Need some research help

Columbia Carried the US Mail

For starters, see:
http://books.google.com/books?id=CwflNgtrcyMC&pg=RA1-PA176&lpg=RA1-PA176&dq=steamer+columbia+1835&source=web&ots=lEIDRK_rLs&sig=bxAiNB6g8sKWA60HSfrUZ7J081Y#PRA1-PA176,M1

thanks, but looking for the boat specs

Thank you, but I was actually looking for specifics about the steamboat itself. I found several things, such as the document you cited, about the event itself, but I was considering having my character see the steamboat Columbia and I wanted to be as accurate as possible. I hope that clarifies. Were there ocean-going steamboats or did they only on rivers?

Amy, photography did not exist in the U.S. in 1935, so you won't find any pictures of the boat unless some artist has done a painting of it. Yes, many steamboats built in the New York area came down the inside passage along the coast as far south as Florida. The Columbia may or may not have been an oceean-going steamship. No doubt she was a sidewheeler with single smokestack and a walking beam engine or a steeple engine amidships. She probably didn't have a whistle either, as I don't believe they had been invented at that time. Before whistles the only comunnication between boats was with bells. Photos of Hudson River or other New York area sidewheelers will give you an aproximation of what the Columbia might have looked like. The volume "Merchant Vessels of the United States - 1790 - 1868" lists two Columbias built in New York, one in 1826, 121 tons, and one in 1835, 423 tons.
This is gross tonnage, expressed in terms of 100 cubic feet to the ton.

Welcome to the wonderful world of early steamboat research!

Thank you!

Thank you very much - that's what I was looking for.

Amy

Amy
The Columbia built in 1826 was lost in 1833. there was a Columbia built in Baltimore in 1829 of 414 tons she was not lost until 1878 so there could be photographs of her. There was a Columbia built in New York in 1835 of 423 tons, she was sold foreign in 1841.