the legislature for the exclusive privilege. This was
granted on condition that he should propel a vessel by
steam, within a year, three miles an hour; but Livingston,
unable to comply with this condition, dropped his project
for a time. He afterwards associated himself with Stevens,
and aided by Nicholas Roosevelt, carried on the experiments
until he (Livingston) was sent to France as minister.
Mr. Stevens continued his experiments for several years,
when Mr. Livingston having attained a renewal of the exclusive
grant from the State of New York, he, with the assistance
of his son, applied himself with greater attention to
the project, and in 1807, only a few days after Fulton's
convincing experiment, succeeded in propelling a steamboat
at the required velocity of three miles an hour. Fulton,
it is said, had in 1803 made a successful trial on the
Seine with a boat that moved at the rate of four miles
an hour.
About 1802-3, Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, built on
the Mississippi a boat to ply between New Orleans and
Natchez. When the boat was ready it was left high and
dry by the falling water, and the engine was placed temporarily
in a saw "mill. The mill was burned by some incendiaries,
whom it was likely to deprive of a profitable job of sawing
lumber, and thus an attempt to establish steamboats on
the Mississippi was defeated some four years before Fulton's
experiment.
All these efforts seem to have been preliminary experiments;
to Fulton and Roosevelt really belongs the credit of bringing
to practical results the steamboat, in the construction
in 1810-11, by himself, Livingston and Roosevelt, of the
"New Orleans" at Pittsburgh.
This sketch of the gradual growth of the idea of a boat
to be propelled by machinery worked by steam, while not
of the actual history of Allegheny County, is so intimate
in its connection with the history of boat building therein
that it is interestingly preliminary thereto. The position
that Pittsburgh occupies as the point where was constructed,
and whence departed the first steamboat that navigated
the western waters, giving her an historical prominence
in connection with the invention of steamboats.
The 23d of February 1777, is the date at which, it may
fairly be said, commenced that important branch of the
business of Pittsburgh-boat building. On that day "fourteen
carpenters and sawyers arrived at Fort Pitt from Philadelphia,,
and were set at work on the Monongahela, fourteen miles
above the fort, near a saw mill. They built thirty large
batteaux, forty feet long, nine feet wide and thirty-two
inches deep, which were intended to transport troops."
For a quarter of a century from this time the navigation
of the western rivers was by the use of flat boats, keel
boats and "broad horns," as they were called.
These boats were all propelled by pole-, or by sweeps,
and the labor of the crews on the upward passage, somewhat
relieved by aid of ropes, carried out the head,, and attached
to trees, by which the boats were "cordelled,"
or warped up stream where the current was very swift.
The trips were long and tedious, and, for years, dangerous
from the Indians, even as late as 1794, as the following
extract from an advertisement of that date shows, which
gives as well a glimpse of the method of travelling at
that date:
103
The advertisement states: " Two boats for the present
will start from Cincinnati for Pittsburgh, and return
to Cincinnati in the fallowing manner, viz: First boat
will leave Cincinnati this morning at eight o'clock; and
return to Cincinnati, so as to be ready to sail again
in four weeks. The second boat will leave Cincinnati on
Saturday, the 30th inst., and return to Cincinnati in
four weeks as above. And so regularly, each boat performing
the voyage to and from Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, once
in every four weeks.
"No danger need be apprehended from the enemy, as
every person on board will be under cover, made proof
against rifle or musket balls, and convenient port holes
for firing out of. Each of the boats is armed with six
pieces, carrying a pound ball; also a number of good muskets,
and amply supplied with plenty of ammunition, strongly
manned with choice hands, and the masters of approved
knowledge.
"A separate cabin from that designed for the men
is partitioned on in each boat for accommodating ladies
on their passage. Conveniences are constructed on board
each boat so as to render landing unnecessary, as it might
at times be attended with danger."
In July of the year 1794, on the 22d of April of which
year Pittsburgh was incorporated as a borough, a line
of mail boats was established to run from Wheeling to
Limetown, and back, once in every two weeks, the mails
being carried from Wheeling to Pittsburgh, and back, on
horseback. These boats were twenty-four feet long, built
like a whale-boat, and steered with, a rudder. They were
manned by a steersman and four oarsmen to each boat. The
men had each a musket and a supply of ammunition, all
of which were snugly secured from the weather in boxes
alongside their seats.
The building of the armed galleys, "President Adams"
and "Senator Ross," in 1798, at Pittsburgh,
is the next progressive fact in boat-building in Allegheny
county. They were intended for service against the Spaniards
on the lower Mississippi, and are mentioned in letters
of that date as fine specimens of naval architecture.
Of their subsequent service, or their final disposition,
nothing is recorded. These national vessels, and a brig
of 120 tons, built at Marietta by Commodore Preble in
1708-9, one of the first sea-going vessels constructed
on the Ohio. From 1801 to 1805 the building of sea-going
craft was active at Pittsburgh.
The building of sea-going vessels was established at
Pittsburgh by a French gentleman, Louis Anastasius Tarascon,
who emigrated from France in 1794, established himself
in Philadelphia as a merchant. In 1799 he sent two of
his clerks, Charles Brugiere and James Berthoud, to examine
the course of the Ohio and Mississippi from Pittsburgh
to New Orleans, and ascertain the practicability of sending
ships, and clearing them ready rigged, from Pittsburgh
to Europe and the West Indies. The two gentlemen reported
favorably, and Mr.Tarascon associated them, and his brother,
John Anthony, with himself, under the firm of "John
A. Tarascon Brothers, James Berthoud & Co.,"
and immediately established at Pittsburgh a large wholesale
and retail store and warehouse, a ship yard, a rigging
and sail loft, and anchor smithshop, block manufactory,
and all other things necessary to complete sea-going vessels.
The first year, 1801, they built the schooner Amity, of
120 tons, and the ship Pittsburgh of 250 tons, and sent
the former, loaded with
(Cont. on pg. 104)
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Pittsburgh, Pa
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