saw in the novel craft the beginning of a new era in Western
river traffic; but many doubted whether it was possible to
construct a vessel powerful enough to make its way upstream
against such sweeping currents as those of the Mississippi and
the Ohio. Surely no one for a moment dreamed that in hardly more
than a generation the Western rivers would carry a tonnage larger
than that of the cities of the Atlantic seaboard combined and
larger than that of Great Britain!

As early as 1805, two years before the trip of the Clermont,
Captain Keever built a "steamboat" on the Ohio, and sent her down
to New Orleans where her engine was to be installed. But it was
not until 1811 that the Orleans, the first steamboat to ply the
Western streams, was built at Pittsburgh, from which point she
sailed for New Orleans in October of that year. The Comet and
Vesuvius quickly followed, but all three entered the New
Orleans-Natchez trade on the lower river and were never seen
again at the headwaters. As yet the swift currents and flood
tides of the great river had not been mastered. It is true that
in 1815 the Enterprise had made two trips between New Orleans and
Louisville, but this was in time of high water, when counter
currents and backwaters had assisted her feeble engine. In 1816,
however, Henry Shreve conceived the idea of raising the engine
out of the hold and constructing an additional deck. The
Washington, the first doubledecker, was the result. The next year
this steamboat made the round trip from Louisville to New Orleans
and back in forty-one days. The doubters were now convinced.

For a little while the quaint and original riverman held on in
the new age, only to disappear entirely when the colored