The Mystery Continues

Two Masted Schooner with a stearnwheel

The Schooner rig is a reference to the fact that this boat with a stearnwheel was a two masted schooner with sails
In the construction of the New Orleans the idea of marine architecture was adhered to. The boat was built on the model of a ship, with port-holes; and it had two masts, Mr. Fulton claiming that under his supplementary patent, taken out on February 9th, 1811, he had the exclusive right to use "the combination of sails with a steam engine." The cabin was in the hold; and there was a bowsprit eight feet long, which was painted sky-blue. J. Trainor King, the author of "Pittsburgh Past and Present," published in 1868, who however, was known as a man of robust imagination, said the hull was painted black and the guards, cabin and capstan white and light blue.

The web page that contains this information, also has links to other background information on "the first steamboat in the western rivers" and its arrival in NOLA Jan 10, 1812 after departing Pittsburgh the previous October.

Maybe we will never know 100%, but given the known (limited) designs of steam engines of the day, I tend to agree with Alan Bates' assessment in the Old Boat Column (November 28, 2011 Waterways Journal). His article shows a painting made by Robert Fulton of his 1807-'08 sidewheel steamboat "North River" (a.k.a. "Clermont" or "North River of Clermont"). As Alan says, "There was no reason for Fulton to [totally] reinvent his boat twice in only four years". Therefore Fulton's painting is probably one of the most accurate renditions of what the 1811 sidewheeler New Orleans looked like (in my opinion!)...

Some where I have seen a painting of the New Orleans but don't renumber where. There has been many copies of photographs of the first reenactment New Orleans but she was a far cry from what the original must have looked like. If she was a stern wheel boat she was a boot jack. The Missouri Packet was a boot jack engine on one side and a balance or flywheel on the other side of the shaft. These were in the two extend parts of the hull. the Western Engineer built in Pittsburgh 1819 was a boat jack but had two wheels the engine was located under the main deck in the center of the boat and the pitman went to a crank between the two wheels. She carried one mast and had running boards for poleing, like a keel boat. The cabin was in the hull. She left government service in 1822 and was renamed the Balize Packet.

Carl Jones;28899 wrote: Some where I have seen a painting of the New Orleans but don't renumber where. There has been many copies of photographs of the first reenactment New Orleans but she was a far cry from what the original must have looked like.

The writer at the link I provided above goes into great detail about the arguements each way.

The error may have arisen from the fact that stern-wheel steamboats were first successfully operated on the Western rivers at a very early date, with which the New Orleans may have been confounded. These were built under the patent for stern-wheel steamboats obtained by Daniel French of Pittsburgh, on September 23rd, 1809, and were the Comet, a small boat of 25 tons burden, built at Pittsburgh in 1813, being the second steamboat on the Ohio River,

When the New Orleans sank in 1814, there is a reference to damage of one her wheels, making it unlikely that she was a sternwheel vessel (dual wheel sternwheels weren't attempted for another 16 years). According to the writer, there is a 1856 print of a sternwheeler, that claims to show the New Orleans. From that point on, there is much confusion about fact vs lore.