Phoenix (boat)

The Phoenix was a steamboat built by John Stevens and his son, Robert L. Stevens, in 1806-1807 in Hoboken, New Jersey.

"Phoenix" was convert|50|ft|m long, convert|12|ft|m wide and convert|7|ft|m deep. It had a single screw propeller, and had 25 cabin berths and additional 12 berths in steerage.

Originally built to sail from New Brunswick, New Jersey to New York, "Phoenix" became the first steamboat to sail the open ocean, from New York to Philadelphia, in June 1809. The reason for this journey was that the restrictions placed on Stevens by the New York steamboat monopoly held by Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston made it so that he could not operate profitably. Stevens decided to risk a journey over the open ocean so that he could operate on the Delaware river.

The journey was hazardous, and a schooner accompanying "Phoenix" was driven off by a storm. "Phoenix" made harbor at Barnegat, New Jersey, and after waiting several days for the storm to subside, eventually sailed around New Jersey and up the Delaware river.

Following the journey, "Phoenix" made her first trip on the Delaware between Philadelphia and Trenton, on July 5, 1809.

References

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=l2Z1LyE4DY8C "A Chronological History of the Origin and Development of Steam Navigation"] , George Henry Preble, 1883, pp. 42, 49, and 56