Read these fascinating accounts from steamboat passengers, crews and newspapermen from the nineteenth century. This book explores all aspects of steamboating on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, from vessel construction to races and accidents.

An appendix details the workings of early steamboat engines. Other appendices provide data on steamboats discussed in the text and maps of the region. The narratives extend the history of the era from that included in other books on the topic. The book, above all, is an enthusiastic, nostalgic, and thoroughly readable exposition of a bygone era and a "vanished fleet."