Title: From Wood To Fuel Oil 2

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Fiddlinsue

Rank：none Score：220 Posts：220 From：USA Register：11/11/2008 8:17 AM

Date Posted：01/23/2009 12:00 AMCopy HTML "RIVER BUSINESS DEPENDED ON FUEL" The fuel was all-important. When the supply of resinous pine knots had gone up in black smoke, other fast burning fuel was commandeered. The story is told of a timid Kentucky woman, personally overseeing a shipment of lard on a riverboat. In the heat of a race, with the captain of her boat handicapped with no oil for his wood, her gambling spirit over came her caution, and she cried, "Cap'n, if you don't set your crew to work getting my lard out of the hold, I will! Where I come from, we race horses, and this is better than any thoroughbred event I ever saw!" If the cordwood supply gave out, the captain occasionally used the panels of the ship's quarters, and even the furniture. Cotton sometimes was thrown under the boilers for fuel. Everything was sacrificed to prevent a rival's beating him to New Orleans for business. Weather and current occasionally delayed a steamboat's progress, and her captain ran low on wood. The only thing to do then was run the boat  to the river bank, and turn all hands loose cutting fuel from the woods which lined much of the shore. Even under the best conditions, wood was inconvenient, slowed up shipping, usurped valuable deck space, and its use made the captain dependent on a decreasing source of supply. By the late 1850's coal was gaining in popularity, because it was more compact for storage, and gave more heat per ton.  Coal mines were gradually being developed, and an adequate supply was found to exist in many states along the Mississippi and its tributaries. Carted in wagons or hauled by train to these rivers, the fuel was floated down stream on huge rafts or barges. Refueling the steamboats was handled by "picking-up" a coal barge and towing it behind while the coal was loaded.  Then the barge was cast off and, with its crew aboard, allowed to drift back to its home wharf, if the steamboat were going up-river, or to drift to the next town, if the steamboat were bound down-stream. This operation was performed with feverish activity when the steamboat was racing, because every delay was a source of real annoyance and very possible loss of revenue to the captain and owners. This set is not linkware. It is not to leave this site in whole or in part. The backgrounds and images were created by me (Fiddlinsue). Images are from my own personal collection.