Portal:Shreveport/Selected article/December 2006

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Captain Henry Miller Shreve

Henry Miller Shreve (October 21, 1785 – 1854) was an American inventor and steamboat captain and the man who opened up the Mississippi, Ohio and Red Rivers to steamboat navigation. Shreve was also instrumental in breaking the Fulton-Livingston monopoly on steamboat traffic on the lower Mississippi. He was the first riverboat captain to travel the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans and back, as well as the first to bring a keelboat from the Ohio River, up the Mississippi to the Fever River. Shreve also made significant improvements to the steamboat and the steam engine, such as separate boilers to power side paddlewheels independently, horizontal cylinders, and multiple decks to allow for passengers and entertainment.