  |
|
|
|
Robert Fulton designs a steamboat for the Roosevelts. It will be called the New Orleans. Their steamboat voyage down the Mississippi begins.
Lydia and Nicholas Roosevelt's steamboat was being designed in New York by Robert Fulton. His design placed the boat at 116 feet long and twenty feet wide. But for both Lydia and her husband, that would not do. Their boat had to be bigger and grander-and it was. When it was finished the New Orleans, as it was christened, measured 148 feet and 6 inches long. Its width was 32 feet and 6 inched with its depth at 12 feet. When it was finally completed, in the summer of 1811, its cost had soared to $38,000, an enormous sum for the times. Steamboat Age BeginsAfter several months of waiting for the waters of the Ohio River to rise sufficiently to accommodate Roosevelt's "water monster," on October 15, 1811, the 371-ton New Orleans was launched on the Monogahela River. A new age of American history was about to begin on the rivers: the age of the steamboat. Cruzing Down the River AgainOn October 20, 1811, the steamboat New Orleans officially began its historical journey towards the shipping port of New Orleans, Louisiana. Aboard her were a captain, an engineer, the pilot, six crewmembers, two female servants, a waiter and a cook. And of course, the Roosevelt family that included Lydia, her husband, their daughter and a huge Newfoundland dog, named Tiger, surely wagging his tail in happiness to be coming along. Lydia Regarded as ScandalousOnce again, Lydia had set society tongues wagging. It was scandalous enough that Mrs. Roosevelt should undertake such a dangerous voyage, but to include her two-year-old daughter was beyond belief. But that was not the worst of it: Lydia was eight months pregnant with her second child. She merely laughed at them all. The British Are Coming! Aren't They?Their first week went as expected, then on October 27, the boat's passing caused a considerable stir on the Kentucky shore. For some time now, Americans had been preparing for war with England as British ships continued to intercept American vessels, board them, and remove men they claimed were deserted British sailors. Now, with the site of the enormous New Orleans steaming down river, settlers were sure that the British had at last launched an assault and were prepared to either flee or fight. Fulton Designs Steamboat: Largest and Grandest on the River, continues with Nearing the Falls of the Ohio: Birth Aboard the Boat . Previous: The Roosevelts Reach New Orleans: Three Nights in a Baton Rouge Barroom Indians and Illness on an Idyllic Voyage .
The copyright of the article Fulton Designs Steamboat in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Fulton Designs Steamboat in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
