Steamboats - Ships, Captains, Passengers and Disasters

In Eastern Canada steamboats traveled up the St Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and back carrying goods and passengers.

Arrival of Steamboat "Valleyfield" at St Helen's Island, Montreal, c1907

Schedules for steamboats could be found in the newspapers and the Almanac. Here are some of the routes.

On June 25, 1857 the steamboat "Montreal" , running between Quebec and Montreal caught fire and 264 lives were lost. Here is an accounting of this disaster through several newspaper articles.





Relevant Links

Lloyd's steamboat directory, and disaster on the western waters 1856

Maritime History of the Great Lakes - Steamboats

St Lawrence Steamboat Co Passenger Records (The Ships List)

Steamboat disasters and railroad accidents in the United States 1840

Steamboat owners - New York and Long Island Sound: memorial of sundry proprietors and managers of American steam vessels - 1840

New York's awful steamboat horror, with photos and images, 1904

Report of the St. Andrew's Society charitable committee of the receipts and disbursements of the special fund for the relief of the sufferers by the burning of the steamer "Montreal" on the 26th June 1857

Report of steamboat "Montreal" fire in the True Witness and Catholic Cronicle, 1857 (pg8)

Up and down the Thames, from London Bridge... to the sea - Victoria Steamboat Assn

The Atlantic ferry; its ships, men and working 1900

Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, on the History and Causes of Steamboat Explosions, 1839

Oldest Anglican church in Montreal celebrates 185 years, with list of victims of the steamer Shamrock

Northern Prairie Steamboats (Manitoba Historical Society)

Fifty ears on the Mississippi 1889

Old Steamboat days on the Hudson River: tales and reminiscences 1907

History of steamboating on the Minnesota River, 1905

The Clyde passenger steamer, Scotland 1904




Related posts:

Maritime Pilots

Shipwrecks

Remarkable Shipwrecks and Naval Disasters 

Masters and Mates