The First Steamboat?

Robert Fulton invented the steamboat in 1807. The Clermont right? That’s what they taught us in school anyway. Actually, he built the first successful steamboat used commercially. However, he did not introduce first steamboat. If you listen to the folks in West Virginia, that honor should more properly go to James Rumsey.


Shepherdstown

James Rumsey Monument. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Rumsey Monument

Twelve Mile Circle finds itself today in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, a small locale on the eastern panhandle, set atop a bluff overlooking the Potomac River. A tall column rises upon a hillside in a peaceful park at the backside of town. I walked closer to get a better look at the marker bolted to its base:

“In Honor of James Rumsey, inventor of the steamboat, who in October, A. D. 1783, on the Potomac River near the mouth of Sir John’s Run, made the first successful application of steam to the practical purpose of navigation, and on December 3rd, 1787 made a further successful demonstration on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown Virginia, about three hundred yards above this site. Erected by the State of West Virginia under the auspices of the Rumsey Society, A. D. 1915”

So an operational steamboat existed at least 20 years before Robert Fulton grabbed the glory.


On the Potomac

Potomac River, West Virginia. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The Potomac River at Shepherdstown

The steamboat made its demonstration run right along this stretch of the Potomac River, just upstream from the monument. The bridge in the distance carries traffic between West Virginia on the left bank and Maryland on the right. This bridge is from the modern era, but other earlier bridges crossed here as evidenced by the crumbling pilings midstream.

James Rumsey plaque in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
A plaque on the Rumsey Monument

The monument’s reverse contains an interpretative depiction of “James Rumsey’s Boat.” He designed a kind of jet propulsion mechanism that drew water from the river through the bottom of the boat and pushed it out through a pipe at the stern. It was rather clever. Unfortunately Rumsey died before his ideas and refinements caught the public’s attention, leaving others to forge ahead and develop more practical applications. He has been largely forgotten by history.

James Rumsey built his machine in West Virginia (albeit still a part Virginia at the time) and the state takes justifiable pride in his accomplishments. However it’s a bit ironic that the demonstration actually took place in Maryland, which owns this stretch of the Potomac River. West Virginia memorializes his success but the act took place across the state line.

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