X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Paddle wheel


Screw sloop

In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's screws (propellers).

Yellowstone Expedition

Another novel feature was a paddlewheel built into the stern to reduce the danger of damage from snags.


CSS Spray

The CSS Spray was a steam-powered, side-paddle wheel tugboat built in New Albany, Indiana originally fitted as a mercantile ship before becoming a gunboat in the Confederate States Navy and used in the St. Marks, Newport, Florida area.


see also

Linoma Beach

The Showboat complex near Hastings was built in the likeness of a Mississippi River side-wheeler, complete with a paddle wheel dipping into the Nebraska sod.

Paddle boat

Paddle steamer or paddleboat, a boat propelled by a paddle wheel

PS America

PS America was a paddle wheel steamship of the White Star Line, built in 1891.

Thomas Tassell Grant

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Grant's other inventions included "a naval fuel (briquettes known as Grant's Patent Fuel), a steam kitchen, which was given its first trials in the warship HMS Illustrious. He also constructed a new type of lifebuoy, and a feathering paddle wheel."

United States floating battery Demologos

During the Civil War, the United States Navy operated a number of iron clad steam-powered paddle-wheel gunboats as a part of the Mississippi River Squadron.