A Definitive Answer, Wood Hulls Were Painted, Kinda

Lansing Iowa/Howard connection

There was a boatyard in Lansing from 1893-1900. That's the only thing I can think of offhand, unless someone from Lansing moved to Jeffersonville and worked for Howard...

You're so right Jim. I trust you've looked at those pics of the Indiana "on grade" showing the obvious lack of bottom paint. However, they must have waterproofed the bottom seams somehow - perhaps with tar or red lead? Another item they probably never painted was the sidewheels. Can you imagine trying to crawl around over all those wood spokes and buckets with a paint can and brush? They might have painted the iron work - shafts, flanges and rings - but I'm just sure they never tried to paint the wood parts. I'll bet the early stern wheelers never had the wheels painted either. I wonder when the custom of painting sternwheels started? Some of the Howard photos show newly built sternwheelers with the wheels painted except for the bucket planks. I've read that the iron shafts were painted white so that if a crack or break happened it was easier to spot in the white paint. Capt. Bates, can you enlighten us any further on this subject?

On the wreck of the Heroine, paint survived on parts of the deck and guards, but there was no indication of paint on the hull or any of the ironwork. 'Course she was an OLD and used up boat when she snagged.

Hank, Do you know the colors of the surviving paint on the Heroine? And what parts of the boat was the paint on? I'm not familiar with that boat. Of what vintage ws she?

She sank on the Red River in 1838. I've posted about her several times. The guards (gunwale) and railing were black, the deck was red. None of her superstructure survived. The main deck railing was about 12 inches tall, just enough to keep stuff from rolling overboard, or to trip over. The section recovered was from aft the wheels, probably there were no railings forward.

I wonder if it was beneficial not painting wood hulls below the waterline, in a much as, I would think, that unpainted wood would absorb water better and thereby swell quicker. I'm sure that wood hulls are the same as steel hulls in that most of the wastage comes on the sides near the waterline where oxygen mixes with the water and that maybe why the sides were painted to just below the waterline.
Did wood hull builders put water in the hull to swell the wood before launching? If they did I've never seen photographic evidence of such a practice.

Just speculation on my part, but from what I have read about the way the old boats were run and the short hull life, I suspect that paint would not have been much protection or extended the life of the wood. (I'm speaking of pre 1870 boats) I have read that the accepted way to get over a sand or gravel bar was to hit it full ahead and hope to scrape over, then to grasshopper if you didn't make it. No wonder the expected boat life was only 4-5 years. The idea of hitting a bar at full steam on a flexible hulled boat with brittle cast iron steam piping boggles my mind. The number of repairs to the hull and surviving machinery of the Heroine is testamony to the hard use to which the boats were put, particularly on the smaller rivers.

I don't know when they started painting paddlewheels, but the spare arms and buckets found on the Bertand deck were painted with red lead (orange color). The boat sank April 1, 1865.

Deck seams were payed with coal tar. I speculate the seams under water started out painted with red lead and linseed oil, but I do not know. Minnie Bay (1950's version) had oakum in seams painted with white lead and oil paint. Resolute had a new-fangled caulking in its seams. It failed!

Can Jim imagine painting a paddlewheel? Well, I should say! He has done it several times.

Yesterday I was scanning in Howard photo's of the BELLE OF THE BENDS (in my opinion one of the prettiest boats Howard built) and thanks to the quality of the 8x10 glass plate negative, I can say that the paddlewheel was painted. From the shade of gray, I would go out on a limb and speculate that the arms and circles were painted with red lead.
After studying the quality of the Lansing Iowa photos and the Howard photos I pretty well have decided that the Lansing pictures were not taken by any of the Howards. Someone along the line must have either donated or sold the Lansing collection to the Howards. The Howard photos, for the most part, are excellent pictures, well exposed and in perfect focus while the Lansing photos leave a lot to be desired.