A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S or PS ; however, these designations are most often used for steamships.
The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall River, New Bedford, Newport, Providence, Fitchburg, Lowell and Cape Cod. For many years the Old Colony Railroad Company also operated steamboat and ferry lines, including those of the Fall River Line with express train service from Boston to its wharf in Fall River where passengers boarded luxury liners to New York City. The company also briefly operated a railroad line on Martha's Vineyard, as well as the freight-only Union Freight Railroad in Boston. The OC was named after the "Old Colony", the nickname for the Plymouth Colony.
The New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, normally called the Stonington Line, was a major part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad between New London, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island. It is now part of Amtrak's high-speed Northeast Corridor.
William Henry Webb was a 19th-century New York City shipbuilder and philanthropist, who has been called America's first true naval architect.
The Fall River Line was a combination steamboat and railroad connection between New York City and Boston that operated between 1847 and 1937. It consisted of a railroad journey between Boston and Fall River, Massachusetts, where passengers would then board steamboats for the journey through Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound to the line's own Hudson River dock in Manhattan. For many years, it was the preferred route to take for travel between the two major cities. The line was extremely popular, and its steamboats were some of the most advanced and luxurious of their day.
The River Queen was a sidewheel steamer launched in 1864. It soon became closely associated with President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant while operating on the Potomac River, and was used for an unsuccessful peace conference in 1865 during the last year of the American Civil War. Later it operated as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket during the late 19th century. Late in its career, it returned to the Potomac as an excursion vessel, and in 1911, it was destroyed in a fire.
The history of commercial passenger shipping on the Great Lakes is long but uneven. It reached its zenith between the mid-19th century and the 1950s. As early as 1844, palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the Great Lakes. By 1900, fleets of relatively luxurious passenger steamers plied the waters of the lower lakes, especially the major industrial centres of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toronto.
The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, nicknamed the Old Bay Line, was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962 that provided overnight steamboat service on Chesapeake Bay, primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia. Called a "packet" for the mail packets carried on government mail contracts, the term in the 19th century came to mean a steamer line operating on a regular, fixed daily schedule between two or more cities. When it closed in 1962 after 122 years of existence, it was the last surviving overnight steamship passenger service in the United States.
Providence was a large sidewheel steamer launched in 1866 by William H. Webb of New York for the Merchants Steamship Company. The first of Narragansett Bay's so-called "floating palaces", the luxuriously outfitted Providence and her sister ship Bristol, each of which could carry up to 1,200 passengers, were installed with the largest engines then built in the United States, and were considered to be amongst the finest American-built vessels of their era.
The Narragansett Pier Railroad was a railroad in southern Rhode Island, running 8.5 miles (13.7 km) from West Kingston to Narragansett Pier. It was built by the Hazard family of Rhode Island to connect their textile mills in Peace Dale to the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad at Kingston Station, as well as to ocean-going steamboats at Narragansett Pier. Upon opening in 1876, the railroad also proved crucial in the growth of Narragansett Pier into a major resort. Initially operated at a loss absorbed by the Hazards, by the 1890s the railroad became consistently profitable and handled a brisk passenger business along with freight and mail shipments. The Hazards also operated a connecting steamboat service to Newport.
The Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works was a major late-19th-century American shipyard located on the Delaware River in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the industrialist John Roach and is often referred to by its parent company name of John Roach & Sons, or just known as the Roach shipyard. For the first fifteen years of its existence, the shipyard was by far the largest and most productive in the United States, building more tonnage of ships than its next two major competitors combined, in addition to being the U.S. Navy's largest contractor. The yard specialized in the production of large passenger freighters, but built every kind of vessel from warships to cargo ships, oil tankers, ferries, barges, tugs and yachts.
SS Monroe was an Old Dominion Steamship Company steamship launched 18 October 1902 and completed 3 April 1903 by Newport News Shipbuilding of Norfolk, Virginia for operation in the company's Old Dominion Line's "Main Line Division" for overnight service between New York and Norfolk and could make 16 knots (30 km/h). The ship had accommodations for 150 first class, 78 steerage and 53 deck passengers. That service was between New York pier 26, North River, and Norfolk connecting with the line's "Virginia Division" steamers, including Old Dominion's "Night Line Steamers" Berkley and Brandon serving Richmond with overnight service to Norfolk, other steamer lines and rail lines serving the Chesapeake Bay area. The Monroe was struck at about 2 a.m. on 30 January 1914 by the southbound steamer Nantucket and sank with loss of forty-one lives.
Commonwealth was a large sidewheel steamboat built in 1854–55 for passenger service on Long Island Sound. The most celebrated Sound steamer of her day, Commonwealth was especially noted for the elegance and comfort of her passenger accommodations, which included gas lighting, steam heating, and an "enchantingly beautiful" domed roof in her upper saloon. Her stability of motion led her captain to describe Commonwealth as the finest rough weather steamboat ever built in the United States.
Lady Cynthia was a steel-hulled passenger ship converted from a minesweeper,, which served in the coastal waters of British Columbia from 1925 to 1957. Lady Cynthia was a sistership to Lady Cecilia, also a converted minesweeper. The ship was generally referred to as the Cynthia while in service.
Two vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name, HM galley Pigot. Both were acquired in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, and both were lost that year; her crew destroyed the first to avoid her capture, and the Americans captured the second. Both were named for General Sir Robert Pigot, the general commanding the British Army at Newport, Rhode Island, during their service there.
Eastern Steamship Lines was a shipping company in the United States that operated from 1901 to 1955. It was created through successive mergers by Wall Street financier and speculator Charles W. Morse. The line sailed along the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada, operating out of Boston and New York. Much of its fleet was sold Boston to the US government for use in World War I. After the war the company would order additional ships for the Post-war period. Eastern Steamship Lines served as operator for the War Shipping Administration in World War II. The United States government requisitioned all of the fleets vessels for military duty on both the Atlantic and Pacific.
City of Lowell was a twin screw passenger steamer launched on 21 November 1893 by Bath Iron Works and delivered in July 1894 for the Norwich & New York Transportation Company for use on Long Island Sound. The Norwich Line, operated by the New York and New England Railroad, placed the steamer on the overnight service between New York and New London, Connecticut. Passengers connected by rail at New London for Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts. The ship was in commercial operation until 1939 when apparently laid up awaiting scrapping. At the outbreak of World War II City of Lowell was acquired by the War Shipping Administration with eventual transfer of title to the War Department for use as an Army troop transport. The ship was sold to Potomac Shipwrecking Company of Washington, D.C., in November 1946 for scrapping.
New York was an American passenger-cargo sidewheel steamboat built in 1836 for service on Long Island Sound. When new, she was the largest steamboat yet to operate on the route between New York and New Haven, Connecticut, and was one of the largest Sound steamboats of her day.
Atlantic was a wooden-hulled, side-wheel steamship launched in 1849. She was conceived as a part of an American fleet which would break the monopoly that European steamers, notably the Cunard Line, had on trans-Atlantic trade. She was the most successful of the Collins Line ships, and one of the most luxurious vessels of her day, but the company went bankrupt in 1858.
The Newport and Wickford Railroad and Steamboat Company was a railroad and steamboat operator in Rhode Island. It was first chartered in 1862 as the Wickford Branch Railroad, and intended to connect Wickford Junction station to downtown Wickford, Rhode Island, by rail, and Wickford to Newport, Rhode Island, by steamboat. The company changed its name to the Wickford Railroad in 1864, before adopting its final name in 1870. Construction was completed in 1871, when the railroad began hauling both passengers and freight with a single locomotive and two railroad cars. Steamboats were purchased to connect to Newport. The railroad operated under the control of the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, but maintained its own corporate identity until a 1909 takeover by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Passenger trains and the steamboat service were both ended in October 1925, and the final half a mile to Wickford Landing was abandoned in 1938. The rest of the line was abandoned by the New Haven in 1962.
