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Random Facts about the First Steamboat On The Mississippi
FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Nicholas J. Roosevelt was the first to take a steamboat down
the great river. His boat was built at Pittsburgh, in the
year 1811, under an arrangement with Fulton and Livingston,
from Fulton's plans. It was called the "New Orleans," was
about 200 tons burden, and was propelled by a stern-wheel,
assisted, when the wind was favorable, by sails carried on
two masts. The hull was 138 feet long, 30 feet beam, and the
cost of the whole, including engines, was about $40,000. The
builder, with his family, an engineer, a pilot, and six
"deck hands," left Pittsburgh in October, 1811, reaching
Louisville in about seventy hours (steaming about ten miles
an hour), and New Orleans in fourteen days, steaming from
Natchez.
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