First Steamboat Down the Mississippi

Come aboard the steamboat New Orleans, andexperience the real-life adventure of the first steamboat trip down the mightyMississippi through the eyes of a young crewmember. Tim Collins is afourteen-year-old orphan trying to get from Pittsburgh to Natchez in the year1811. He signs on as a deckhand aboard the New Orleans, and meets NicholasRoo-sevelt, the dynamic builder and owner of the vessel, and his wife Lydia,who braves the untamed river while pregnant.Defying the ridicule of critics who claim that no vessel can defy thecurrent of the mighty Mississippi, the voy-agers set off on their epic journey.They face crafty river pirates, hostile Indians, and wild animals. And can evena steamboat survive the awesome power of the New Madrid earth-quake, thestrongest quake in American history?Author George Fichter is a former editor of the Golden Guides series and theGolden Encyclopedia of Natural His-tory. For several years he was editor inchief of Fisherman Press. He has written more than fifty books about wildlifeand the outdoors, as well as three books on American his-tory. Since 1983 hehas been the writer-in-residence at Stetson University.Illustrator Joe Boddy is a well-known artist and illustrator of children'sbooks, and currently resides in Montana.Fichter, George S. is the author of 'First Steamboat Down the Mississippi' with ISBN 9780882897158 and ISBN 0882897152.