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.
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans.
A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such as lake or harbour tour boats. As larger water craft, virtually all riverboats are especially designed and constructed, or alternatively, constructed with special-purpose features that optimize them as riverine or lake service craft, for instance, dredgers, survey boats, fisheries management craft, fireboats and law enforcement patrol craft.
The Rivers of America is the artificial river found in the Frontierland areas of Disneyland-style Disney theme parks around the world. The first river was built in Disneyland when the park opened in 1955. It surrounds Tom Sawyer Island, which can be reached by rafts traveling from the Frontierland mainland. Additionally, there are other water-based vehicles which are found on the river. The sights along the Rivers include a Native American tribe, a burning cabin, and various audio-animatronic wildlife.
Belle of Louisville is a steamboat owned and operated by the city of Louisville, Kentucky, and moored at its downtown wharf next to the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere during its annual operational period. The steamboat claims itself the "most widely traveled river steamboat in American history." Belle of Louisville's offices are aboard Mayor Andrew Broaddus, and also appears on the list of National Historic Landmarks.
The Delta Queen is an American sternwheel steamboat. She is known for cruising the major rivers that constitute the tributaries of the Mississippi River, particularly in the American South, although she began service in California on the Sacramento River delta for which she gets her name. She was docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee and served as a floating hotel until purchased by the newly formed Delta Queen Steamboat Company. She was towed to Houma, Louisiana, in March 2015 for refurbishing to her original condition.
American Cruise Lines, Inc. is the largest river and small-ship cruise line in the U.S.A. with its headquarters in Guilford, Connecticut, United States. The Line operates nineteen small U.S. flagged cruise ships along the Eastern Seaboard and Western Seaboard as well as the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers and the Columbia-Snake river system in the United States.
The Jackson Avenue–Gretna ferry was a ferry across the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana, connecting Jackson Avenue in New Orleans with Huey P. Long Avenue in Gretna. It carried automobiles for $1.00; bicycles and pedestrians for free. The Crescent City Connection Division of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development operated the ferry on weekdays from 06:00 to 20:45.
The Disney riverboats are paddle steamer watercraft attraction ride vehicles operating on a track on a series of attractions located at Disney theme parks around the world.
The American Empress is a 360-foot (110 m) diesel-electric powered paddle-wheeler that was formerly operated by Majestic America Line and named the Empress of the North. She was built in 2002 at the Nichols Brothers Boat Builders shipyard on Whidbey Island, in the U.S. state of Washington, for $50 million and debuted as a cruise ship in 2003. She is listed as accommodating 223 guests, and originally cruised Alaska's Inside Passage, the Pacific Northwest, and the Columbia River. While being operated by Majestic America Line, the ship was decorated with a 19th century Russian theme, but with Alaskan touches in the form of carvings and masks.
PV Murray River Queen is an Australian paddle vessel built at Hindmarsh Island in 1974 as a luxury passenger cruise boat. She was a tourist boat carrying passengers on the Murray River in South Australia. For many years, her home port was Goolwa where she offered week-long cruises operated by her builders, the Veenstra family. She was the first of several large boats built by the Veenstras for the Murray River, they later also built the MV Murray Explorer and PS Murray Princess.
Many steamboats operated on the Columbia River and its tributaries, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, from about 1850 to 1981. Major tributaries of the Columbia that formed steamboat routes included the Willamette and Snake rivers. Navigation was impractical between the Snake River and the Canada–US border, due to several rapids, but steamboats also operated along the Wenatchee Reach of the Columbia, in northern Washington, and on the Arrow Lakes of southern British Columbia.
Steamboats played a major role in the 19th-century development of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, allowing practical large-scale transport of passengers and freight both up- and down-river. Using steam power, riverboats were developed during that time which could navigate in shallow waters as well as upriver against strong currents. After the development of railroads, passenger traffic gradually switched to this faster form of transportation, but steamboats continued to serve Mississippi River commerce into the early 20th century. A small number of steamboats are still used for tourist excursions in the 21st century.
The Paddle Steamer Waimarie is a historic riverboat based on the Whanganui River in New Zealand. She is the only coal–fired paddle steamer still operating in New Zealand. Waimarie was built in 1899 by Yarrow & Co. in London and transported to New Zealand in kitset form to be assembled at Whanganui. She operated on the Whanganui River for 49 years before being laid up. In 1952 she sank at her moorings and lay in the mud for the next 40 years.
Since the early 1980s, several non-steam-powered sternwheel riverboats have been built and operated on major waterways in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, as river cruise ships used for tourism. Although configured as sternwheelers, they are not paddle steamers, but rather are motor vessels that are only replicas of paddle steamers. They are powered instead by diesel engines. The Lurdine was, when launched in 1983, "the first passenger-carrying sternwheeler in decades to [operate] on the Columbia River". In the case of the 1983-built M.V. Columbia Gorge, the construction and operation of a tourist sternwheeler was led by local government officials who viewed the idea as potentially being a major tourist attraction, giving an economic boost to their area, Cascade Locks, Oregon.
Queen of the Mississippi, now named American Heritage, is an overnight riverboat owned and operated by American Cruise Lines, currently operating on the Mississippi River. She entered service in spring 2015 and was built by Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland for overnight river cruising within the continental United States. The vessel accommodates 150 passengers in her 84 staterooms. The vessel is a sister ship to American Pride, which originally carried the Queen of the Mississippi name from 2012 to 2015. There are some differences between the riverboats, like internal arrangement and cabins on the 5th deck. However, both riverboats feature all outward-facing accommodations with private baths, and many cabins also have private furnished balconies. Both Paddlewheels were completely revovated in 2022.
American Splendor, formerly America, is an overnight riverboat built by Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland for American Cruise Lines (ACL) for overnight river cruising on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers in the United States. American Slpendor replaced paddlewheeler American Pride on the Mississippi River in 2016 when that ship was repositioned to the Columbia River. According to American Cruise lines, American Splendor will have "features never seen before on a riverboat". American Splendor is slightly larger than previous ACL riverboats with a 185-passenger capacity. The ship's hull was launched on August 7, 2015, and moved to a basin where construction of the upper decks and outfitting will take place.
Queen of the Mississippi is an overnight riverboat being built by American Cruise Lines (ACL) at Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland for overnight river cruising on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers in the United States. This riverboat was announced to assume the Queen of the Mississippi name after the previous ship was repositioned to the Columbia River and renamed in early 2016. However, the American Eagle quietly assumed the name in 2016 without clarification of whether this vessel will become Queen of the Mississippi in 2017 or sail under a different name.
Padelford Riverboats, established in 1969, is the sole provider of river boat cruises within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area in the Twin Cities of the U.S. State of Minnesota. Padelford boats cruise on the Mississippi River and celebrate the history of the region.
United States