Steamboats/ports in the 1870s?

Welcome Joel to the best place on the internet for steam and diesel boat info.
The cities I would choose would be as follows. Louden, Tn; Chattanooga,Tn.; Guntersville, Al.; Huntsville,Al.; Decauter, Al.; Florence, Al.; Savannah,Tn.; and Paducah, Ky. Both side wheel and sternwheel boats were on the Tenn. River at this time frame. The sternwheel boat was the most popular, especially above the Florence/Muscle Shoals area. As to size, decks etc. there are many fine books out on those subjects.

Bill Judd

*Steamboat resources/Writer's theme etc.*
Steamboating colleagues:
Joel, I echo Capt Bill Judd's 'welcome' to you now on this site. Within recent years more Internet web sites have been added from archives, libraries, museums and even private collections to assist your novelist friend in the quest for detailed information. I've no idea how versed your novelist friend already is in steaboat/river history. Our own late Capt. Alan L. Bates wrote, illustrated his 'The Western Rivers STEAMBOAT CYCLOPOEDIUM,' Hustle Press, Leonia, N.J., 1968 & 1981. Likewise it behooves any researcher to consult 'WAY'S PACKET DIRECTORY, 1848-1983,' Ohio University/Swallow Tail Press, Athens, Ohio if available. This an incredibly detailed work on steamboats, crew etc. Dept. of Transportation, Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress also a great resource. Also a number of so named ports or way packet boat stops on the Tennessee River now no longer exist. I'd suggest consulting period river maps/charts of the time in addition to scut work delving into local, regional newspaper files or even the archives of the sage WATERWAYS JOURNAL in St. Louis. The field is rich and any writer needs to be marinated in it. How true the old line, "Write about what you know." And, "What you don't know then read, read and research, research."

Now and then inquiries come to Steamboats.org here--or to others of us via private E=Mail--requesting ideas and help. And personally I would NEVER stoop so low as to be called an "expert." Rather, there are well informed, trained individuals with 'varing levels of familiarity.' You don't mention any partculars on the theme of your associate's novel. I only hope it doesn't end up one involving "a steamboat gambler" as that theme worked and worked to death bound to be mailed back with the usual 'pink rejection slip.' People on this web always willing to assist, give idea, point people in the right direction but not many of us can do the actual research for the writer. By nature any 'historical novel' is open ended in style, topic--as long as the novel's basics are historically sound/accurate. Any editor can quickly detect that. Then again once a book is accepted, printed it comes under the scrutiny of many knowing the historical period outside of character or plot embelishment. More than one writer has been brought up short during a book signing or book presentation by a little old laidy in Kankakee with a flowered straw hat who stands up in the back row with, "Now Mr. so and so...I take issue with what you write on Pg. thus and so. Didn't you know or research that to the fullest?" This happens more than you think. Nothing worse to a novelist or historical writer than to get a full galley written, sent away and printed than to have 'such and such' upend the apple cart or an unknown archive or historical resource suddenly discovered. Watch out for 'historical revisionists' or 'historical deconstructionist.' I think you get the idea. Again, welcome to Steamboats.org. Keep us posted and do point your novelist associate in the right direction to join us here in person. Again, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Bill,
Thanks for the welcome and I will certainly pass on the info to my friend.
Joel

R. Dale,
Thanks for everything. My friend is writing about a short trip on a steamboat, perhaps a stowaway, no gamblers 😉 Yes, being historically accurate is a major consideration here so I've urged him to get it right!
Joel

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, the river between Chattanooga and Knoxville is very small, therefore the boats were small. These were not "cruise" boats but small working packets that carried mostly farm goods...from hogs to hay...and farmers going to town. Paul Underwood grew up working on his daddy's (Ambross Underwood) boats running in this trade. There was nothing fancy about these boats. They would stop wherever they were hailed..waiving a rag during the day or a lantern at night or wherever they had freight or passengers to drop off.
Below Chattanooga there were larger boats and somewhat more fancy, but once again they were working boats, more like a combination of Grey Hound bus and an 18 wheel truck. Remember the people who rode these boats were not sophisticated cotton planters but mostly poor farmers who, except for serving in the Civil War, probably never traveled more than 20 miles from where they were born.
Have your friend research the St.Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company. They had a fleet of pretty sternwheel boats which ran between St. Louis and Chattanooga. Also look at the writings of the Sage of Paducah, Irvin S. Cobb, humorist and movie star. He wrote a book "All Aboard", I believe is the title, which is a collection of short stories about steamboating on the Tennessee. Cobb will give your friend a good idea about the "flavor" of the people and boats. Cobb knew what he was writing about, his uncle was in the steamboat business and Cobb rode the boats a lot when he was young.
At Cairo a passenger would change boats to get to Memphis (I know of no boats that came out of the Tennessee River to Memphis on a regular basis).
So to go from Knoxville to Memphis it would probably require about 10 days and three boats.

*Jim's thinking/"Stoaway" theme*
Steamboating colleagues:
Jim Reising's "thinking" above on the money where travel by steamboats on the Tennessee River years 1870 to 1873 concerned. Those were somewhat 'troubled' years down there following the Civil War with Reconstruction, grinding poverty for many. "Poor farmers...never traveled more than 20 miles from where they were born" was something experienced by many longer down to recent years than many know. If you're looking for "steamboat romance" you'll find darned little of it down in that neck of the woods. Steam packet boats making the 'milk runs' on many rivers were renowed for their constant infestation of bed bugs, fleas, ticks and lice--and Capt. Fred Way was one who fessed up to seeing/experiencing it in his time many years later. Even our sage Capt. Alan Bates wrote that "...steamboat food was usually slop...no better than that served ashore in a boarding house...they could cook anything with plenty of lard and sugar."

Mention of the theme "possibly a stoaway" [stowaway] made me go 'Ummmmm' reading that. Stoways no doubt happened on steamboats but I would opine not as much as that on larger ocean sailing and steamships of the era. Pretty hard for a stowaway to be sneaking, lurking, hiding and not quickly discovered on a steamboat. And once caught they were promptly dumped on the river bank or, at sea, put to doing the lowest, dirtiest kind of work that could be found. The concept of 'the milk of human kindness' different then than now. Usual custom to get around that was for immigrants or the impoverished simply to sign on to 'work the deck and cargo' with the crew for passage down below. Immigrants and/or strong young pioneer types working aboard firing boilers another later legend. Steamboat boiler firemen were a strong, tough, proud gang taking pride in their skills with a protective tone. "Yes, suah! I fires the number four boiler on the big BOB LEE! [ROBT. E. LEE]." could be heard. Many immigrant males young, strong worked their way up or down the rivers. Like the roustabouts, most sat where they could, sleep where they could, eat what was offered from a tin pan usually with only a spoon--no knife or fork. And NO immigrant or rouster was ever allowed to the 'top of the stairs' from below near the main cabin or cook house without good reason or summons. The concept of "the better class of people" existed down to the later years here with the L&C LINE aboard the big sidewheel CINCINNATI of 1924 and her sage sister QUEEN CITY. And the image of "dear, old, jolly, fun-loving captains with sparkling eyes, dimples" far from the mark from what a number here on this web saw or remembered either on the DELTA QUEEN or other boats.

Already by 1873 railroads from the Mississippi River towns, cities were beginning to chug, wheez, jerk and rattle back from the rivers on both sides, run north and south from the Ohio River. Again and again old diaries, letters, memoirs written by steamboat travelers then mention "Arrived home!...arrived in this hotel to a clean room, clean linen and a bath." What's that tell you? Again, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Dale is right, it would be impossible to stowaway on a small packet boat. A person without money for the fare might appeal to the captain and work his way to his destination.

Joel, both Dale and Jim have hit the nail on the head with regard to the boats on the Tennessee River. In addition, the Tennessee was more or less "divided" into the Upper and Lower Tennessee, not only the Chattanooga-Knoxville section (which as Jim mentions was barely more than a stream), but then the section from Chattanooga down to Muscle Shoals was more or less an isolated body of water. There was navigation, but "the shoals" prevented through navigation from Chattanooga to Paducah much of the time. Jim's analogy to "a cross between a Greyhound bus and an 18-wheeler" is pretty much on the mark. Yes, passengers were fed, but not in the grand style we often think of. Staterooms were not anything to write home about. On a boat with a good reputation, they would be clean, and not much more. Then as now, freight paid the bills, and I'll bet a good bit of that freight was pigs, cattle and chickens. Even on down toward Paducah and on down the Ohio, we're talking relatively small boats. No chances for a stowaway, certainly not one who could go undiscovered for more than an hour or two.

While one can view the Tennessee River from many vantage points in 2015 one has to consider that today's River bears virtually no resemblance to the River of 1871-3. Probably the closest in appearance today would be from Paducah, KY to mile 21 and even that would be skewed somewhat by the current level of the Ohio River post 1929.

I would theorize that the Tennessee River of 1871-3 might resemble the Green River at Mammoth Cave where the ferry crosses.

The Tennessee of 2015 is certainly not the Tennessee River of the era under consideration. What has been posted by Jim, Bill, Dale and Bob are certainly spot on true, especially in light of how the River looks from shore or air or from a bridge today.

Sternwheeler Movement

Everyone,

Thank you for all your help. I've passed on your info to my friend and he's very appreciative.

Now, he has a question on exactly how stern wheelers were able to go forward and backward. He knows that the boilers had some kind of piston steam pump of sorts. Did they have levers or valves to shut the steam off one side of the pistons, say to go in reverse and then stop the pump to change direction of movement?

So the Tennessee River was home to plenty of stern wheelers at that time, right?

Thanks,

Joel

Joel, the reversing action is done at the engines, in the engine room, which is far removed from the boilers. There are no "piston steam pumps" per se on the boilers themselves. There are feedwater pumps to put water back in the boilers, in addition to various steam-powered auxiliaries, but the boilers themselves require no pumps. I recommend your friend get a copy of Alan Bates' "Steamboat Cyclopaedium" and/or Bates' "Engineroom Cyclopaedium" for an easy-to-understand and very comprehensive technical overview of how steamboats and steam engines on steamboats work if his book actually requires this much technical info. I THINK both books are available from the Howard Steamboat Museum in Jeffersonville, IN. If not, you should likely be able to find a copy of one or both on ebay or maybe Amazon.

You can also visit any one of the operating steamboats: the CHAUTAUQUA BELLE in Mayville, NY, the Steamer NATCHEZ in New Orleans, the Steamer BELLE OF LOUISVILLE in Louisville, KY or the Steamer AMERICAN QUEEN along the Mississippi River system. The engineers on these boats will welcome you and answer any question you could possibly put to them. Good luck!

Joel,
Bob explains it well. If you ever go to Disneyland, the Mark Twain steamboat (yes, it is a real steamboat!) is actually operated by a guy standing in the back, just in front of the wheel. The boiler is mostly automatic, but it's close enough for him to keep an eye out, and since it runs in a track, no one has to steer. In fact, the guy in the pilot house is mostly for looks, although he keeps an eye out, and can blow the whistle whenever necessary. I found this out decades ago when we were there on a rainy day and the crowds were so thin they closed the park early--but until then we saw stuff we never knew was there (because there usually were so many people in the way!).

David Dewey;35000 wrote: Joel,
Bob explains it well. If you ever go to Disneyland, the Mark Twain steamboat (yes, it is a real steamboat!) is actually operated by a guy standing in the back, just in front of the wheel. The boiler is mostly automatic, but it's close enough for him to keep an eye out, and since it runs in a track, no one has to steer. In fact, the guy in the pilot house is mostly for looks, although he keeps an eye out, and can blow the whistle whenever necessary. I found this out decades ago when we were there on a rainy day and the crowds were so thin they closed the park early--but until then we saw stuff we never knew was there (because there usually were so many people in the way!).

Thanks for this. I used to live for a time in Anaheim and have always wondered about the things you have said about the Mark Twain.

Memories:

Ron Anderson;35001 wrote: Thanks for this. I used to live for a time in Anaheim and have always wondered about the things you have said about the Mark Twain.

Memories.
My Dad, Francis "FRANK" Elwood Grimm, worked at Howard's in the 20's And 30's., as a steam fitter. Helped install boilers, and pipe work on steamboats.
Also worked on the Titan & the Jones. Took Me and my brother to see the Mark Twain, when she was brand new. Remember being called down for trying to stand up on the whistle peddle near the floor, in the pilot house. I was about 5 yrs. old. I just turned 90 yrs. old in July, but still have good long term memory. Havn't been able to find the picture he took that day of us on her fantail. A beautifl boat, with her name shaded in gold.
~ FRANK~