Bristol (1866 steamboat)

Bristol
History
Name	Bristol
Namesake	Bristol, Rhode Island
Operator	Fall River Line
Route	New York-Newport-Fall River
Ordered	About 1865
Builder	William H. Webb
Cost	$1,250,000
Launched	4 April 1866
Completed	1867
Acquired	1867
Maiden voyage	June 1867
In service	1867–1888
Fate	Destroyed by fire, December 30, 1888
General characteristics
Type	Passenger sidewheel steamer
Tonnage	2,962 gross, 2,064 net
Length	362 ft (110 m)
Beam	48 ft 4 in (14.73 m), over guards 83 ft
Draft	10 ft 3 in (3.12 m)
Depth of hold	16 ft 6 in (5.03 m)
Installed power	1 × 110-inch-cylinder simple beam steam engine delivering 2,900 IHP @ 19 RPM, 3 × boilers
Propulsion	2 × 38 ft 8 in paddlewheels
Capacity	840 to 1,200 passengers plus 40 railcars of freight

Bristol was a large sidewheel steamboat launched in 1866 by William H. Webb of New York for the Merchants Steamship Company. One of Narragansett Bay's so-called "floating palaces",^[1] the luxuriously outfitted Bristol and her sister ship Providence, each of which could carry up to 1,200 passengers, were installed with the largest engines then built in the United States, and were considered to be amongst the finest American-built vessels of their era.

Both ships would spend their entire careers steaming between New York and various destinations in and around Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. Bristol was eventually destroyed by a fire while in port in 1888.