Walk-in-the-Water (steamboat)

42°52′41″N 78°53′06″W / 42.878°N 78.885°W / 42.878; -78.885

Walk-in-the-Water – 1895 pen-and-ink drawing by S. W. Stanton, based on an unidentified earlier image
History
NameWalk-in-the-Water
OwnerLake Erie Steamboat Company
RouteBuffalo, New York – Detroit, Michigan
Launched28 May 1818
Maiden voyage25 August 1818
FateRan aground, 1 November 1821
NotesFirst steamboat to traverse three of the Great Lakes
General characteristics
TypeSidewheel steamboat
Tonnage240 tons burden
Length132 ft (40 m)
Beam32 ft (9.8 m)
Depth8.5 ft (2.6 m)
Installed powerCrosshead steam engine
PropulsionSidewheels; auxiliary sails
Speed6–10 mph (9.7–16 km/h)

Walk-in-the-Water was a sidewheel steamboat that played a pioneering role in steamboat navigation on the Great Lakes. She was the first such craft to run on Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.[1] Launched in 1818, she transported people and supplies to sites and points of interest around the Great Lakes, before being grounded and wrecked in a gale force storm in Buffalo's bay in 1821. According to some sources, Walk-in-the-Water's name originated from an Indian's impression of a steamboat moving ("walking") on the water with no sails.[2][3]

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