Come aboard the steamboat New Orleans, and experience the real-life adventure of the first steamboat trip down the mighty Mississippi through the eyes of a young crewmember. Tim Collins is a fourteen-year-old orphan trying to get from Pittsburgh to Natchez in the year 1811. He signs on as a deckhand aboard the New Orleans, and meets Nicholas Roo-sevelt, the dynamic builder and owner of the vessel, and his wife Lydia, who braves the untamed river while pregnant. Defying the ridicule of critics who claim that no vessel can defy the current of the mighty Mississippi, the voy-agers set off on their epic journey. They face crafty river pirates, hostile Indians, and wild animals. And can even a steamboat survive the awesome power of the New Madrid earth-quake, the strongest quake in American history?

Award-winning writer and photographer Kerri McCaffety takes on one of the greatest stories of all time--the story of the Mississippi River and the Golden Age of steamboats, the adventure and romance that inspired Mark Twain and captivated imaginations around the world. The larger history of Mississippi river transport is explored within the context of a living legacy and an elegant icon of present-day New Orleans, Steamboat Natchez, the only true steam-powered boat on the Mississippi today.The first steamboat plied the waters of the Mississippi River in 1811. When the steamer, called the New Orleans, arrived in her namesake city, Captain Roosevelt invited the public to come aboard for an excursion down the river and back, a route very similar to the daily cruises the Natchez offers today.In the nineteenth century, steam power changed the world, opening up travel and trade undreamt of before. The South got rich on the exports of cotton and sugar, all carried by the big, beautiful boats. When railroads began to offer more efficient cargo transport around the turn of the twentieth century, the second golden age of the steamboat focused on luxury and entertainment. Steamboats took New Orleans jazz from Storyville to the rest of the world.The first of ten steamboats named Natchez for the Mississippi port city or the Indian tribe, was a sidewheeler built in New York in 1823. She carried passengers and cargo from New Orleans to Natchez, Mississippi. Since then, the Natchez name has meant ultimate beauty and speed on the big river. The most famous and colorful steamboat commander of the nineteenth century, Captain P. T. Leathers, built eight boats named Natchez. His sixth was the racer in the epic 1870 competition with the Robert E. Lee.The new Natchez, built in 1975, carries on a grand tradition. Her original master and captain for 20 years, Clarke C. "Doc" Hawley, is a modern-day river legend and the world authority on steamboat history. Captain Hawley collaborated on writing Steamboat Natchez, New Orleans & The History of Mississippi River Steamboats and acted as expert consultant.

The true story of a family’s daring four-month Mississippi River journey—a tale of danger, childbirth, and a massive earthquake that “reads like a novel” (Publishers Weekly). In 1811, the steamboat New Orleans was the first to travel the Mississippi River in a four-month journey between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The only people brave enough to embark upon the journey were Nicholas Roosevelt; his pregnant wife, Lydia Latrobe; and their young daughter. During the course of the trip, the brilliant but reckless Roosevelt led his family through navigational perils, hostile Indians, and fire aboard. The small, fire-engine-powered steamboat saw not only the birth of Roosevelt and Latrobe’s second child, but also the greatest earthquake ever to strike the eastern United States. That cataclysmic event, described in the book from firsthand accounts, destroyed villages, swallowed islands, and reversed the course of the Mississippi River. Mr. Roosevelt’s Steamboat is an authoritative account of a twenty-five-hundred-mile voyage that significantly contributed to America’s transportation revolution. The dynamic main characters share tender romance and great courage. Their incredible trip down the Mississippi assured the future of steam navigation—and the progress of the great westward movement. “A vivid, fast-moving story.” —New Orleans Times-Picayune “In a class by itself . . . Surges with excitement.” —Louisiana History “Well-researched, vividly told.” —Waterways Journal “Intriguing romance, [a] taut, suspense-filled story, cataclysmic drama . . . A whale of a book.” —Christian Herald

From Jay Feldmen comes an enlightening work about how the most powerful earthquakes in the history of America united the Indians in one last desperate rebellion, reversed the Mississippi River, revealed a seamy murder in the Jefferson family, and altered the course of the War of 1812. On December 15, 1811, two of Thomas Jefferson's nephews murdered a slave in cold blood and put his body parts into a roaring fire. The evidence would have been destroyed but for a rare act of God—or, as some believed, of the Indian chief Tecumseh. That same day, the Mississippi River's first steamboat, piloted by Nicholas Roosevelt, powered itself toward New Orleans on its maiden voyage. The sky grew hazy and red, and jolts of electricity flashed in the air. A prophecy by Tecumseh was about to be fulfilled. He had warned reluctant warrior-tribes that he would stamp his feet and bring down their houses. Sure enough, between December 16, 1811, and late April 1812, a catastrophic series of earthquakes shook the Mississippi River Valley. Of the more than 2,000 tremors that rumbled across the land during this time, three would have measured nearly or greater than 8.0 on the not-yet-devised Richter Scale. Centered in what is now the bootheel region of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquakes were felt as far away as Canada; New York; New Orleans; Washington, DC; and the western part of the Missouri River. A million and a half square miles were affected as the earth's surface remained in a state of constant motion for nearly four months. Towns were destroyed, an eighteen-mile-long by five-mile-wide lake was created, and even the Mississippi River temporarily ran backwards. The quakes uncovered Jefferson's nephews' cruelty and changed the course of the War of 1812 as well as the future of the new republic. In When the Mississippi Ran Backwards, Jay Feldman expertly weaves together the story of the slave murder, the steamboat, Tecumseh, and the war, and brings a forgotten period back to vivid life. Tecumseh's widely believed prophecy, seemingly fulfilled, hastened an unprecedented alliance among southern and northern tribes, who joined the British in a disastrous fight against the U.S. government. By the end of the war, the continental United States was secure against Britain, France, and Spain; the Indians had lost many lives and much land; and Jefferson's nephews were exposed as murderers. The steamboat, which survived the earthquake, was sunk. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards sheds light on this now-obscure yet pivotal period between the Revolutionary and Civil wars, uncovering the era's dramatic geophysical, political, and military upheavals. Feldman paints a vivid picture of how these powerful earthquakes made an impact on every aspect of frontier life—and why similar catastrophic quakes are guaranteed to recur. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards is popular history at its best.

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.

Stories heard as child by author, backed up by documentation, of voyage taken by his sister and her husband, Nicholas J. Roosevelt in 1811.

Paddlewheel riverboat, showboat, sternwheeler, steamboat: call it what you will, but the steamboat revolutionized travel in the 1800s, an era in which young boys dreamed of becoming river pilots and Mark Twain forever memorialized the "Delta Queens" that travelled up and down the Mississippi River. Steamboat enthusiast Sara Wright provides a background into the historical events that made the era perfectly ripe for the development of the steamboat industry in America in this colorful history. Steamboats will look at the people who played key roles in the development of the steam engine and paddle boats, including the important part played by the many African Americans who worked the river. Wright also examines the technology of these floating mansions, from firebaskets and cannons, to radars and whistles, to steam pressure gauges and other innovations.