Comet (1813 steamboat)
The steamboat Comet was the second steamboat to navigate the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. "Comet"s owner was Daniel D. Smith and she was launched in 1813 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, the "Comet" was the first of the Western steamboats to be powered by a horizontal high-pressure engine with its piston rod connected to a stern paddle wheel. Smith was the first to defy the steamboat monopoly in Orleans Territory granted to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton. Pittsburgh. Daniel French built "Comet" steam engine and  drive train at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and installed them in the steamboat at Pittsburgh prior to July 13, 1813, her first voyage. The "Pittsburgh Gazette" announced that "Comet" had departed Pittsburgh for Louisville, Kentucky, on July 13: On September 7, 1813, Robert Fulton wrote to John Livingston at Pittsburgh requesting specific information about the "Comet". In October 1813 a public notice was published in "The Pittsburgh Gazette": On November 11, 1813, Fulton wrote to Livingston at Pittsburgh: No trial date was entered in the docket book at the Allegheny County Courthouse. Apparently, the threatened lawsuit was not pursued. New Orleans. After  steaming from Pittsburgh to the port of New Orleans, the "Comet" was entered for the first time in the "New Orleans Wharf Register" on February 25, 1814. Payment of the wharfage fee, in the amount of "$6", for the "Steam Boat, Capt. Lake" was recorded. Subsequent entries in the "New Orleans Wharf Register", on March 15, April 7, May 2 and July 3, 1814, identified the "Comet" as "Steam Boat (Lake)", with a wharfage fee of $6.