THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF STEAMSHIPS
Kevin Crisman
FIGURE CAPTIONS
Figure 1. Plan and Profile of the 17-gun Schooner Ticonderoga.
Laid down in late 1813 by the Lake Champlain Steamboat Company, the hull was converted on
the stocks into a U.S. Navy warship. A large add-on keel improved the sailing abilities and
stability of the narrow, shallow steamboat design. The hull was cut into short lengths during its
salvage in 1958. Drawing by Kevin Crisman.
Figure 2. Conjectural Reconstruction of the Lake Champlain Steamboat Phoenix.
Launched as the second steamboat on Lake Champlain in 1815, Phoenix was typical of early
American steamships with its engine and boiler in the hold, lack of superstructure, and auxiliary
sailing rig. This profile was reconstructed from evidence found on the wreck, contemporary
descriptions of the vessel, and from similar steamships shown in Jean Baptiste Marestier’s
Memoir on Steamboats. Drawing by Kevin Crisman.
Figure 3. The Wreck of the Steamboat Heroine in the Red River.
The shallow, fast-moving, hazard-filled western rivers of North America proved challenging to
steamboat builders and operators (as well as to maritime archaeologists studying steamboat
wrecks). Heroine was snagged and sunk by a submerged log, then entombed under 30 feet (9 m)
of sand for 150 years until a shift in the river exposed the wreck once more. Photo by Carrie
Sowden.
Figure 4. Reconstructed Lines of the Steamboat Heroine.
Built in 1832, Heroine entered service 21 years after the first steamboat navigated the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers. Its long, narrow hull, curving bow, and boxy section amidships show the
development of the classic western steamboat form, although the vessel lacks the hog chain truss
support system that would be typical of western steamboats built after 1840. Lines by Kevin
Crisman.
Figure 5. Heroine’s Propulsion Machinery.
A single-piston boat, Heroine required a pair of iron-rimmed flywheels mounted amidships to
even out the motion of the crank (or ‘pitman’). Steamboats of this era relied on cast iron
machinery (nothing stronger was available), but the brittle material fared very poorly in the hard
service of the western rivers. Heroine’s machinery had numerous breaks and repairs. CAD
drawing by Glenn Grieco.