Mr. Roosevelt's Steamboat: The First Steamboat to Travel the Mississippi Book

". . . reads like a novel." -- Publishers Weekly
". . . a vivid, fast-moving story." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune
". . . in a class by itself . . . surges with excitement." -- Louisiana History
". . . well-researched, vividly told." -- Waterways Journal
". . . intriguing romance, [a] taut, suspense-filled story, cataclysmic drama . . .a whale of a book!" -- Christian Herald In 1811, the steamboat New Orleans was the first to travel the Mississippi River in a four-month journey between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The only people brave enough to embark upon the journey were Nicholas Roosevelt; his pregnant wife, Lydia Latrobe; and their young daughter. During the course of the trip, the brilliant, yet reckless, Roosevelt led his family through navigational perils, hostile Indians, and fire aboard. The small, fire-engine-powered steamboat saw not only the birth of Roosevelt and Latrobeís second child, but also the greatest earthquake ever to strike Eastern United States. That cataclysmic event, described in the book from first-hand accounts, destroyed villages, swallowed islands, and reversed the course of the Mississippi River.
Mr. Roosevelt's Steamboat is an authoritative account of a twenty-five-hundred-mile voyage that significantly contributed to the United Statesí transportation revolution. The dynamic main characters share tender romance and great courage. Their incredible trip down the Mississippi assured the future of steam navigation and the progress of the great westward movement.