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The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce
By Ronald R. Switzer UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
Copyright © 2013 University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-87062-426-1
CHAPTER 1
The Steamboat Bertrand
IN THE EARLY SUMMER OF 1864, GEORGE FELLER AND THOMAS C. Reed of Wheeling, West Virginia, and their partners George Laing, Lewis W. Cochran, and Jeremiah W. Cochran of neighboring Monroe County, Ohio, contracted with Wilson, Dunlevy, & Co. of Wheeling to construct a light-draft steamboat in the boat-building yards of the first ward. They named the boat the Argiota. Although the kinds of river trade the boat was to be used in is uncertain, she was built pretty much to the design trends and practices of the time for boats used on the Ohio River. However, a few of her features apparently were new adaptations in the evolutionary development of steamboats of her day. How she eventually came to be part of the Upper Missouri River trade is not altogether clear, but given the growing need for steamboats to transport mining and agricultural equipment, tools, groceries, and other supplies to the mines and booming communities in Montana Territory, it is not surprising that she was bought by several St. Louis entrepreneurs looking to monopolize transportation to that frontier.
Wheeling, West Virginia, was an important boat-building center strategically located on the Ohio River near abundant supplies of hard, flexible, water-resistant white oak for building steamboats and near steel mills and iron foundries with furnaces capable of turning out steamboat engines, boilers, and other components. Here the hull and keelson of the Argiota were constructed on beaching timbers and calked with pitch and oakum. She was then towed to Pittsburgh, where her cabins were constructed by Isaac Gullett of Allegheny City. Her furnishings were provided by J. and G. Mendel, and she was painted by James Stewart, both of Pittsburgh. After her cabins and furnishings were completed, the Argiota was towed back to Wheeling, where the boilers and machinery were installed by the A. J. Sweeney & Son iron foundry.
Apparently the machinery (engine(s), etc.) had been salvaged from the steamboat A. J. Sweeney, a sternwheel packet boat built by and named for Andrew J. Sweeney in 1863. This boat, captained by George Hill of St. Louis, hit a bridge pier on the Cumberland River on March 9, 1864, and burned and sank at Clarksville, Tennessee. It was believed by Bertrand steamboat archaeologist and historian Jerome E. Petsche that while A. J. Sweeney & Son produced and installed the boilers, mud and steam drums, and other machinery on the Argiota, Wilson, Dunlevy, & Co. assisted in trussing the vessel from bow to stern with hog chains and beams in a suspension system resembling the upper works of a bridge.
Very little biographic information has been recovered about the builders and outfitters of the Argiota except for Andrew Sweeney. Peter Dunlevy was a master carpenter, shipwright, and joiner respected for building fast and light boats. Some vessels that were copied after his designs were given such names as the Arabia and Desert Queen. River pilots, who often were fond of good jokes and masters of primitive literary similes, would submit that all you had to do to launch a Dunlevy boat was to pour a keg of beer over the bow. Some said with a grin that it would, in fact, float on the foam. Certainly the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer supported this notion, saying that the Bertrand (Argiota) was "a nice trim little steamer, and it sits upon the water like a duck." The only thing known about Isaac Gullett is that, according to the Mormon archives, he was born April 11, 1817, and died April 17, 1899.
A good deal more is known about Andrew J. Sweeney and his family. The Thomas Sweeney family came to Wheeling from Pittsburgh in 1830, when Thomas purchased the shops and property of the North Wheeling Manufacturing Co. He was married to Rosanna Matthews, by whom he sired four children: Andrew J., Rebecca, Thomas Campbell (T. C.), and Robert H. Andrew was the eldest; he entered his father's business as a partner in 1858 and succeeded him in 1874. Thomas Sweeney and his brothers and sons produced engines, mill machinery, foundry castings, and steamboats. After Andrew assumed control of the business, he took his son John M. Sweeney as a partner and expanded the company line of products.
Apparently A. J. Sweeney was a natural leader. He held the office of mayor of Wheeling between 1855 and 1881 and served as a colonel of militia during the Civil War. He also was appointed by President Grant as a commissioner to the Vienna Exposition in 1873 and served again as commissioner to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. His leadership and progressive outlook was again demonstrated when he brought electric lights to four Wheeling businesses on September 13, 1882. Sweeney died at Wheeling on February 14, 1893.
When construction of the Argiota was complete, the steamboat's master, Captain Benjamin F. Goodwin, inexplicably enrolled the boat at Wheeling on November 25, 1864, as the Bertrand. Her enrolled capacity was 251-61/95 tons. She was 161 feet long, 32 feet 9 inches in beam, with a 5 foot 2 inch mean depth of hold. It is uncertain whether changing the name of the steamboat from the Argiota to the Bertrand signaled a change in ownership, but this seems unlikely because Jeremiah Cochran, who was the clerk on the steamboat and part owner, was on board when the Bertrand left the port of Wheeling on her maiden voyage. Whatever the case, the Bertrand left Wheeling for St. Louis on November 26, 1864, with Captain Goodwin at the helm. Although her cargo was composed mainly of 6,000 kegs of nails, she had other freight and also stopped briefly on November 30 at Cincinnati to pick up several hundred cases of Hostetter's Bitters. After her arrival at St. Louis in December, the boat may have been chartered to the Merchants and Peoples Line, a group of twenty-two vessels including the Paragon, Lillie Martin, and Sultana that are known to have been operating on the Mississippi River. Apparently this company chose not to keep the Bertrand idle, and she made trips to Cairo, Paducah, and Nashville. On the sixth of January, the Bertrand headed to New Orleans, returning by the end of the month. Suddenly, in early February, the original owners sold the Bertrand to Captain James A. Yore and John E. Yore for $40,000 cash, whereupon they sold part of their interests to the newly formed Montana and Idaho Transportation Co., the largest firm then engaged in Upper Missouri transportation of freight.
The Montana and Idaho Transportation Company was organized in 1864 and included John J. Roe, John G. Copeland, and Captain James A. Yore. These men and a much larger group were investing in the gold rush in Montana Territory, and the Bertrand was to be part of Roe's transportation company. John Roe and his son-in-law John G. Copeland owned several other mountain steamers including the Benton, Yellowstone, Fanny Ogden, and the Deer Lodge. They were also engaged in overland freighting with other partners, Captain Nick Wall, Matthew Carroll, George Steele, E. G. McClay, and company superintendent Col. Charles Broadwater. The overland freighting business operated under the name Diamond "R" Transportation Company and was organized about 1863 specifically to monopolize overland freighting between Fort Benton and the gold fields at Helena. In addition, Roe owned a lucrative porkpacking business in St. Louis under the name John J. Roe & Co. and later had extensive interests in insurance and banking. He also derived profits from a wholesale and retail business in Virginia City, Montana.
To keep the Bertrand productive until the spring rise of the Missouri River, she made trips to Boonville, Brunswick, Lexington, and Kansas City (more probably to Fort Leavenworth with munitions for the army). In late February 1865, the first of several newspaper advertisements announced the Bertrand's impending trip to Fort Benton in Montana Territory. By March 10, 1865, the Daily Missouri Democrat was heralding the trip. Sometime between late February and March 10, the Bertrand changed hands and was then destined to become a mountainclass freighter in the fleet of the Montana and Idaho Transportation Line.
Additional research begins to close in on the dates between which the Bertrand was sold and when she was advertised as leaving St. Louis for Fort Benton. The Tri-weekly Missouri Democrat for February 22, 1865, advertised the Bertrand as being readied to leave the St. Louis levee for Fort Benton, Montana, with Captain James A. Yore as master. The article exalted the Bertrand as "of light draught, with good carrying capacity and most excellent cabin accommodations, insuring to freighters and passengers that speed and safety so essential on a trip of this kind. Shippers may rely upon this being one of the first boats to Benton." By March 10, newspapers were definitely announcing ownership by the Montana and Idaho Transportation Line. Taking on a crew and cargo on March 16 and 17, the Bertrand left the St. Louis levee on March 18 with as many as forty passengers and 250 or more tons of cargo bound for Montana Territory. She was accompanied by five other Montana and Idaho Transportation Line boats, including the St. Johns, U. S. Grant, and the Converse, in addition to three other boats owned by competitors. St. Louis must have been a bustling port that spring because twenty steamboats arrived at and thirty-three departed from the docks in March alone.
Because shipping on the Upper Missouri was at its height in the mid-1860s and competition was fierce, steamboat captains and crews were paid very well. According to the St. Louis Evening News for April 18, 1866:
OFFICER'S SALARIES
(PER MONTH, INCLUDING ROOM AND BOARD)
Pilot $725
Captain 400
First Clerk 250
Second Clerk 125
CREW MEMBER SALARIES (PER MONTH)
First Mate $225
Second Mate 100
First Engineer 225
Second Engineer 125
Carpenter 150
Watchman 60
Steward 100
Cabin Boys 30
Firemen 55
Chambermaid 30
Roustabout 50
Cook 300
Cooks were usually paid a lump sum out of which they hired as many assistants as they needed. There is reference to removal of the cook's stove from the boiler deck to shore in Willard Barrows's account of the sinking of the Bertrand, but the crew that has been identified does not include a cook. According to steamboat historian William Lass, the average mountain boat going upriver to Fort Benton employed about thirty-eight officers and crew. It is obvious that the roster of officers and crew identified on Bertrand falls far short of Lass's figure by more than half.
Jeremiah Cochran, who was the first clerk on the Bertrand, was also part owner. Apparently it was not unusual for steamboat clerks, who essentially were the business managers on boats, to share in their ownership. According to steamboat historian Louis C. Hunter, a steamboat clerk was freight and passenger agent, "soliciting cargo, fixing rates, bargaining with shippers, making out waybills, checking cargo, and the like. He also purchased fuel and supplies, handled the payroll, shared in the hiring and dismissal of ordinary crew members, and performed a variety of other functions related to the management of the boat." In addition to the fact that Cochran was on board the Bertrand, there is some indication that the boat was originally intended for use between Wheeling and St. Louis, where goods would be transshipped to the Upper Missouri and bring handsome profits to Ohio River businessmen and boat owners. This speculation is supported by the fact that the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer for November 26, 1864, unequivocally states the Bertrand was on her "first" trip to St. Louis.
Although the architectural and engineering differences between the Bertrand and other boats may never be known, a little is known about some unusual features of the boat. Petsche, Allen L. Bates, and Bert Fenn all agree that in most respects, the Bertrand resembled a light draft Ohio River boat. She was constructed with a flat-bottom "carvel-built" hull with bottom and side planks meeting flush at the seams and had a "model bow" as opposed to boats that were constructed for the Upper Missouri River trade with "spoon-bill bows." It had an unusual rudder assembly that was relatively new for steamboats—two master rudders articulated with a slave that extended under the paddle wheel and the stern rake of the hull. Eventually, steamboats evolved to have three, and even four, articulated rudders. In addition, the stern paddle wheel was not set in a recess in the hull and extended beyond the stern by a system of trusses. The cast-iron wheels themselves had thirteen arms or spokes supporting the paddles or buckets, and the complete wheel extended beyond the width of the boat to a total length of twenty-eight feet. The wheel shaft was round as opposed to the hexagonal shafts on most boats of the day. While the Bertrand probably had bull rails to contain livestock on the main deck, none were found during the excavation. Only the sockets were in evidence, indicating there may not have been live animals onboard and that the deck space was given to additional cargo.
Only a few engine parts and machinery were recovered from the boat during the excavation, indicating that the salvage crew probably removed whatever was of value. However, the Bertrand almost certainly was equipped with two boilers 18 feet in length, 42 inches in diameter, with seven 8-inch flues. Its cylinders were 16 inches in diameter, with a 4-1/2 foot stroke. These features would have been fairly typical for boats of this size and time. Cylindrical high-pressure boilers of this type are described in detail by John Wallace in his 1865 treatise on modeling, constructing, and running steamboats. The Bertrand differed because it had two horizontal ash troughs under the boilers. The Bertrand's driving mechanism was probably similar to the classic horizontal example depicted by Louis Hunter. The valve and cam system recovered from the Bertrand shows that it probably employed an adjustable eccentric or cut off mounted on the shaft of the paddle wheel that allowed the engineer to close the steam valve at any desired point in the stroke of the cam. This allowed for economical use of steam under normal conditions. Full stroke and exhaust cams were found on the deck near the stern during excavation.
There is some conjecture about the number and arrangement of cabins for passengers and crew on the Bertrand. According to Louis Hunter, by the time of the Civil War, most steamboats were built with stacked decks: a main deck, boiler deck, and hurricane deck with a texas rising above it. In all likelihood, the Bertrand had no texas. When the hull depth fell below six feet (as was the case with the Bertrand), a good amount of cargo was stored on the main deck, and the boiler deck was raised in height to accommodate even more cargo. The upper deck, which was usually narrower than the main cabin and shorter in length, became known as the "texas." On early steamboats, the texas was a simple box-like extension of the pilot house that rose from the hurricane deck and provided cabin space for officers and crews. Later, the texas was extended about one-third the length of the vessel from the chimneys aft and provided accommodations for officers and passengers. No extension of this type was found during the excavation of the Bertrand, but it is likely that anything protruding above the waterline after the sinking was salvaged to make temporary shelter for the crew and salvage operators. A reconstruction of the boiler deck and cabins indicates the Bertrand could have had passenger cabin space for forty-five to fifty cabin passengers.
The Bertrand was equipped with four-foot wide main deck extensions on either side of the boat that were called guards. These could be used to carry light cargo such as cotton that could be stacked there nearly up to the uppermost deck. Guards were originally built to guard the paddle wheel(s) from snags and to provide bracing for the outer ends of the wheel shafts. The Bertrand's builders even took the precaution of limiting the length of the guards just short of the points in the bow where spars could be run down her sides to spar, lever, walk, or "grasshopper" the vessel across sandbars. "Grasshoppering" over sandbars was accomplished by planting the spars in a sandbar on either side and ahead of the bow pointing downstream and attaching them by cables or ropes to capstans on either side of the deck just behind the bow. When the paddle wheel was put in reverse, river water was dammed up and forced ahead of the boat, thrusting it over/across the bar. It is clear from her construction that this packet boat was meant to be as much at home on narrow channeled shallow waters in mountain country as on deeper channels of the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers. Although it is not certain, application of protective metal plating on the wheelhouse may have been accomplished at St. Louis prior to Bertrand's departure for the Upper Missouri.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce by Ronald R. Switzer. Copyright © 2013 University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS.
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