Apaddle steamer is asteamship orsteamboat powered by asteam engine drivingpaddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity,paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans.
In the early 19th century, paddle wheels were the predominant way of propulsion for steam-powered boats. In the late 19th century, paddle propulsion was largely superseded by thescrew propeller and othermarine propulsion systems that have a higher efficiency, especially in rough or open water.
Paddle wheels continue to be used by some ships that operate asexcursion boats, floating restaurants, and casinos; these include replica vessels, and are often diesel powered.
Small pedal-powered paddle boats are also found, typically as novelty attractions.
The paddle wheel is a large steel framework wheel. The outer edge of the wheel is fitted with numerous, regularly spaced paddle blades (called floats or buckets). The bottom quarter or so of the wheel travels under water. An engine rotates the paddle wheel in the water to producethrust, forward or backward as required. More advanced paddle-wheel designs feature "feathering" methods that keep each paddle blade closer to vertical while in the water to increase efficiency. The upper part of a paddle wheel is normally enclosed in a paddlebox to minimise splashing.
The three types of paddle wheel steamer are sidewheel, with one paddlewheelamidships on each side; sternwheel, with a single paddlewheel at thestern; and (rarely) inboard, with the paddlewheel mounted in a recess amidships.[1]
The earlieststeam vessels were powered by sidewheels, by far the dominant mode of marine steam propulsion, both for steamships and steamboats until the increasing adoption ofscrew propulsion from the 1850s. Though the sidewheels and enclosingsponsons make them wider than sternwheelers, sidewheelers may be more maneuverable, since some can move the paddles at different speeds, and even in opposite directions. This extra maneuverability makes sidewheelers popular on the narrower, winding rivers of theMurray–Darling system in Australia, where a number still operate.
European sidewheelers, such asPS Waverley, connect the wheels with solid drive shafts that limit maneuverability and give the craft a wide turning radius. Some were built with paddle clutches that disengage one or both paddles so they can turn independently. However, wisdom gained from early experience with sidewheelers deemed that they be operated with clutches out,[citation needed] or as solid-shaft vessels. Crews noticed that as ships approached the dock, passengers moved to the side of the ship ready to disembark. The shift in weight, added to independent movements of the paddles, could lead to imbalance and potentialcapsizing.[citation needed] Paddle tugs were frequently operated with clutches in, as the lack of passengers aboard meant that independent paddle movement could be used safely and the added maneuverability exploited to the full.
Most sidewheelers used two wheels, but some ships, such as theSS Bessemer, had multiple wheels behind each other.
Although the first sternwheel powered ships were invented in Europe, they saw the most service in North America, especially on the Mississippi River.Enterprise was built atBrownsville, Pennsylvania, in 1814 as an improvement over the less efficient sidewheeler. The second sternwheeler built,Washington of 1816, had two decks and served as the prototype for all subsequentsteamboats of the Mississippi.[2]
Recessed or inboard paddlewheel boats were designed to ply narrow and snag-infested backwaters. By recessing the wheel within the hull it was protected somewhat from damage. It was enclosed and could be spun at a high speed to provide acute maneuverability. Most were built with inclined steam cylinders mounted on both sides of the paddleshaft and timed 90 degrees apart like a locomotive,[citation needed] making them instantly reversing.
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A simple paddle wheel has fixed paddles around its periphery, which are inefficient except when perpendicular to the water. To avoid loss of power when angled paddles enter and leave the water surface, linkages connected to a fixedeccentric wheel placed slightly forward of the main wheel centre align them vertically while under water.[3]
The use of a paddle wheel in navigation appears for the first time in the mechanical treatise of theRoman engineerVitruvius (De architectura, X 9.5–7), where he describes multigeared paddle wheels working as a shipodometer. The first mention of paddle wheels as a means of propulsion comes from the fourth– or fifth-century military treatiseDe Rebus Bellicis (chapter XVII), where the anonymous Roman author describes an ox-driven paddle-wheel warship:
Animal power, directed by the resources on ingenuity, drives with ease and swiftness, wherever utility summons it, a warship suitable for naval combats, which, because of its enormous size, human frailty as it were prevented from being operated by the hands of men. In its hull, or hollow interior, oxen, yoked in pairs to capstans, turn wheels attached to the sides of the ship; paddles, projecting above the circumference or curved surface of the wheels, beating the water with their strokes like oar-blades as the wheels revolve, work with an amazing and ingenious effect, their action producing rapid motion. This warship, moreover, because of its own bulk and because of the machinery working inside it, joins battle with such pounding force that it easily wrecks and destroys all enemy warships coming at close quarters.[5]
Italian physicianGuido da Vigevano (circa 1280–1349), planning for a newCrusade, made illustrations for a paddle boat that was propelled by manually turnedcompound cranks.[6]
One of the drawings of the Anonymous Author of theHussite Wars shows a boat with a pair of paddlewheels at each end turned by men operating compound cranks.[7] The concept was improved by the ItalianRoberto Valturio in 1463, who devised a boat with five sets, where the parallel cranks are all joined to a single power source by one connecting rod, an idea adopted by his compatriotFrancesco di Giorgio.[7]
In 1539, Spanish engineerBlasco de Garay received the support ofCharles V to build ships equipped with manually-powered side paddle wheels. From 1539 to 1543, Garay built and launched five ships, the most famous being the modified PortuguesecarrackLa Trinidad, which surpassed a nearbygalley in speed and maneuverability on June 17, 1543, in the harbor ofBarcelona. The project, however, was discontinued.[8] 19th century writer Tomás González claimed to have found proof that at least some of these vessels were steam-powered, but this theory was discredited by the Spanish authorities. It has been proposed that González mistook a steam-powereddesalinator created by Garay for a steam boiler.[8]
In 1705, Papin constructed a ship powered by hand-cranked paddles. An apocryphal story originating in 1851 byLouis Figuire held that this ship was steam-powered rather than hand-powered and that it was therefore the first steam-powered vehicle of any kind. The myth was refuted as early as 1880 byErnst Gerland [de], though still it finds credulous expression in some contemporary scholarly work.[9]
In 1787, Scottish banker and inventorPatrick Miller of Dalswinton designed a double-hulled boat that was propelled on theFirth of Forth by men working a capstan that drove paddles on each side.[10]
One of the first functioningsteamships,Palmipède, which was also the first paddle steamer, was built in France in 1774 by MarquisClaude de Jouffroy and his colleagues. The 13 m (42 ft 8 in) steamer with rotating paddles sailed on theDoubs River in June and July 1776. In 1783, a new paddle steamer by de Jouffroy,Pyroscaphe, successfully steamed up the riverSaône for 15 minutes before the engine failed. Bureaucracy and the French Revolution thwarted further progress by de Jouffroy.
The next successful attempt at a paddle-driven steam ship was by Scottish engineerWilliam Symington, who suggested steam power toPatrick Miller of Dalswinton.[10] Experimental boats built in 1788 and 1789 worked successfully onLochmaben Loch. In 1802, Symington built abarge-hauler,Charlotte Dundas, for theForth and Clyde Canal Company. It successfully hauled two 70-ton barges almost 20 mi (32 km) in 6 hours against a strong headwind on test in 1802. Enthusiasm was high, but some directors of the company were concerned about the banks of the canal being damaged by the wash from a powered vessel, and no more were ordered.
WhileCharlotte Dundas was the first commercial paddle steamer andsteamboat, the first commercial success was possiblyRobert Fulton'sClermont in New York, which went into commercial service in 1807 between New York City andAlbany. Many other paddle-equipped river boats followed all around the world; the first in Europe beingPS Comet designed byHenry Bell which started a scheduled passenger service on theRiver Clyde in 1812.[11]
In 1812, the first U.S. Mississippi River paddle steamer began operating out of New Orleans. By 1814,Captain Henry Shreve, an inventor and namesake ofShreveport, Louisiana, had developed a "steamboat" suitable for local conditions. The term stuck for vessels operating on the Mississippi River system, and landings in New Orleans went from 21 in 1814 to 191 in 1819, and over 1,200 in 1833.
The first stern-wheeler was designed byGerhard Moritz Roentgen from Rotterdam, and used between Antwerp and Ghent in 1827.[12]
Team boats, large paddle boats driven by horses or mules, were used forferries the United States from the 1820s–1850s, as they were economical and did not incur licensing costs imposed by the steam navigation monopoly. The mechanism comprised either acapstan or atreadmill, transferring the drive through gearing. In the 1850s, they were replaced by steamboats.[13]
After the American Civil War, as the expanding railroads took many passengers, the traffic became primarily bulk cargoes. The largest, and one of the last, paddle steamers on the Mississippi was the sternwheelerSprague. Built in 1901, she pushed coal and petroleum until 1948.[14][15][16][17][18]
In Europe from the 1820s, paddle steamers were used to take tourists from the rapidly expanding industrial cities on river cruises, or to the newly establishedseaside resorts, wherepleasure piers were built to allow passengers to disembark regardless of the state of the tide. Later, these paddle steamers were fitted with luxurious saloons in an effort to compete with the facilities available on the railways. Notable examples are theThames steamers which took passengers from London toSouthend-on-Sea andMargate,Clyde steamers that connected Glasgow with the resort ofRothsay and theKöln-Düsseldorfer cruise steamers on theRiver Rhine. Paddle steamer services continued into the mid-20th century, when ownership of motor cars finally made them obsolete except for a few heritage examples.[19]
The first mention of a paddle-wheel ship from China is in theHistory of the Southern Dynasties, compiled in the 7th century but describing the naval ships of theLiu Song dynasty (420–479) used by admiral Wang Zhen'e in his campaign against theQiang in 418 AD. The ancient Chinese mathematician and astronomerZu Chongzhi (429–500) had a paddle-wheel ship built on the Xinting River (south ofNanjing) known as the "thousand league boat".[20] When campaigning againstHou Jing in 552, theLiang dynasty (502–557) admiral Xu Shipu employed paddle-wheel boats called "water-wheel boats". At the siege of Liyang in 573, the admiral Huang Faqiu employed foot-treadle powered paddle-wheel boats. A successful paddle-wheel warship design was made in China by Prince Li Gao in 784 AD, during an imperial examination of the provinces by theTang dynasty (618–907) emperor.[21] The ChineseSong dynasty (960–1279) issued the construction of many paddle-wheel ships for its standingnavy, and according to the British biochemist, historian, and sinologistJoseph Needham:
"...between 1132 and 1183 (AD) a great number of treadmill-operated paddle-wheel craft, large and small, were built, including sternwheelers and ships with as many as 11 paddle-wheels a side,".[22]
The standard Chinese term "wheel ship" was used by the Song period, whereas a litany of colorful terms were used to describe it beforehand. In the 12th century, the Song government used paddle-wheel shipsen masse to defeat opposing armies of pirates armed with their own paddle-wheel ships. At theBattle of Caishi in 1161, paddle-wheelers were also used with great success against theJin dynasty (1115–1234) navy.[23] The Chinese used the paddle-wheel ship even during theFirst Opium War (1839–1842) and for transport around thePearl River during the early 20th century.
The first seagoing trip of a paddle steamer was by theAlbany in 1808. It steamed from theHudson River along the coast to theDelaware River. This was purely for the purpose of moving a river-boat to a new market, but paddle-steamers began regular short coastal trips soon after. In 1816 Pierre Andriel, a French businessman, bought in London the 15 hp (11 kW) paddle steamerMargery (later renamedElise) and made an eventful London-Le Havre-Paris crossing, encountering heavy weather on the way. He later operated his ship as a river packet on the Seine, between Paris and Le Havre.
In 1822Charles Napier'sAaron Manby, the world's first iron ship, made the first direct steam crossing from London to Paris and the first seagoing voyage by an iron ship.[24] The first paddle-steamer to make a long ocean voyage crossing the Atlantic Ocean wasSS Savannah, built in 1819 expressly for this service.Savannah set out from the port ofSavannah, Georgia forLiverpool on May 24, 1819, sighting Ireland after 23 days at sea.[25] This was the first powered crossing of the Atlantic, althoughSavannah was built as a sailing ship with a steam auxiliary; she also carried a full rig of sail for when winds were favorable, being unable to complete the voyage under power alone.
In 1838,Sirius, a fairly small steam packet built for theCork toLondon route, became the first vessel to cross the Atlantic under sustained steam power, beatingIsambard Kingdom Brunel's much largerGreat Western by a day.Great Western, however, was actually built for the transatlantic trade, and so had sufficient coal for the passage;Sirius had to burn furniture and other items after running out of coal.[26]Great Western's more successful crossing began the regular sailing of powered vessels across the Atlantic.Beaver was the first coastal steamship to operate in thePacific Northwest of North America. Paddle steamershelped open Japan to the Western World in the mid-19th century.
At 692 ft (211 m) and over 32,000 tons displacement, the largest paddle-steamer ever built was Brunel'sGreat Eastern, which also had screw and auxiliary sail propulsion in addition to its 56 ft (17 m) diameter sidewheels.
In oceangoing service, paddle steamers became much less useful after the invention of the screw propeller, but they remained in use in coastal service and as rivertugboats, thanks to their shallow draught and good maneuverability.
The last crossing of the Atlantic by paddle steamer began on September 18, 1969, the first leg of a journey to conclude six months and nine days later. The steam paddle tugEppleton Hall was never intended for oceangoing service, but nevertheless was steamed from Newcastle to San Francisco.[27] As the voyage was intended to be completed under power, the tug was rigged as steam propelled with a sail auxiliary. The transatlantic stage of the voyage was completed exactly 150 years after the voyage ofSavannah.
As of 2025, thePS Waverley is the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world.
Beginning in the 1820s, the BritishRoyal Navy began building paddle-drivensteam frigates andsteam sloops. By 1850 these had become obsolete due to the development of thepropeller – which was more efficient and less vulnerable to cannon fire or ramming. One of the first screw-driven warships,HMS Rattler (1843), demonstrated her superiority over paddle steamers during numerous trials, including one in 1845 where she pulled a paddle-driven sister ship backwards in afamed tug of war.[28]
However, paddle warships were used extensively by theRussian Navy during theCrimean War of 1853–1856, and by theUnited States Navy during theMexican War of 1846–1848 and theAmerican Civil War of 1861–1865. With the arrival ofironclad battleships from the late 1850s, the last remaining paddle frigates were decommissioned and sold intomerchant-navy service by the 1870s. These includedMiami, which became one of the firstBoston steamers in 1867.[29] Other paddle frigates were converted to auxiliary roles, a notable example isHMS Birkenhead, atroopship which was wrecked in 1852.[30]
At the start of theFirst World War, the Royal Navy requisitioned more than fifty pleasure paddle steamers for use as auxiliaryminesweepers.[31] The large spaces on their decks intended for promenading passengers proved to be ideal for handling the minesweeping booms and cables, and the paddles allowed them to operate in coastal shallows and estuaries. These were so successful that a new class of paddle ships, theRacecourse-class minesweepers, were ordered and 32 of them were built before the end of the war.[32]
In theSecond World War, some thirty pleasure paddle steamers were again requisitioned;[31] an added advantage was that their wooden hulls did not activate the new magnetic mines. The paddle ships formed six minesweepingflotillas, based at ports around the British coast. Other paddle steamers were converted to anti-aircraft ships. More than twenty paddle steamers were used as emergency troop transports during theDunkirk Evacuation in 1940,[31] where they were able to get close inshore to embark directly from the beach.[33] One example wasPS Medway Queen, which saved an estimated 7,000 men over the nine days of the evacuation, and claimed to have shot down three German aircraft.[34] Another paddle minesweeper,HMS Oriole, was deliberately beached twice to allow soldiers to cross to other vessels using her as a jetty.[35] The paddle steamers between them were estimated to have rescued 26,000 Allied troops during the operation, for the loss of six of them.[31] A number of paddle steamers participated in various roles in theNormandy landings in 1944 and supported the Allied advance along the coast of the Belgium and Holland.[36]
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![Finlandia Queen, a paddle-wheel ship from the 1990s in Tampere, Finland[37]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTampere_Finlandia_Queen.jpg)
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