City of New Orleans is a different story. The company calls her the newest addition to the New Orleans riverfront and a sister vessel to the Natchez. She began life as a casino riverboat, and the company remodelled her for New Orleans. She has four decks, and elevators serve the lower three. The evening jazz ticket runs aboard either boat, so the one you board may be the younger vessel.

Read next: Steamboat Natchez: what to expect

What steamboats mean today

Wikipedia lists five major commercial steamboats still operating on United States inland waterways: the American Queen, the Chautauqua Belle, the Minne Ha-Ha, the Belle of Louisville and the Natchez in New Orleans. Most are day boats. The Natchez is the one that works the Mississippi at New Orleans, and the company runs evening dinner jazz cruises aboard her. Wikipedia adds that the American Queen is the only remaining overnight cruising steamboat, so the others work as day boats.