The Steamboat reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Steamboat

A steamboat, sometimes called a steamer, is a boat or vessel that is propelled by steam power driving a propeller or paddlewheel. The term steamboat usually refers to smaller steam-powered boats that usually work on rivers and lakes; steamship refers to larger ships capable of ocean travel. Steamships generally carry the ship prefix "SS" before their names. Although paddle steamers are often driven by a steam engine, they are normally counted separately and carry the prefix "PS".

River steamboats

from a paddlewheeler on the lake of Lucerne. Right: detail of a steamboat]] On February 1, 1788, Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the steamboat. But Robert Fulton patented a modified design for a steamboat on February 11, 1809, and it was Fulton's design that was a commercial success.

Early steamboats were paddlewheelerss with large coal-powered paddlewheels either on the sides or at the rear of the vessel. These were suitable to calm river and coastal shipping, but could not cross oceans as the paddle wheels would be swamped by waves and the amount of coal necessary would take up most of the ship. For most of the 19th century and part of the early 20th century, trade on the Mississippi River would be dominated by paddle-wheel steamboats, very few of which survive to the present day, most destroyed by boiler explosions or fires. One of the few surviving Mississippi sternwheelers from this period, Julius C. Wilkie, is preserved as a museum ship at Winona, Minnesota. For modern craft operated on rivers, see the riverboat article.

Ocean steamships

The SS Great Western was the first purpose-built steamship to initiate regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings, starting in 1838. The first regular steamship service from the west to the east coast of the United States began on February 28, 1849 with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay. The California left New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrived at San Francisco, California after the 4-month, 21-day journey.

By 1870, a number of inventions, such as the screw propeller and the steam turbine made trans-oceanic shipping economically viable. This began the earliest era of globalization where trade around the world became cheap and safe.

RMS Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when it sank in 1912. Launched in 1938, the RMS Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger steamship ever built. Launched in 1969, the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was the last passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean before it was converted to diesel engines in 1986.

The SS Explorer is the last remaining steamship in Britain. She was built in Aberdeen, including the last steam engine built there, and was launched in 1955 as a fishery research vessel. Currently she is berthed at Edinburgh Dock, Leith, Edinburgh and the subject of a restoration project.

External links

• [1] Cruising The World TV Show (RTP-TV 2001) Online video showing trip down Mississippi on the Delta Queen steamboat

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