Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-06-09
THE SPEED OF BOATS YEARS AGO.

The following news items were
published in the Missouri Republi-
can in 1856, and will no doubt prove
of interest to many steamboatmen :
Nearly fifty-five years have
elapsed since the first steambOatthat
ever fioated ON the Western rivers
(the Orleans), built by Messrs. Full
ton & Livingston, at Pittsburg, in
1871, made her first and only trip
from Pittsburg' to New Orleans.
She did it i'll fourteen days. This
was i'm the winter of 1912. The Or
leans continued to make regular
trips between New Orleans and
Natchez until the 18th of July, 1914,
when she was wrecked near Baton
II Ouge on her upWaFd-bOund pas
sage, by striking a snag.
The Orleans was very different in
construction from the steamboats, in
these days. She was furnished with
Il prOpelling wheel at the stern and
two masts; for Mr.. Fulton believed
at that time that the occasional use
of sails would be indispensable.
Fulton then had a very inadequate
idea of the wonderful power of steam
properly applied. In this Stephen
son, the engineer of the Liverpool
and Manchester railroad, was like
Fulton, for Stephenson, if we recOl-
lect rightly, calculated on attempt
ing a speed of only seven miles an
hour on the railroad whereas a speed
of forty-tiVe miles an hour is now
regularly attained on the London
and Great Western and other Eng
lish railroads, and it is not uncOm-
mon for express trains to travel at
the rate of sixty miles an hour.
Since the Orleans made the piO-
neer trip to the Western waters the
increase in the number and size of
the steamboats,, the improvement
in the construction and accOmmOda-
ton, and the acceleration of their
speed, is truly astonishing.
In May, 1915, the Enterprise, a
smallsteambOat ofseventy-tive tons,
which took a cargo of ordinance
stores to New Orleans from Pitts
burg, in December, 1914, left New
Orleans for Pittsburg, and reached
Louisville after a passage of twenty
five days, thus completing the first
steamboat voyage ever made from
New Orleans to Louisville.
On the 18th of March, 1917, the
steamboat Washington, constructed
under the personal superintendent
and direction of Captain Henry IL.
ShreVe, commenced her second VOy-
age to New Orleans. She started
from the Falls of the Ohio, accom-
plished the trip and returned to
ShippingspOrt, at the foot of the
falls, in forty One-days. On her first
trip to New Orleans, the ingenuity
of her construction excited great adj
miratiOn. Her feat on the second
trip produced much excitement and
eXultatiOn in the West. The citizens
of Louisville gave a public dinner
to Captain ShreVe, at which he pre-
dicted the time would come when
the trip from New Orleans to Louis
vile would he made in ten days.
As all our readers know, the pre-
dictiOn has been much more than
fulfilled the trip has made been in
less than half the time.
In September, 1917, the Shelby
made the trip from New Orleans to
20 days, 4 hours, and ~ minutes ; in
May, 1919, the Paragon made the
trip in Is days, 10 hours; nine and
a half years after, viz: in NOvem-
Der, 1923, the TecumSeh made the
trip in s days, 4 hours; five and a
half years after, viz; in April, 1884,
the TuScaTOra made the trip i'm
days, Is hours three and half
years after, viz; in November,
1887, the General Brown and the
Randolph each made the trip i'm 6
days, - hours, and the Empress
made it in days, II hours in De
cember, of the same year, the old
and faVOrite Sultana, then in all re-
spects the acknowledged queen of
the Western waters, made the trip
i'm days, Il hours.
On the IL of April, 1888 the fol-
lowing paragraph appeared in the
New Orleans Picayune:
\ Remarkable Trip.-The steam
boat General Wayne, G.. c. Cas-
tleman, arrived at this port yes
to-day morning ut O'Clock, in four
days and sixteen hours from Louis
vile, being the quickest time ever
made between the two places.
ON the 18th of the same month
the Picayune had the following.
The Sultana, Captain Tufts, ar
rived yesterday, having made the
trip from this city to Louisville and
back in thirteen days.
On the % of the same month the
following appeared in the Picayune
Unprecedented Speed. - Who
would believe that boat could
make a trip from this port to Louis
willie and back in ten days and Il
hours? Yet this has been done.
That splendid steamer, the Empress,
Captain Robert Mcconnell, arrived
here Yesterday from Louisville in
DAYS and hours her up trip was
made in 6 days and hours. De-
Quoting all delays for wooding, &c,
the actual running time was only
days and hours, and that, too, for
a distance of 3,120 miles-thuS aV-
eraging during the whole run 10!
miles per hour.
On the 18th of May, 1888, thesteam-
boat William French, noted for
speed, and a great favOrite in the
louisville and New Orleans trade
as a passenger boat, in her day,
made her first appearance at New
Orleans.
ON the 18th of June, in the same
wear. the Picayune thus noticed a
great feat accomplished by another
favorite boat.
ITnprecedented Speed. -Thesteam-