What Happened To Sidewheelers?

Jim, I'm really parlor talking here...As a semi-educated guess, my take would be two issues: the width of the boat is more, right and the wheelhouses were sorta naked out there? And, ignoring the single shaft sidewheelers in the very early years, the sidewheeler's machinery first cost and operating cost (read payroll) is about double, I guess? Boiler operating costs would be similar, but double the manpower to operate two engine rooms? Also, I guess that wheel repair was a real bear on a sidewheeler.
On a related note, what was the advantage of a sidewheeler, why would someone want a sidewheeler over a sternwheeler? Was it just the manueverability improvement, can turn on a dime thing? Or was there an efficiency advantage? Do sidewheels work against less disturbed water than the sternwheel that must work against the froth?

In the early days of steamboat construction, sidewheelers took advantage of the strength lent by being built within the hull. It wasn't until some barnyard engineer found a way of hanging out all that weight over the transom that sternwheelers became practical.

'DISAPPEARANCE OF SIDEWHEELERS.
Hi, Jim and Bruno:
Good question from Jim and insights from Bruno. This topic has come up now and then in off-line discussions. Alan Bates would have some pertinent ideas. Capt. Fred Way talked and wrote about it also. Bruno is correct on the economics of double engineers required for two throttles etc. Sidewheels were bears to maintain and repair and I remember Frank Prudent discussing this as per the memories of his late father on the last ISLAND QUEEN. Sidewheels were also more exposed to damage from drift, lock walls etc. Also changing economic needs as the packet boat business decreased with focus on somehat smaller sternweelers more economical and easily operated. The big 'cotton boats' were the leviathans of their day. I'm a bit vague after all these years but 'think' there was talk at the time of the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN design and building over 'side' vs. 'sternwheels.' Kenny Howe would know in a jiffy.

Big sidewheelers operated a lot longer on our Great Lakes [Big D&C LINE], Hudson River, San Francisco Bay etc. and the run from New York from Boston by the old FALL RIVER LINE. Even in later years those vessels were replaced by steam prop drive. Not ' pure river steamboats,' but the huge walking beam engines were also replaced on newer sidewheelers with triple incline expansion engines. Those famed HOWARD photos of sidewheelers amaze me with the terrific over-hang of the guards. Take a good look at the Str. TICONDEROGA at Shelburn Museum and you'll get the idea. I know of no river sidewheeler here that ever were equipped with 'feathering' sidewheels. Good question. Well, what do I know?

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Hi, Shipyard:
Good point on the evolution by the "barnyard egineer." Took time to perfect and 'form follows function.' How are the boys doing down at 'Rabbit Hash Shipyard & Boiler Works?'

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Sam...I was thinking somewhere along your lines, but some of the earliest steamboats where sternwheel. In fact, John Fitch's second sucessful steam powered boat was propelled by a series of oars placed behind the stern of the boat. Yet, until about 1890,the preferred boat seemed to be sidewheel. Look at the boats built for the Lower Miss trade in the 90's and early 1900's....Coolie's AMERICA. Blanch Leather's NATCHEZ, the BETSY ANN, the SENATOR CORDILL, etc. all were sternwheel; whereas, just a few years before the Lower Miss boats were all sidewheelers such as all the graceful, Howard built, Anchor Line boats. There must have been a reason for this change and like most change it probably had something to do with economics, I believe.
Bruno, you are right it took two men to handle the engines on a sidewheeler, but only one engineer. A striker engineer ususally handled one side. When I rode on the PRESIDENT, the engineer handled the stbd engine and a colored striker handled the port engine.
That's how Kenny Howe got to be such a good engineer. As a teenager back in the early 60's the BELLE's engineers would have striker Kenny do all the handling while they lounged in their cushioned easy chair. I often wondered what County Judge Marlow Cook would think if he knew a 19 yr old boy was running his steamboat.

The "feathering" wheels were certainly used on blue water ships and in Europe, but I don't recall seeing anything about their use on inland rivers. Anyone else know?

Colored Strikers and Kiddie Crews

Robert "Preacher" Lollar, a man of color, was an outstanding Striker on the AVALON in the late-50's and early 60's when he was well over eighty years old. Preacher started steamboating for Captain Tom Ryman near the tail-end of the 19th Century. He was best remembered, though, as having been "one of the finest coal firemen on the river."

"Eat-Em-Up" was another "colored" gentleman who, it was said, "had he been white, would have been the Chief Engineer". Whenever something went wrong in the engine room of the DELTA QUEEN, the cry went out, "GO GET EAT-EM-UP!!"

Now I don't want to One-Up KPH, Jr., but YT was handling those same engines at 17! Anyone for 16? On the DQ, together, we were called the "Kiddie Crew" by Cap'n Betty who ballyhooed that information all over the river when Big Cap and Chief Cal were off the boat and we were filling-in. Jim Blum was the Mate and Gabe was the Chief Purser.

Those were the days.

http://www.steamboats.org/forum/showthread.php?t=239&highlight=preacher

Hi, Jim. I was thinking economics, but on kind of a different tack...a sternwheeler can go somehwere else if the trade needs to change. The huge sidewheelers were built for the Lower Miss, and while they could operate on the Ohio some in the pre-nine foot channel, I suspect the owners preferred to keep them in the lower river trade. Also, a sternwheeler could be sent up the Red or down the Atchafalaya, or up the Upper, the Missouri, Illinois or Tennessee if and when needed. A big sidewheeler would have to be laid up in a circumstance such as that.

Remember the KATE ADAMS:
Hi, Bob & steamboating colleagues:
Good points on size of the sidewheelers, their trade etc. Fred Way had lots to say in his LOG OF THE BETSY ANN Etc. when the huge KATE ADAMS [Howard's, 1898] ventured up in these waters in his time 1927 Cincinnati-Pittsburgh trade. She was 240 X 40 X 7. Her draft, as you mention, probably made it pretty dicey in places on the Ohio River. My grandmother rode the KATE here and commented on how she "worked in the water like she was heaving a little." It was a marvelous sight to those beholding it but financially the KATE couldn't cut it. She returned south to her usual haunts and all the rest is history for those viewing the classic movie 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' She burned dramatically Jan. 8, 1927--a long time ago. Now back to yard work.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Sidewheelers were built during the Twentieth Century. I think the last of them may have been the Willow in 1927. A number of sidewheel dredges were built then, too, like the William M. Black, Ste Genevieve, etc. The railroad car ferry Ste. Genevieve was built in 1922.
I almost designed one for Captain Robert M. Lumpp that would have had pilothouse controls and diesel-hydraulic drive, but other projects consumed the money.
Economics killed them. The costs of extra engineroom men was part of it. They were faster than sternwheelers, but not faster than the Panama Limited or the Queen and Crescent, so their speed was not needed.
The dredges were government-owned and costs meant little or nothing in their instance, of course.
A lot of small sidewheel ferryboats were built during the 1900-1930 era. The big W. S. McChesney was built in 1912.

Feathering wheels were tried from time to time on the western rivers, but were not favored. A couple of them were tested during the Nokomis trials. Dynamometer tests and trial runs showed they were not enough more efficient to justify their cost and complication. I watched the feathering wheels in operation on the Alexander Hamilton and I can testify that while they were efficient, they were also as noisy as a trip-hammer-mill.

I knew that if anyone would know, it would be Capt. Bates. Thanks. I'm not familiar with the Nokomis trials, could you tell us a bit about that?

Just a guess. When I worked on the MQ I had the good fortune to be berthed above the waterline on the bow. Mine was the room directly behind the "porch swing" on the main deck. Even had a big porthole to look out of. In the Spring when there was a lot of debris coming down river I would hear it striking the bow and going under me all night long. Thunk, thunk, thunk. Some of this debris would make it to the paddlewheel and cause some damage to the planks. Even with a little damage to the planks comprising the paddlewheel the boat moved along with no problem. It seems to me that paddlewheels mounted on the sides of a boat would be much more exposed to severe damage from debris, I'm talking whole trees sometimes, and I assume if one wheel was stopped then the boat could not move forward. Maybe just one of many reasons sidewheelers fell out of favor.

In July of 1916 the House of Representatives authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to test towboats for efficiency. In March 1921 the Engineers made their report. It is a book of 195 pages which describes the methodology of the tests and is illustrated with some 144 plates of graphical results. The towboat used for most of the trials was the Str. Nokomis. Various configurations of tows were moved both upstream and downstream over measured courses on the Upper Mississippi River. Seven different paddlewheels were fitted on the Nokomis. Variations of diameter, bucket depth, and immersion were tried. In addition a dredge named Tabor and an inspection boat named Inspector were tested to compare propellers and feathering wheels versus radial wheels. Ten variations of feathering wheels were tested on the Nokomis and the Tabor. Dynamometer tests were made in tows and against the bank, both pushing and backing.
In general, the tests showed that the empirical rules of thumb of 'practical' engineers and builders were correct.
In addition to the variations of wheels a couple of different boiler systems were tried. Fuel consumption was measured.
The tests were comprehensive, but were flawed by variables such as draft, speed of currents, barge shapes and tow arrangements, temperature and other factors, but as an overall study of paddlewheel propulsion there is nothing to compare with this series of tests.

I hope I don't end this thread. first a comment on two early sternwheel boats, sometimes referred to as bootjack boats. The Western Engineer built 1818/19 had two wheels located in a recess cut in to the stern of the boat. The crank was in the middle and the engine may have been hung in what might be considered an upside down position on timbers fastened to the deck beams, the boiler was in the hull too. At least while the Corps had her the exhaust steam exited at the bow of the boat from the mouth of a serpents head. The Missouri Packet was built I believe at Louisville 1819/20. She had Iron arms in her paddle wheel which was mounted between extensions of the hull. The single engine set on the starboard side and the crank ran in that extension. On the Port side there was a large iron Balance wheel in the port extension. Most of the later stern wheel boats had two engines with cranks set a 90 degreed more of less so the engines could not both be dead centered. This could and did happen to side wheel boats. I guess seldom while running ahead but could when shifting to reverse or ahead.
You still need at least three in the engine room on both, an engineer, a striker and an oiler. Sternwheels are round. But side wheels were elliptical, with the shorter arms being in the water at the ends of the stroke and the buckets were narrower and doubled up to balance the wheels weight. The engineer had to balance to wheels motion just right to keep the boat from jumping if the Engines reached mid stroke at the same time or waddling if one engine was in mid stroke and the other at the end of its stroke. Hog chains made the later stern wheels possible, and being behind the hull they were some what protected from trash and Snags etc. (see Hunter page 99)

VanSant promoted the sternwheeler up here on the UMR during the rafting business, precisely for what you pointed out John - the sternwheel was more protected from logs breaking loose from the raft than were the sidewheels.

Amen

Exactly. Hunter's da man.

Or as I alluded to early-on in this thread:
It wasn't until some barnyard engineer found a way of hanging out all that weight over the transom that sternwheelers became practical.

The idea of developing hogchains was the brainstorm of my "barnyard engineer". Until then, the true overhanging sternwheel had yet to become a practical reality. Amen.

Alan,
Could you tell us a few more details about this report.
Maybe an ISBN number.
I'd like to search the net for a copy.

Thanks,
Dennis

Post Amen
Well said, everyone. When the Summer S & D Reflector appears y'all will be able to read about the largest Mississippi river sidewheeler ever designed - but never built - the White Swan, designed in 1924 by Ward Engineering. Assuming of course, that the editor puts my article in that issue.

Actually there were a good many sidewheel boats on the Red, Some of considerable size. The NEW FALLS CITY was over 300' and operated up to Shreveport, at least when there was water. She was the exception though, most were in the 150-200 foot range. Sidewhheelers even operated up the narrow Cypress Bayou to Jefferson, Texas. Even the ROBT. E. LEE made one trip up the Red to Shreveport. The key issue was more draft than rig.