The steamboat can trace its lineage to 1769, when Scottish inventor James Watt developed the first steam engine. Other inventors applied the technology to power boats. The first reliable steamboat arrived in 1787. Invented by American John Fitch, it employed an engine to push a great paddle mounted on the stern. Three years later, it was ferrying passengers and freight. By 1807, American inventor Robert Fulton followed with another steamboat called the "Clermont," which traveled the Hudson River between Albany and New York City in New York. Through most of the 19th century, river steamboats led all forms of transportation in moving goods and passengers.
Most steamboats by the early 1900s used paddlewheels powered by a steam engine to travel rivers. Wood-hulled steamboats gave way to steel hulls in the early 20th century. The steam engine operated the paddlewheel much like a bicycle wheel, either in the center of the boat or on the side as sidewheelers. Engineers constructed the steam engines' boilers with copper tubing, twin flues and a firebox. Workers stoked a hot fire in the boiler that filled the tubes with steam. By the early 20th century, most steamboats used coal instead of wood to fire the boilers.
The high-profile steamboats were the showboats reminiscent of the Mark Twain era and the floating palaces and gambling boats on the Mississippi River. These steamboats featured ornate ballrooms, theaters and saloons. Steamboat operators hired acting troupes to perform plays, and musicians to provide live entertainment while traveling from one river town to another. Showboats announced their arrivals at riverside cities or towns with a loud steam calliope. In 1900, there were no more than 30 showboats on North American rivers, and less than 10 by 1930. More practical steamboats carried passengers and goods, including livestock. Passengers with first-class tickets had the comfort of a room, while everybody else slept on the open deck or with the cows and pigs on the lower decks.
In 2011, the oldest active steamboat was the "St. Marys Challenger," which has been riding the Great Lakes as a bulk carrier since 1906. A Skinner Marine Unaflow four-cylinder steam engine developing 3,500 horsepower, with coal as the fuel source, powered the vessel. It measured 551 feet, 1 inch long with a beam of 56 feet. An existing conventional showboat active in 2011 was the "Delta Queen," built between 1924 and 1927 in Scotland and assembled in Stockton, California. The "Delta Queen" survived through the decades, and in early 2009 moved to Chattanooga Tennessee. "The Belle of Louisville" showboat debuted in 1914 as the "Idlewild." It's the oldest steamboat operating in 2011 and designated a National Historic Landmark. In 2011, steamboats no longer transport goods or passengers, but remain on rivers as tourist attractions and floating hotels.
