CHAPTER IX. Western steamboats-subject continued down to 1843. The number of steamboats employed in 1842, in navigating the Mississippi and its tributaries, was four hundred and fifty. The average burthen of these boats was two hundred tons each, making an aggregate of ninety thousand tons, and their aggregate value, at $80 00 per ton $7,200,000. Many of these were fine vessels, affording the most elegant accommodations for passengers, and comparing favorably, in beauty of model, completeness of finish, and all other particulars, with the best packets in any part of the world. The number of persons engaged in navigating our steamboats varies from twenty to fifty for each boat. The average is about thirty-five persons, which will give a total of fifteen thousand seven hundred and fifty persons embarked in this navigation. It appears, from the reports of the Louisville and Portland canal, that more than seven hundred flatboats have passed that canal in one year.. At this rate there cannot be less than four thousand descending the Mississippi, and allowing five men to each boat, there are twenty thousand persons engaged in this branch of the navigation. The cost of these boats is $420,000, which, as they do not return, is an annual expense, and the expense of loading, navigating and unloading them is $960,000, making the whole annual expenditure upon this class of boats $1,380,000. In 1834, the number of steamboats in existence, on the Western waters, was two hundred and thirty, and they were estimated to carry thirty-nine thousand tons. expense of running them was put down as follows: 60 boats, over 200 tons, 180 running days, at $140 per 70 boats, from 120 to 200 tons, 240 running days, at at $90 per day, 100 boats, under 120 tons, 270 running days, at $60 per day, Total yearly expenses, The 1,512,000 1,620,000 $4,645,000 This calculation, applied to the present number of boats, would result as follows:- 110 boats, over 200 tons, 180 running days, at $140 per day, 140 boats, from 120 to 200 tons, 240 running days, $2,772,000 200 boats, under 120 tons, 280 running days, at $60 per day, 3,240,000 Total, $9,036,000 This sum may be reduced to the different items pro ducing it, in the following proportions:— To this is to be added for insurance, 15 per cent., on Tolls of the Louisville and Portland canal, $13,618,000 be seen from Total annual cost of transportation, The rapid increase of this commerce may the following facts: Previous to the adoption of the steamboat navigation, say in 1817, the whole commerce, from New Orleans to the upper country, was carried in about twenty barges, averaging one hundred tons each, and making but one trip per year. The number of keelboats employed on the Upper Ohio could not have exceeded one hundred and fifty, carrying thirty tons each, and making the trip from Pittsburgh to Louisville and back in two months, or about three voyages in the season. The tonnage of all the boats ascending the Ohio and Lower Mississippi was then about six thousand five hundred. In 1834, the number of steamboats was two hundred and thirty, and the tonnage equal to about thirty-nine thousand tons; and in 1842, the number of boats was four hundred and fifty, and their burthen ninety thousand tons." In 1832, it was calculated that the whole number of persons deriving subsistence from this navigation, including the crews of steam and flatboats, mechanics and laborers employed in building and repairing boats, wood cutters, and persons employed in furnishing, supplying, loading, and unloading these boats, was ninety thousand. As the number of boats had doubled since that time, the h number of people directly engaged in and about this navigation, in 1842, was not less than one hundred and eighty thousand; but who shall place a limit to the numbers who are beneficially interested, in a business which distributes its millions of dollars for wood, its millions for wages, its millions for provisions, its millions for machinery and the labor of mechanics, and which transports a commerce whose value can only be computed by hundreds of millions? The whole number of steamboats constructed at Cincinnati, in 1843, was forty-five; the aggregate amount of their tonnage was twelve thousand and thirty-five tons, and their cost $705,000; which gives an average of two hundred and sixty-seven tons for each boat, and about $16,000 for the cost of each. The models of these boats, as well as their finish and accommodations, evince a progressive improvement upon the boats of former years. They have more length and less draught, and are faster than the last generation, while the hulls are more staunch, though they contain less weight of timber. The cabins are not so gaudy and expensive as those of the old boats, while they are greatly superior in comfort and convenience. The average cost is about $72 per ton, which is a great reduction from former prices. All the work of these boats is done at Cincinnati, and gives employment to boat builders, carpenters, joiners, engine makers, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, painters, upholsterers, cabinet makers, chairmakers, and some other mechanics. There were steadily employed at the Cincinnati ship yards, during the year 1843, in the heavier portions of the work: Within the same year there were built, at Louisville, New Albany and Jeffersonville, thirty-five boats, of seven thousand four hundred and six tons, which cost $700,000. These boats would cost $20,000 each, would average two hundred and eleven tons, and would cost about $95 per ton. And there were built at Pittsburgh, in the same year, twenty-five boats, of four thousand three hundred and forty-seven tons, of which the cost is not given. The average tonnage of the boats is about one hundred and seventy-three tons. The aggregate of the boats built in 1843 is nearly as follows: Boats. Tons. The whole tonnage of the Western boats previous to 1843, being ninety thousand tons, and the annual loss by destruction and superannuation being twenty per cent., the decrease by the latter cause for 1843, was eighteen thousand tons, and the increase twenty-six thousand seven. hundred and eighty-eight tons, making a net increase of eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight tons. It will be seen, that we have placed the tonnage of our Western boats at ninety thousand tons. This was con |