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4 April 2024 — An Innovator Struggles to Overcome the Monopoly and Introduce Reliable Steam Power
Our last installment of Sea History Today ended with the Cincinnati Gazette’s call for the expansion of steam travel into what was, at the time, the American West: “The invention of the steamboat was intended for us.” And, indeed, the partners Fulton and Livingston had their eyes on the Mississippi River system, the “Western Rivers,” as the logical expansion of their business interests. They petitioned with the western states and territories for a local steamboat monopoly, but the idea of a monopoly didn’t sit well with most governments. The lone outlier was the territory of Louisiana, which in 1811 granted Livingston and Fulton
the sole and exclusive right and privilege to build, construct, make use, employ, and navigate boats, vessels, and other craft urged or propelled through the water by fire or steam, in all the creeks, rivers, bays, and waters whatsoever, within the jurisdiction of the territory.
This agreement, restricting access to the all-important port of New Orleans at the gateway to the Mississippi, was a serious impediment to any other entrepreneurs interested in steam transportation in the region. The Fulton Company, which would continue to operate after the deaths of partners Livingston (d. 1813) and Fulton (d. 1815), protected its interests aggressively with lawsuits and the seizure of vessels whose masters dared violate its territory. The Fulton steamboats, with their deep drafts and weak engines, were barely a match for the region’s strong currents and natural hazards; the company’s first Mississippi boat, New Orleans, kept to the lower Mississippi and ended up sinking after striking a stump, and the second Livingston-Fulton boat, Vesuvius, seemed to spend more time grounded than afloat.
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 | The Mississippi River system, or the “Western Rivers,” was the vital transportation route that allowed residents of the growing country to move people and goods. But until a steamboat could steam safely and reliably upriver, it sometimes seemed like a one-way street. Map: Wikimedia Commons | One of the rivermen irked by the Livingston-Fulton monopoly was Henry Miller Shreve. Fascinated by the river, Shreve built his first keelboat at the age of 21 in 1807, traveling to St. Louis to load up on beaver pelts, which he then brought to Pittsburgh and arranged for their shipment to buyers in Philadelphia. He continued this trade, adding lead to his cargo, at a handsome profit. Thanks to his years of experience navigating the waterways, he was brought on as captain of Enterprise, a steamboat owned by the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company that would flout the Louisiana monopoly to carry ordnance and ammunition to New Orleans to supply Andrew Jackson’s army; Shreve arrived 9 January 1815. Enterprise continued to carry out missions for the army, transporting refugees to a nearby town, and bringing in war materiel. General Jackson’s commandeering of the Enterprise for army business protected Shreve and his boat, at least temporarily, from impoundment for breaking the monopoly. After Jackson no longer needed the steamboat’s services, Livingston-Fulton moved to have Enterprise seized and Shreve arrested on 2 May. The lawyer for Shreve and his associates, Abner L. Duncan, paid bail and arranged for ship and captain to ply their trade while the matter was hashed out in the courts. Shreve took the Enterprise to Louisville—the first steam-powered vessel to travel that far against the strong river currents of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. | |
The Livingston-Fulton steamboat New Orleans was operated on the lower Mississippi. Image: PD | |
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Shreve was convinced, however, that there were significant design improvements that could produce a steamboat far better suited to the Western Rivers than Enterprise. Work commenced on a boat incorporating these improvements in Wheeling, Virginia (in what would become West Virginia), in September 1815. The Washington had a flat, shallow hull, to better negotiate the variable depths of the rivers. The engine and boiler were located on the deck, so this new design had two decks, one above the other—something previously unheard of on riverboats. In contrast to the engines in the Fulton-style boats, the engine and boilers were positioned horizontally, not vertically. It weighed much less than its Fulton predecessors, but could produce significantly more power, from a single paddlewheel in the boat’s stern. Washington was launched in 1816.
On June 4 Shreve departed with his new steamboat headed for New Orleans, but on the 9th a stuck safety valve caused a boiler explosion, killing over a dozen crew and passengers. Repairs took up the rest of the summer, and she finally departed again in September, to arrive in New Orleans on 7 October. Again Shreve found himself facing the legal wrath of the Livingston-Fulton company and relying on his lawyer’s intervention to keep custody of the vessel. Refusing to post a bail, Duncan insisted on a bond from Livingston-Fulton to cover potential financial losses, should Livingston lose the suit; Livingston backed down. Shreve piloted Washington from New Orleans to Louisville. Finally, in April of 1817, Judge Dominic C. Hall ruled that his court did not have jurisdiction and threw out all of the Livingston-Fulton suits, effectively putting an end to the monopoly and freeing the Western Rivers for competition and innovation in steamboats. Judge Samuel Treat would write about the achievement in a 19th-century magazine article, “Political Portraits with Pen and Pencil”: “At this day, the enthusiasm with which the news was received cannot be duly appreciated… the western country owes a vast debt to Captain H. M. Shreve.”
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Fascinated with the river since his childhood, Henry Miller Shreve started out as an entrepreneurial riverman, who built his first keelboat and hired a team at age 22 to trade furs. PD | |
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Shreve had managed to defy the monopoly, and he had also shown his fellow rivermen the fundamentals of designing a steamboat that could take on the Mississippi River system. His next boat, the George Washington of 1824, sported not two, but four decks, with fine furnishings, ample room, and excellent meals, providing a luxurious travel experience for her passengers. In this period where the Western Rivers were the means of transporting people and goods in the western states and territories, Henry Miller Shreve blazed a trail with a boat design that could steam against the strong currents and take on the shallow stretches. The St. Louis Republican would later proclaim that “To him belongs the honor of demonstrating the practicability of navigating the Mississippi with steamboats.”
Extra Credit
Master of the Mississippi : Henry Shreve and the conquest of the Mississippi
Sea History Today is written by Shelley Reid, NMHS senior staff writer. Past issues can be read online by clicking here.
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