Question: How Are/Were Rear Paddle Steamers Steered?

mawnansmiff · May 7, 2019

I can understand how side paddle steamers were steered, just lower or raise the power given to any given paddle to alter direction accordingly but those with huge paddles at the rear, how was this accomplished?
Looking as I am now a woodcut of a beautiful 'rear wheeler' on the Assinboine River in a book about the Hudson's Bay Company I'm somewhat flummoxed as to how it was steered.
Any suggestions folks?
Regards,
Jay.

cosmicfolklore · May 7, 2019

Obviously it was counter-steering, as in motorcycles. Many will suggest it was by having everyone move to one side of the boat to tilt it in the direction they wanted to go, but really it was by steering into the opposite direction. : puffy

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mso489 · May 7, 2019

I always assumed it was by rudders, but I've never seen them illustrated in drawings of the hull designs. If it isn't rudders, I'd be interested what it is. Good question.

haparnold · May 7, 2019

I believe sternwheelers need flanking and steering rudders. But my authority on steamboats (the great John Hartford) has passed away.
I did find this with a little googling: http://www.steamboats.org/history-education/glossary/rudder.html

bassbug · May 7, 2019

I believe they were/are steered using both flanking and steering rudders.

timelord · May 7, 2019

Some rear wheelers have split wheels so they can steer in much the same ways as side wheelers by rotating the paddles at different speeds or in different directions to each other (pretty sure the one I went on in New Orleans several years ago was a split design but I can't find my photos of it).
But, not all rear wheelers have split paddles and I have not come across a description of how to steer a single paddle rear wheel steam steers.
I did spend some time one Sunday morning in Louisville KY watching one manoeuvring but was none the wiser (I would have asked some of the crew when they finally came ashore but to say they were none too-friendly would be an understatement).

mso489 · May 8, 2019

Speaking of boat and ship propulsion and steering, my minesweeper USS Gallant MSO 489 (oceangoing minesweeper) had a so-called pitch system that adjusted the angle of the propellor blades. I think it could play a role in both steering and degree of power applied to propulsion. But on that ship (all spruce wood hull, build in '56) the pitch system was hopelessly malfunctioning seemingly forever. We did dry dock time at Subic Bay PI, on and on at Guam in transit back to the U.S., and again in Todd Shipyards in Long Beach, and so far as I know, it was never right. As a radioman, I was party to the dog fights between our Annapolis grad pilot-trained captain and his commander, a bootstrap Commander acting as commodore of the minesweeper group, about the infernal pitch system. I think the ship is still being used under a changed name by the Taiwan navy. Status of pitch system unknown. Bottom line: The design of ships and their functionality are not always the same.

mau1 · May 8, 2019

Jay, you should read "History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River", by Hiram Martin Chittenden, written in 1903.
https://archive.org/details/historyofearlyst01chit/page/n7
I think you will find it interesting.
Mau

pappymac · May 8, 2019

They utilized rudders on both sides of the stern wheel. Side wheelers also had a rudder that was centerline on the stern.

cosmicfolklore · May 8, 2019

I just wonder why this is so intriguing, with so many more marvelous wonders have occured over the years. Take a look at those pedal boats that you can rent in state park lakes. The propulsion wheel is in the back, but yet a simple rudder steers it. Were you planning on building you a steam boat?

jpmcwjr · May 8, 2019

Even side wheelers had a rudder or two. Stern wheelers might have as many as five rudders! I think that two would be fitted just forward of the paddles.
And variable pitch props on boats is for efficiency, though feathering, etc. could help it steer. If you're on a long straight course, but have wind off your port beam, you might set the starboard prop turning faster than the port side, or change the pitch, or both. Or you might just set the rudder to offset the windage.

warren · May 8, 2019

Jay: Google: Whitehorse riverboat display. The boat on display shows the rudder. This boat, S.S. Klondike, was used on the Yukon for many years between Whitehorse and Dawson in the mid-1900's.

carolinachurchwarden · May 8, 2019

I assumed they were steered like this with two or more rudders behind the paddle wheels:

a-view-of-the-paddlewheel-steamboat-delta-queen-on-the-mississippi-AN8TNJ.jpg

mau1 · May 8, 2019

The levee fire of 1849, St. Louis Missouri.

jpmcwjr · May 8, 2019

I assumed they were steered like this with two or more rudders behind the paddle wheels:

Some obviously are!
There are also "paddle wheelers" whose propulsion is diesel powered twin screws, and whose motion is caused by dragging them through the water. Probably have bow thrusters, too....

mso489 · May 8, 2019

I've ridden the stern wheelers at New Orleans several times, but only on the last trip or two did I get down to the engine deck to view the navigation through the traffic in the heavily used port, just amazing how delicately the pilot threads through the large and small craft moving along in the currents and wakes. It is an amazing skill applied with a most delicate hand. There's about a foot freeboard and water sloshes up on deck now and then.

mawnansmiff · May 8, 2019

Well thanks chaps for all of your input, it's much appreciated. Clearly they do have rudders whether below water or in full view.
The one in the woodcut has nothing visible so presumably all is below water level.
All said and done, I should imagine these vessels were a pig to steer however it was achieved, particularly on fast running rivers.....being so huge, top heavy and often of shallow draught.
Thanks so much to all concerned :clap:
BTW, Michael, yes, I plan on building my very own stern wheeler to sail from Cornland all the way to Alabama to taste your homegrown baccy : puffy

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Regards,
Jay.

dukdalf · May 8, 2019

Another reading suggestion: Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi". Much detail on how these vessels managed to negotiate the ever-changing river, and why they often failed to do so. First-class reading if you are in to navigation.

scloyd · May 8, 2019

Here's a video about the Steamboat Arabia that sunk in the Missouri river in 1856 and was recovered 132 years later (1988) buried 45 feet below the surface in a farmer's cornfield. Steamboat Arabia
Here's the website to the Steamboat Arabia Museum in Kansas City. Steamboat Arabia Museum

Clay pipes survived the shipwreck, as did the tobacco to fill them. (Photo: Courtesy of the Arabia Steamboat Museum)
Today the collection is so vast it is housed in a former fruit market in Kansas City that the team turned into a museum. Walking inside is like stepping back in time into a well-stocked department store from just before the Civil War. And because of the peculiar nature of the moving of the Missouri River bank, the collection is mint and pristine. Crates of cognac and champagne taste just as they did in 1856. Household matches are dry enough to light the cords of still fragrant tobacco, that could still be smoked in the dozens upon dozens of preserved, delicate clay pipes.
That is some really aged tobacco.

mau1 · May 8, 2019

Dukdalf, the book I mentioned above was about the steamboat captain Joseph LaBarge. It is purported by a St. Louis newspaper that he taught Mark Twain about steamboats on the Mississippi.
"History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River", by Hiram Martin Chittenden, written in 1903.
https://archive.org/details/historyofearlyst01chit/page/n7

Question: How Are/Were Rear Paddle Steamers Steered?

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