New Orleans was the first steamboat on the western waters of the United States. Her 1811–1812 voyage from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to New Orleans, Louisiana, on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers ushered in the era of commercial steamboat navigation on the western and mid-western continental rivers.
New Orleans was part of a business venture among Robert Fulton (1765–1815), Robert R. Livingston (1746–1813), and Nicholas Roosevelt (1767–1854) to build and operate steamboats on America's western waters, including the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Fulton had already successfully commercialized the use of the steamboat on the Hudson River above New York City with his North River Steamboat (often called Clermont) in 1807. In addition, Fulton became familiar with the Ohio River during a visit to Pittsburgh in 1786. Livingston was a wealthy New York politician and inventor who helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase while minister to France from 1800 to 1804. Fulton and Livingston became partners and consulted with Nicholas Roosevelt, an inventor and expert on steamboats. Livingston's side-wheel design ended up being crucial to the success of their joint venture.
After Fulton and Livingston obtained U.S. industrial patents for their "steamboat" design, they hoped to increase their profits from the exclusive rights granted by the state governments of New York State and Louisiana to steam navigation on the Hudson and Mississippi Rivers. The two men realized the great potential for steamboat traffic on the western waters, and within twelve days of the completion of Clermont's first voyage, they began to plan for the introduction of a steamboat on the western rivers.
At the time, Roosevelt manufactured copper and steam engines at the Soho Works on the Passaic River at Belleville, New Jersey, one of the best foundries in the nation. Roosevelt had worked on a stern-wheel steamboat for Livingston from 1798 to 1800, but stopped when he lost his government contracts for supplying copper for warships.
In 1798, Roosevelt tried unsuccessfully to convince Livingston to use side-wheels in his designs, but Livingston insisted on a stern-wheel. However, after exhausting other options, Fulton and Livingston eventually used side-wheels on Clermont. The two men were also in Roosevelt's debt for originally training and employing many of Fulton's highly skilled workmen.
As part of their plans for a steamboat voyage from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, Fulton and Livingston sent Roosevelt to Pittsburgh to explore, survey, and test the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In addition, Roosevelt had to locate supplies and coal deposits that could be mined and brought at a later time to the western rivers to fuel steam-powered boats. Roosevelt arrived in Pittsburgh in April or May 1809 with his young wife, Lydia, the daughter of his business partner, Benjamin H. Latrobe (1764–1820), noted British-American architect who was then Architect of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., with the United States Capitol construction then underway. According to a notation by Fulton, Roosevelt was paid $600 for an exploratory Mississippi River expedition on June 28, 1809. Roosevelt and his pregnant wife began a six-month journey in a flatboat (built on the Monongahela River above Pittsburgh) to explore the steamboat's intended route downriver on the Ohio-Mississippi route to New Orleans. Roosevelt carried letters of introduction to all the important people along the route (Cincinnati, Louisville, and Natchez were insignificant towns at that time and the only places of any importance), but none, least of all the pilots and boatmen, believed he could ever navigate the western waters with a steamboat. During this exploratory voyage, Roosevelt recorded depths and measured currents for later reference. Near the present-day town of Cannelton, Indiana, Roosevelt purchased property and arranged to have coal mined and moved to the banks of the Ohio River, where it would become a useful fuel source when the steamboat arrived later. After reaching New Orleans, near the Gulf of Mexico coast, on December 1, 1809, Roosevelt and his wife sailed home to New York, arriving on January 15, 1810.
After Roosevelt gave a favorable report to Fulton and Livingston, he returned with his wife and daughter to Pittsburgh in 1810 to oversee construction of the new steamboat. Because of the "Falls of the Ohio" with its shallows, rapids and rocky "white water" at Louisville, Kentucky, the entire length of the Ohio River could not be easily navigated by boat, so the partners planned to divide the western steamboat commerce into two sections, where one operated steamboats from Pittsburgh to the Falls at Louisville, and the other from Louisville downstream to New Orleans. Roosevelt, who intended to steam the new boat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and put her into service at New Orleans, named her New Orleans, in honor of the city that would be her home port. Designed by Fulton, Roosevelt brought shipbuilders and mechanics from New York to build the steamboat on the banks of the Monongahela River, a short distance from its junction at "The Point" with the Allegheny River. The majority of the machinery for the boat was made in New York and hauled overland to Pittsburgh because the latter city did not have a local manufacturer with sufficient capacity to the work at the time. The boat's single cylinder, low pressure steeple engine, which was based on a James Watt, (1736–1819), and Matthew Boulton, (1728–1809), joint design, and its copper boiler were assembled by engineers William Robinson and Nicholas D. Baker and placed in its hold. Historians have debated whether New Orleans had a stern-wheel paddle or two side-wheel paddles, but evidence that The New Orleans was a side-wheeler rather than a stern-wheeler is supported by contemporary accounts, including the newspaper, "Louisiana Gazette and Advertiser" report on January 13, 1812, that noted it was detained by the breaking of "one'" of its wheels, and an account of the ship's sinking in 1814 that contained a reference to the "wheel on the larboard side". The pinewood used for planking was obtained from nearby forests and sent down the Monongahela River. Similar to other Fulton-designed steamboats, New Orleans also carried a mast, spars, and two sails as back-up, in case the steam engine failed or fuel ran short.
The most accurate estimates put New Orleans at 148 feet 6 inches (45.26 m) long, 32 feet 6 inches (9.91 m) wide, and 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, and measured 371 tons burden. Her size was considerably larger than the barges, then the largest craft on the rivers at the time, which rarely exceeded 100 feet (30 m) in length. On New Orleans, the cabins below the deck provided space for up to sixty passengers. The total cost of the construction was about $38,000, a considerable sum for that time. The boat, first launched on the Monongahela River in March 1811, took many months to complete. On her first test run, Roosevelt steamed the new boat down the Monongahela River to the Ohio River, then up the Allegheny River, where she reached a speed of 3 miles per hour (5 km/h), but stalled against a strong current.
After a successful trial trip around Pittsburgh on 15 October 1811, New Orleans finally steamed for New Orleans on October 20, with Roosevelt as the captain and his pregnant wife and young daughter as passengers. The crew consisted of the engineer, Nicholas Baker; the pilot, Andrew Jack; six hands; two female servants for Mrs. Roosevelt; a waiter; a cook; and a Newfoundland dog named Tiger. The people of Pittsburgh turned out en masse to witness the departure of the steamboat. The first night Roosevelt and his wife were too excited to sleep and watched the shore, covered in almost unbroken forest, as it passed. The pilot was reassured about the chances of success by the boat's ease of steering and uniformly quick speed. The next morning, October 21, New Orleans was cheered by the villagers of Beaver, Pennsylvania. They had seen the boat approaching down a straight stretch of the river. During her first stop, at Wheeling, then on Virginia's northwestern point, Roosevelt welcomed crowds aboard the ship, charging them a twenty-five-cent fee for the opportunity and tour.