If young Robert Fulton hadn’t experimented with an easier way to propel a rowboat through water other than rowing, he might not have been credited with inventing the first steamboat.
Robert Fulton grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the latter half of the 18th century. When he was fourteen, he worked on a paddle wheel that could be attached to a rowboat. The twin paddle wheels were made of wood and attached to each end of an iron post. The pole was bent in half and went through both sides of the rowboat. The paddle wheels were turned by means of a crank. Fulton steered the rowboat by attaching an oar-shaped rudder to the stern. This was his first design of what would become known as a Fulton rowboat.
While residing in France in the early 19th century, he turned his attention to steam-powered ships. His first steamboat turned out to be unseaworthy due to its weight. She sank to the bottom of the Seine River in 1803. A second model was more successful. Fulton returned to the United States in 1806 and worked on a rowboat that could be powered by a Watt steam engine.
Fulton’s first steamboat built in the United States was the North River Steam Boat, better known as the Clermont. In August 1807, Fulton took his steamboat on his maiden voyage, a 150-mile voyage from New York City to Albany on the Hudson River. The Clermont was traveling at about five miles per hour. After this voyage, the Clermont was redesigned and provided passenger and cargo transportation. Fulton’s rowboat was not the first steamboat, but Fulton’s genius made it the first successful commercial steamboat in the United States. Eight years after this event, Fulton died, but not before he and his partner Robert Livingston built the New Orleans, a Fulton rowboat that served the lower Mississippi River communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi.
In the years between Fulton’s successful voyage on the Clermont and the start of the Civil War, increasing numbers of rowboats appeared on the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers. Also known by the names riverboat, showboat, or sternwheeler, these steamboats pushed barges up and down the river and delivered supplies and military mail. When the Civil War began, banks relied on rowboats to move their gold to secret locations before advancing troops could confiscate it.
All rowboats had Watt steam engines in their engine rooms and an engine exhaust system. Two twin funnels graced the port and starboard sides. A wheelhouse rested on the upper deck and large paddle wheels completed the look. Rowboats were made of canvas, wood, tin, twine, and shingles. Boat builders adorned the vessels with elegant carved scrollwork. Mark Twain mentions river boats in some of his writing.
When the transcontinental railroad was completed and rail transportation became more profitable, the Fulton rowboat fell out of use.
