Steamboat Facts for Kids

The Belle of Louisville, an old steamboat that was first called the Idlewild and later called the Avalon

model of the first steamer, built by Jouffroy d'Albans

The Stettin is an icebreaker which is active in the port of Hamburg today. The photo shows the ship in Kiel,

A steamboat (also called a steamship or steamer) is a ship that uses a steam engine or steam turbine to move. At first, these were paddle steamboats. Some had a paddle wheel on the back. Others had two wheels on the sides. Most went down rivers. From about 1836, marine propellers, invented by Josef Ressel, were used. Claude François Jouffroy d’Abbans built the first working steamship in 1783.

There were many steamboats in the 19th century in the United States and other countries. However, the first steamboat was built by John Fitch in 1787. It had many paddles. Fitch tried to make money from the steamboat, but could not do so. He died in 1798, and did not live long enough to see Robert Fulton become the first person to build a steamboat that could make money. In 1807, Fulton built a steamboat that could travel from New York City to Albany in 32 hours. Steamboats became much faster later in the 19th century.

After the middle 19th century paddle steamers became rare, as the marine propeller gave more speed and burned less fuel. The new vessels were suited to the open ocean, and were usually called "steamships". During the 20th century, marine Diesel engines largely replaced steam propulsion.

Images for kids

Lookout, transport steamer on the Tennessee River, c. 1860-1865
Dutch river steam-tugboat Mascotte II
Charlotte Dundas, built by William Symington.
The 1909 replica of the North River Steamboat, the first steamboat to achieve commercial success transporting passengers along the Hudson River.
A typical river paddle steamer from the 1850s-the Ben Campbell
Mississippi Riverboats at Memphis, Tennessee (1906)
SS Savannah, the first steam-powered ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean—1819
SS California (1848), the first paddle steamer to steam between Panama City and San Francisco—a Pacific Mail Steamship Company ship.
Chromolithograph depicting the Monitor and the Merrimack
USS Cairo
The Sultana on fire, from Harpers Weekly
The Natchez operates out of New Orleans. There are other paddlewheelers on the Mississippi, but the Natchez and the American Queen are the only two that are propelled by steam.
The American Queen, the world's largest operating river steamboat
S.S. Inlander on the Skeena River at Kitselas Canyon, 1911
The SS Keno in Dawson City
Lake Lucerne side-wheel paddle steamer Uri (1901) [de]
Sissons triple-expansion steam engine and coal-fired Scotch boiler, as installed in SL Nuneham
Rocket paddel steamer off Dhaka, Bangladesh
1736 steamboat English patent.
Robert Fulton's Clermont.
The Élise (ex Scottish-built Marjorie).
"Enterprise on her fast trip to Louisville, 1815"
Elizaveta, The first Russian steamship, 1815
Left: original paddlewheel from a paddle steamer on the lake of Lucerne. Right: detail of a steamer.
730-foot lake freighter Edward L Ryerson
Paddle steamer PS Waverley steaming down the Firth of Clyde.
Turbine steamer TS Queen Mary.
SS Shieldhall steams down the Firth of Clyde.
Sky Wonder last steam-powered cruise ship built 1984
Belle of Louisville
Natchez
Delta Queen racing
Delta King
Steam Sidewheeler
Belle of Cincinnati, a participant in the Great Steamboat Race
American Queen docked at the Riverwalk in 2015

Steamboat facts for kids

Images for kids

See also