River Steamboats

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French and English inventors started working on powering boats with steam in the 18th century. By the 19th century steamboat design was well evolved, with both screw and paddle wheel powered variants. To begin, they were commonly used on rivers and lakes where the waters were more placid than the open ocean. The riverine craft are what we associate steamboats with today.

We think of them as the craft on the Mississippi river of westerns, with elegant gamblers and southern belles at the rails. In reality they were rather more mundane and workmanlike craft.

Here and after the jump are several photos of the old boats.