CATALOGUE OF THE WATERCRAFT COLLECTION. 



49 



July, 1788, which was the longest trip that had been made by any 

 steamboat up to that date. On October 12, 1788, she took 30 pas- 

 sengers from Philadelphia to Burlington in 3 hours and 10 minutes, 

 attaining a speed of over 6 miles an hour. In 1790 Fitch built 

 another boat which attained a speed of 8 miles an hour. This 

 steamboat ran on the Delaware River as a packet, carrying passen- 

 gers and freight for three or four months. In its issue of Monday, 

 July 26, 1790, the Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Daily Adver- 

 tiser contained the following notice : " The Steamhoat sets out to- 

 morrow at 10 o'clock from Arch Street Ferry, in order to take pas- 

 sengers from Burlington, Bristol, Bordentown, and Trenton, and 

 return next day. — Philadelphia, July 26, 1790." The fact that she 



FIG. 6. JOHN FITCH'S STEAJIBOAT. 



was known as The Sfemnhoaf, would indicate that there were at 

 that time no other steamboats in existence. On the trial trip re- 

 ferred to. Congress, then in session in Philadelphia, adjourned to 

 witness the experiment. 

 Made in the Museum. Cat. No. 203,712 U.S.N.M. 



Model of John Stevens' twin-screw steamboat. 



The first screw-propeller steamboat to navigate the waters of any 

 country was built and engined by Col. John Stevens, in 1804, at 

 Hoboken, N. J., and tested in the waters of New York Harbor. 



An open wooden-keel boat of the ordinary ship's jolly-boat type; 

 full convex bow; stem curved, raking very strongly below water 

 line; round floor continued aft, the bottom rising in after section, 

 and the run formed by a skag; square, nearly vertical, nonoverhang- 

 ing stern ; iron rudder outside ; rather straight on top ; fitted inside 

 with three thwarts and the usual stern seats of the old-style jolly- 

 boat; boiler, engines, screw propellers, etc., located and arranged as 

 in the original steamboat. 



Dimensions of hoat. — Length over all, 24 feet 8 inches; beam, 

 6 feet 1 inch; width of stern, 4 feet 11 inches; depth, 2 feet 4^ inches; 

 scale of model, 2 inches equal 1 foot. 



