text: In December 2006, the club issued a statement regarding a possible takeover, prompting press speculation about potential buyers. On 24 April, former City player Ray Ranson announced interest in making an offer for the club, though the club denied press reports that a bid had been made. On 1 May 2007, it was announced that deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had been granted access to the club's accounts. The deal, however, was thrown into doubt when Thailand's Military Government froze £830 million of Shinawatra's assets after they investigated allegations of corruption made against him.


title: Manchester City F.C. ownership and finances

text: On 21 June, the Manchester City board accepted an £81.6 million offer for the club from Thaksin Shinawatra and advised the shareholders to accept the bid. On 6 July, Thaksin finally acquired a 75% share in the club, enough to take full control of the club and delist it as full owner. One of his first moves was to schedule a press conference to announce former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson as his new manager.


text: Under Eriksson they made a positive start to the season. However, City's form in the second half of the season was weak, as they finished 9th in the final table but finished with their highest ever Premier League points total and the season included double victories over rivals Manchester United. Months of speculation started in March 2008 as the season drew to a close over Eriksson's future. Manchester City fans launched a "Save our Sven (SOS)" campaign to prevent his sacking. This was to no avail as Eriksson's one-year reign as manager ended on 2 June 2008, following weeks of speculation about his future.


text: On 5 June 2008, Mark Hughes was unveiled as Manchester City's new manager on a three-year contract. The appointment of Hughes as manager placed a veil over Thaksin Shinawatra's endless trouble with the Thai authorities and now had his £800m fortune frozen in Thailand and did not wish to go back to Thailand to clear his name.


text: Throughout August 2008, media outlets claimed that the club was in complete disarray and that City were on the brink of financial meltdown with Shinawatra asking a now disillusioned former chairman John Wardle for a £2m loan and new manager Hughes threatening to resign unless finance problems were sorted out and the board stopped trying to seemingly sell Stephen Ireland and Vedran Ćorluka behind his back. Manchester City supporters were also getting restless with Shinawatra, and an "out with Shinawatra" tone was beginning to gain favour with some City fans, much in the same manner of Peter Swales departure in 1994. Rumours started to spread around the footballing world in August 2008 that Shinawatra's position as owner of the club was not viable because of his frozen financial backing and it was believed he was considering selling Manchester City to a new owner(s).


text: The dream of bringing back the glory era to City set out by Shinawatra just a year before now seemed unrealistic.


text: In August 2008, it became increasingly likely that Thaksin would fail to retrieve his frozen assets from Thailand. His wife, Pojaman Shinawatra, was convicted of acquiring large tracts of land for grossly-underpriced values and sentenced to three years imprisonment on 31 July 2008, and following this news, Thaksin's own court dates approaching, and Pojaman's bail, a visit by the Shinawatra family to the 2008 Beijing Olympics led to them using the opportunity to leave the country for London, where they then applied for political asylum in the United Kingdom. This led to the Thai courts issuing an extradition request to the British Government, and the courts beginning to try them in absentia, effectively ending any hope of the money being released and making it more likely that Thaksin would come to breach Premier League rules on club ownership, which prevent owners convicted of corruption charges from retaining control of their club.


text: In response to this, Thaksin offered to resign his position on the board, an offer which was rejected by Garry Cook, Manchester City's Executive Chairman, and also began attempting to sell minority stakes in the club for investment. After being rejected repeatedly with counter-proposals to buy majority stakes numerous, it was then announced on 1 September 2008 that the club were in talks with the Abu Dhabi United Group to sell Thaksin's entire stake, a deal which was agreed later in the day.


text: As part of the takeover, Doctor Sulaiman Al-Fahim, a board member of the company and the man both leading the talks and mooted to be the new Chairman, promised a top four finish within three seasons, indicating that he would give a show of his intent by capturing at least one world class signing, naming such players as Robinho as in his sights, having made bids for all four on behalf of his new club. With the deal for the sale of the club going through on the last day of the summer transfer window, negotiations were forcibly limited, but while a deal for Berbatov was accepted by the club but not by the player, with a few minutes remaining in the transfer window, Manchester City were able to confirm the signing of Robinho from Real Madrid for a British transfer record £32.5 million, concurrently the seventh largest transfer fee in the history of football.


text: The period of due diligence ended on 21 September, with Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, owner of the Abu Dhabi United Group, and Thaksin Shinawatra agreeing the transfer of the club on 23 September. As part of their new board, Doctor Al-Fahim's presumed position of Co-Chairman was conspicuously filled by Khaldoon Al Mubarak instead, with Al-Fahim's loose-tongued comments about buying an all-star team cited as the reason for his demotion, his comments having produced much negative media backlash and having gone against Al Nahyan's more long-term and rather more restrained plans for the club.


text: In the months following the takeover, Thaksin held the position of Honorary President, but was removed from the position in February 2009 after a Thai court convicted him for corruption. The following month, the club ceased their operations in Thailand.


text: Following Manchester City's success in the 2011 FA Cup Final and the 2011–12 Premier League season, Sheikh Mansour and his trusted associate Khaldoon turned their attentions to investment in foreign football leagues and announced the purchase of a Major League Soccer expansion named New York City FC in association with Hal and Hank Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees. Eyeing up further investments, they created City Football Group as a new parent company operating between the executives of the various clubs in their expanding portfolio and the board of Abu Dhabi United Group from which all of their investments were ultimately controlled. The new organisation then set about expanding into as many fields of football as it could, encompassing football marketing, branding, sponsorship negotiations, academy operation and other football services. According to Human Rights Watch, ADUG's investment into Manchester City are intended to "construct a public relations image of a progressive, dynamic Gulf state, which deflects attention from what is really going on in the country."


text: As they attempted to branch out not only their investments but also their foreign brand appeal CFG turned to China in the latter half of 2015, first offering themselves as a host location for high-level business talks between the government leadership of the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China before agreeing a £265m sale of shares to a consortium of Chinese state-backed investment firms China Media Capital and CITIC Capital. The deal made the two companies a combined 13% part-owner of CFG and therefore of Manchester City, giving in exchange a significant partnership allowing both City and CFG to expand into the Chinese market in a variety of directions.


text: In April 2021, Manchester City was one of the biggest clubs to join the proposed European Super League. Many saw it as a betrayal to the supporters and fans. City’s manager Pep Guardiola, who has been carrying the responsibility to make the team win the Champions League, also condemned the decision. However, many sources confirmed that Manchester City, along with fellow English club Chelsea, were manipulated into joining the European Super League, hence after extensive backlash from the fans on social media, the football authorities, the Premier League, and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the club eventually, backed out from the proposed multi-million-dollar league. Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak confirmed that they didn't know what they were getting themselves into and it was a mistake that would never be repeated again.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: "Wavin' Flag" is a song by Somali-Canadian artist K'naan from his album "Troubadour". The song was originally written for Somalia and aspirations of its people for freedom. The original single was a hit in Canada and reached number two on the Canadian Hot 100 as the second official single from the album, after the single "ABCs", a minor hit. After an earthquake in Haiti in 2010, a remake of the song by an "ad hoc" supergroup of Canadian artists, credited as Young Artists for Haiti, became a charity single in Canada, reaching number one on the Canadian Hot 100 in its own right.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: The song became a global hit when it was chosen as Coca-Cola's promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, hosted by South Africa. This amended international version with additional lyrics reached the top ten in more than twenty different charts around the world. The English version was released as "Wavin' Flag (Celebration Mix)" by K'naan to differentiate it from the original Canadian hit or from the Canadian Haiti charity hit. The Spanish cover featuring David Bisbal became very popular. A version of the song featuring will.i.am and David Guetta was targeted for international markets. Many other bilingual and country-specific versions were released.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: In 2012, K'naan published a children's book, "When I Get Older: The Story Behind Wavin' Flag", about the song and its history.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: The original single of "Wavin' Flag" appeared originally on his album "Troubadour". The single reached number two on the Canadian Hot 100 as the second official single from the album, which was produced by Kerry Brothers Jr. and Bruno Mars. K'naan first performed the song acoustically live on "Q TV", where he gave viewers a preview of "Troubadour" prior to its release. The lyrics of the original version are about the struggle of refugees displaced by war, with references to K'naan's native Somalia, in comparison to the later version used for the World Cup, where the lyrics were rewritten in a more celebratory tone.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: In 2010, the song was remade by a supergroup of Canadian artists, credited as Young Artists for Haiti, as a charity single to benefit relief efforts following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The charity single was spearheaded by producer Bob Ezrin, engineered by Mike Fraser and was reworked to include specific lyrics for Haiti, including a rap solo by Drake. It was released on 12 March 2010 with proceeds going to Free the Children, War Child Canada and World Vision Canada. This new version went straight to number one on the Canadian charts.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: Participating soloists included K'naan, Nelly Furtado, Sam Roberts, Avril Lavigne, Pierre Bouvier, Tyler Connolly, Kardinal Offishall, Jully Black, Lights, Deryck Whibley, Serena Ryder, Jacob Hoggard, Emily Haines, Hawksley Workman, Drake, Chin Injeti, Ima, Pierre Lapointe, Elisapie Isaac, Esthero, Corb Lund, Fefe Dobson, Nikki Yanofsky, Matt Mays, Justin Nozuka, and Justin Bieber. Performing the chorus were Arkells, Lamar Ashe, Broken Social Scene, Torquil Campbell, Canadian Tenors, Aion Clarke, City and Colour, Tom Cochrane, Jim Cuddy, Jim Creeggan, Kathleen Edwards, Dave Faber, Jessie Farrell, Colin James, Pat Kordyback, Brandon Lehti, Colin MacDonald, Jay Malinowski, Stacey McKitrick, Suzie McNeil, Stephan Moccio, Kevin Parent, Josh Ramsay, Red 1, Hayley Sales, James Shaw, and Shiloh. Students from Vancouver high schools Lord Byng Secondary and Magee Secondary also voluntarily participated by playing together as an orchestra. A music video was shot for the charity single at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In March 2011, the single won a Juno award for "Single of the Year".


title: Wavin' Flag

text: In 2010, a remix of the song, entitled the "Celebration Mix", was recorded for use as Coca-Cola's promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, hosted by South Africa. This version reached number one in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and number two in Italy, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: Coca-Cola described the remix as "inspired by the joyous dance celebrations familiar to Africa." Coca-Cola integrated its jingle, well known from previous Coca-Cola commercials, into the mix, generating a direct association between the remixed song and the brand. New lyrics related to football were added, "let's rejoice in the Beautiful Game", and "see the champions take the field." A music video shows people playing the game, and goal celebrations. The song was used throughout the tournament, and featured on all worldwide versions of the Coca-Cola campaign. The song was also played at events for the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour, where K'naan performed this version live for the first time, and featured on the online digital platform for the World Cup. He also performed at the World Cup kick-off concert. The music video for the remix includes a guest appearance by Malhar Chitnis. The remix video was recorded in Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, the site of the first 1930 FIFA World Cup Final. The remix version appears on the Champion Edition of "Troubadour".


title: Wavin' Flag

text: Although the remix features many elements of the original song, it includes most notably a new pre-chorus that sets the uplifting, unified tone of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, turning the song into one that is more open, more inviting and more celebratory. "I'm so proud of this [new] version," K'naan told "Billboard.Biz". The new version also removes many of the darker lyrics of the original song. According to "Billboard", Coca-Cola "loved the song but noted that lyrical references to 'a violent prone, poor people zone' and people 'struggling, fighting to eat' didn't fit the campaign's themes".


title: Wavin' Flag

text: A remix of "Wavin' Flag", which features French music producer David Guetta and American rapper, producer and The Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, was made for international release outside of Canada. Will.i.am's solo parts were exclusively written for the international version, and for the K'naan part, some of the lyrics were amended. His version of the song was mixed by hit engineer Dylan "3-D" Dresdow. This version was later released as the B-side to the Celebration Mix. The maxi-single CD also included the Spanish adaptation with the Spanish language verses written by Rafael Vergara and interpreted by David Bisbal.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: The version featuring will.i.am and David Guetta was released as the single B-side to "Wavin' Flag (Celebration Mix)" single release in Europe.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: A separate music video was made for this version, with the artists performing in front of a large black flag. However some scenes were used from the original Canadian music video and from K'naan's "Wavin' Flag (The Celebration Mix)" music video intertwined with visuals of the new video.


title: Wavin' Flag

text: Many bilingual versions of the Celebration Mix have been made, for use in each of their respective countries. The initial bilingual version was recorded by K'naan and Spanish singer David Bisbal, sung in both English and Spanish, and targeting all Spanish-speaking markets, including Spain, Mexico, Central and South America. This version was entitled the "Spanish Celebration Mix", and was officially made available for digital download in February 2010. As a part of the promotion, a music video of the Spanish Celebration Mix was filmed and released for the song. Another version sung in both English and Arabic, featuring Nancy Ajram, a multi-platinum Lebanese singer and spokesperson for Coca-Cola Middle East, was released in all Middle Eastern Countries. This version, entitled the "Arabic Celebration Mix", also had a music video recorded for it. Scenes were filmed in Denmark, Portugal, Brazil, Lebanon and South Africa. A Chinese version, featuring Jacky Cheung and Jane Zhang, reached #1 on China Music Chart, and a Thai version, featuring Tattoo Colour, charted at #3 there.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Donald Eugene Cherry (November 18, 1936 – October 19, 1995) was an American jazz trumpeter. Cherry had a long association with free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, which began in the late 1950s. He also performed alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Sun Ra, Ed Blackwell, the New York Contemporary Five, and Albert Ayler.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: In the 1970s, Cherry became a pioneer in world fusion music, drawing on traditional African, Middle Eastern, and Hindustani music. He was a member of the ECM group Codona, along with percussionist Naná Vasconcelos and sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott. AllMusic called him "one of the most influential jazz musicians of the late 20th century."


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to a mother of Choctaw descent and an African-American father. His mother and grandmother played piano and his father played trumpet. His father owned Oklahoma City's Cherry Blossom Club, which hosted performances by Charlie Christian and Fletcher Henderson. In 1940, Cherry moved with his family to Los Angeles, California. He lived in the Watts neighborhood, and his father tended bar at the Plantation Club on Central Avenue, which at the time was the center of a vibrant jazz scene. Cherry recalled skipping school at Fremont High School in order to play with the swing band at Jefferson High School. This resulted in his transfer to Jacob Riis High School, a reform school, where he first met drummer Billy Higgins.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: By the early 1950s Cherry was playing with jazz musicians in Los Angeles, sometimes acting as pianist in Art Farmer's group. While trumpeter Clifford Brown was in Los Angeles with Max Roach, Cherry attended a jam session with Brown and Larance Marable at Eric Dolphy's house, and Brown informally mentored Cherry. He also toured with saxophonist James Clay.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Cherry became well known in 1958 when he performed and recorded with Ornette Coleman, first in a quintet with pianist Paul Bley and later in what became the predominantly piano-less quartet which recorded for Atlantic Records. During this period, "his lines ... gathered much of their freedom of motion from the free harmonic structures." Cherry co-led "The Avant-Garde" session which saw John Coltrane replacing Coleman in the Quartet, recorded and toured with Sonny Rollins, was a member of the New York Contemporary Five with Archie Shepp and John Tchicai, and recorded and toured with both Albert Ayler and George Russell. His first recording as a leader was "Complete Communion" for Blue Note Records in 1965. The band included Coleman's drummer Ed Blackwell as well as saxophonist Gato Barbieri, whom he had met while touring Europe with Ayler, and bassist Henry Grimes.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: After a departure from Coleman's quartet, Cherry often played in small groups and duets (many with ex-Coleman drummer Ed Blackwell) during a long sojourn in Scandinavia and other locations. He traveled through Europe, India, Morocco, South Africa, and elsewhere to explore and play with a variety of musicians. In the late 1960s he settled in Tagarp, Sweden with his wife, Swedish designer and textile artist Moki Cherry. In 1968, Don Cherry taught music classes with guest lecturers, performance collaborators, and workshop leaders from around the world at Arbetarnas bildningsförbund (ABF) House, a Swedish labor movement-run education center. For ten years, Don and Moki Cherry lived and worked collaboratively in an abandoned schoolhouse in Tagarp, holding classes and performances, hosting guests and collaborators, and exploring their concept of Organic Music Society.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: In 1969, Cherry played trumpet and other instruments for beat poet Allen Ginsberg's 1970 LP "Songs of Innocence and Experience", a musical adaptation of William Blake's poetry collection of the same name. He appeared on Coleman's 1971 LP "Science Fiction", and from 1976 to 1987 reunited with Coleman alumni Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Blackwell in the band Old And New Dreams, recording four albums with them, two for ECM and two for Black Saint, where his "subtlety of rhythmic expansion and contraction" was noted.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: In the 1970s he ventured into the developing genre of world fusion music. Cherry incorporated influences of Middle Eastern, traditional African, and Indian music into his playing. He studied Indian music with Vasant Rai in the early seventies. From 1978 to 1982, he recorded three albums for ECM with "world jazz" group Codona, consisting of Cherry, percussionist Naná Vasconcelos and sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Cherry also collaborated with classical composer Krzysztof Penderecki on the 1971 album "Actions". In 1973, he co-composed the score for Alejandro Jodorowsky's film "The Holy Mountain", together with Ronald Frangipane and Jodorowsky.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: At the end of the 70s, the trio Organic Music Theater (with Gian Piero Pramaggiore and Naná Vasconcelos), had an intense live activity in Italy and France.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: During the 1980s, he released the recording "El Corazon", a 1982 duet album with Ed Blackwell. He also made two albums as bandleader, "Home Boy (Sister Out)" in 1985 and "Art Deco" in 1988. Cherry recorded again with the original Ornette Coleman Quartet on Coleman's 1987 album "In All Languages",


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Other playing opportunities in his career came with Carla Bley's "Escalator Over The Hill" project, and as a sideman on recordings by Lou Reed, Ian Dury, Rip Rig + Panic and Sun Ra.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: In 1994, Cherry appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, "", on a track titled "Apprehension", alongside The Watts Prophets. The album, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic in African-American society, was named "Album of the Year" by "Time" magazine.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: He was married to Monika Karlsson (Moki Cherry), a Swedish painter and textile artist, who also occasionally played tamboura drone on his recordings and jams. His stepdaughter, Neneh Cherry, his step-granddaughters Mabel and Tyson and his sons, David Ornette Cherry, Christian Cherry, and Eagle-Eye Cherry, are also musicians. David Ornette Cherry died from an asthma attack at the age of 64 on November 20, 2022.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Cherry learned to play various brass instruments in high school. Throughout his career, Cherry played pocket cornet (though Cherry identified this as a pocket trumpet), trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, and bugle.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: After returning from a musical and cultural journey through Africa, Cherry often played the "donso ngoni", a harp-lute with a gourd body originating from West Africa (see "ngoni"). During his international journeys, he also collected a variety of non-Western instruments, which he mastered and often played in performances and on recordings. Among these instruments were berimbau, bamboo flutes and assorted percussion instruments.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Cherry's trumpet influences included Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, and Harry Edison. Journalist Howard Mandel suggests Henry "Red" Allen as a precedent (given Allen's "blustery rather than Armstrong-brazen brass sound, jauntily unpredictable melodic streams, squeezed-off and/or half-valve effects and repertoire including novelty vocals") while Ekkehard Jost cites Wild Bill Davison.


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Some critics have noted shortcomings in Cherry's technique. Ron Wynn writes that "[Cherry's] technique isn't always the most efficient; frequently, his rapid-fired solos contain numerous missed or muffed notes. But he's a master at exploring the trumpet and cornet's expressive, voice-like properties; he bends notes and adds slurs and smears, and his twisting solos are tightly constructed and executed regardless of their flaws." Jost notes the tendency for writers to focus on Cherry's "technical insecurity", but asserts that "the problem lies elsewhere. Perfect technical control in extremely fast tempos was more or less risk-free as long as the improviser had to deal with standard changes that were familiar to him from years of working with them... In the music of the Ornette Coleman Quartet—a 'new-found-land' where the laws and habits of functional harmony do not apply—there is no use for patterns that had been worked out on that basis."


title: Don Cherry (trumpeter)

text: Miles Davis was initially dismissive of Cherry's playing, claiming that "anyone can tell that guy's not a trumpet player—it's just notes that come out, and every note he plays he looks serious about, and people will go for that, especially white people." According to Cherry, however, when Davis attended an Ornette Coleman performance at the Five Spot, he was impressed with Cherry's playing and sat in with the group using Cherry's pocket trumpet. Later, in a 1964 "DownBeat" blindfold test, Davis indicated that he liked Cherry's playing.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was a terrorist attack on the Parliament of India in New Delhi, India on 13 December 2001. The perpetrators belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) - two Pakistan-raised terrorist organisations. The attack led to the deaths of six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel, and a gardenerin total 9and led to increased tensions between India and Pakistan, resulting in the 2001–02 India–Pakistan standoff. The 5 terrorists were killed outside the parliament.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: On 13 December 2001, five terrorists infiltrated the Parliament House in a car with Home Ministry and Parliament labels. While both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha had been adjourned 40 minutes prior to the incident, many members of parliament (MPs) and government officials such as Home Minister LK Advani and Minister of State for Defence Harin Pathak were believed to have still been in the building at the time of the attack. More than 100 people, including major politicians, were inside the parliament building at the time. The gunmen used a fake identity sticker on the car they drove and thus easily breached the security deployed around the parliamentary complex. The terrorists carried AK-47 rifles, grenade launchers, pistols and grenades.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: The gunmen drove their vehicle into the car of the Indian Vice President Krishan Kant (who was in the building at the time), got out, and began shooting. The Vice President's guards and security personnel shot back at the terrorists and then started closing the gates of the compound. A similar attack was carried out on the assembly of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, during November 2001, when 38 people were killed by terrorists.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Delhi Police officials said that gunmen received instructions from Pakistan and the operation was carried out under the guidance of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. In their book "The Exile: The Flight of Osama bin Laden", Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy state that then-CIA station chief Robert Grenier and Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin suspected that the ISI had approved the attack in order to force the redeployment of troops under the command of Ali Jan Aurakzai away from the Durand Line, allowing Osama bin Laden to escape into Pakistan during the Battle of Tora Bora.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Constable Kamlesh Kumari of the Central Reserve Police Force was the first to spot the terrorists and was shot by them as she raised the alarm. She died on the spot. One gunman's suicide vest exploded when he was shot dead; the other four gunmen were also killed. The ministers and MPs escaped unhurt. The total number killed was 9 and at least 17 other people were injured in the attack.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Delhi Police stated that five terrorists carried out the attack and the names given by them were: Hamza, Haider alias Tufail, Rana, Ranvijay and Mohammed - who were members of Jaish-e-Mohammed - were killed.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: The attack triggered extensive investigations, which revealed the involvement of four accused, namely Mohammad Afzal Guru, Shaukat Hussain Guru (cousin of Afzal Guru) and S.A.R. Geelani (Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani) (also spelled "Gilani") and Shaukat's wife Afsan Guru (Navjot Sandhu before marriage). Some other proclaimed offenders were said to be the leaders of the banned terrorist organisation known as Jaish-e-Mohammed. After the conclusion of investigation, investigating agency filed the report under Section 173 of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (India) against four accused persons on 14 May 2002. Charges were framed under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA), and the Explosive Substances Act by the designated sessions Court.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: The designated Special Court was presided over by S. N. Dhingra. The accused were tried and the trial concluded within a record period of about six months. 80 witnesses were examined for the prosecution and 10 witnesses were examined on behalf of the accused S.A.R. Geelani. About 300 documents were exhibited. Afzal Guru, Shaukat Hussain and S.A.R. Geelani were convicted for the offences under Sections 121, 121A, 122, Section 120B read with Sections 302 & 307 read with Section 120B of IPC, sub-Sections (2), (3) and (5) of Section 3 and Section 4(b) of POTA and Sections 3 and 4 of Explosive Substances Act. The accused 1 and 2 were also convicted under Section 3(4) of POTA.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Accused 4, namely Navjot Sandhu a.k.a. Afsan, was acquitted of all the charges except the one under Section 123 IPC for which she was convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and to pay a fine. Death sentences were imposed on the other three accused for the offences under Section 302 read with Section 120B IPC and Section 3(2) of POTA. They were also sentenced to life imprisonment on as many as eight counts under the provisions of IPC, POTA and Explosive Substances Act in addition to varying amounts of fine. The amount of a million Indian rupees, which was recovered from the possession of two of the accused, namely, Afzal Guru and Shaukat Hussain, was forfeited to the State under Section 6 of the POTA.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: On appeal, the high court subsequently acquitted S. A. R. Geelani and Afsan, but upheld Shaukat's and Afzal's death sentence. Geelani was represented by Ram Jethmalani in the Delhi High Court and subsequently in the Supreme Court of India. Jethmalani said it almost cost him his political career for defending Geelani. Geelani's acquittal blew a gaping hole in the prosecution's version of the parliament attack. He was presented as the mastermind of the entire attack. Geelani, a young lecturer at Delhi University, received support from his outraged colleagues and friends, who were certain that he had been framed. They contacted the well-known lawyer Nandita Haksar and asked her to take on his case.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Shaukat Hussain was released nine months prior to his scheduled date of release, because of his "good conduct".


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Two Delhi Police officials, ACP Rajbir Singh and Mohan Chand Sharma are credited for gathering prima facie evidence in the case. Singh was later shot dead by a friend over a property deal and Sharma was killed during the Batla House encounter with terrorists in Delhi.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: The Indian Government initially accused Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed of involvement in the attack. However, Lashkar-e-Taiba denied any involvement in the incident. In November 2002, four JeM members were arrested by Indian authorities and put on trial. All four were found guilty of playing various roles in the incident, although the fourth, Afsan/Navjot Sandhu, wife of Shaukat Hussain (one of the accused) was found guilty of a minor charge of concealing knowledge of conspiracy. One of the accused, Afzal Guru, was sentenced to death for the incident.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: World leaders and leaders in India's immediate neighbourhood condemned the attack on the Parliament. On 14 December, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) blamed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed for the attack. Home Minister LK Advani claimed, "We have received some clues about yesterday's incident, which shows that a neighbouring country, and some terrorist organisations active there behind it", in an indirect reference to Pakistan and Pakistan-based terrorist groups.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: The same day, in a "demarche" to Pakistani High Commissioner to India, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, India demanded that Pakistan stop the activities of LeT and JeM, that Pakistan apprehend the organisations' leaders and that Pakistan curb the financial assets and the groups' access to these assets. In response to the Indian government's statements, Pakistani forces were put on high alert the same day. On 20 December, India mobilised and deployed its troops to Kashmir and Punjab in what was India's largest military mobilisation since the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Following the attack, many suspects were arrested, and in December 2002 four Jaish-e-Mohammed members were convicted for roles in the attack. In 2003, the Border Security Force (BSF) killed Ghazi Baba, the commander-in-chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed and the mastermind of the attack, in the Noor Bagh neighborhood of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Afzal Guru, sentenced to death by Indian court and due to be hanged on 20 October 2006, had his execution stayed. His family had camped in New Delhi to meet the President Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam to accept the mercy petition. The family of Kamlesh Kumari Jatav, a CRPF Jawan who died in the attack has said that they would return the Ashok Chakra, if the president accepted the petition, and on 13 December 2006, the families of the deceased returned the medals to the government. As of April 2007, the then President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, refused to interfere in the judicial process.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006, but Afzal was given a stay of execution and remained on death row. On 3 February 2013, his mercy petition was rejected by the then President of India Pranab Mukherjee. He was hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail at 8:00 A.M. on 9 February 2013, and buried in Tihar jail with full religious rites.


title: 2001 Indian Parliament attack

text: Special OPS: The 2020 Indian action espionage thriller web series from Hotstar Specials created and directed by Neeraj Pandey and starring Kay Kay Menon in the lead role was based on the attacks. In 2022, another movie was released called was also partially based on the attacks.


title: University of Westminster

text: The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in August 1839, and became the University of Westminster in 1992.


title: University of Westminster

text: Westminster has its main campus in Regent Street in central London, with additional campuses in Fitzrovia, Marylebone and Harrow. It also operates the Westminster International University in Tashkent in Uzbekistan. The university is organised into three colleges and 12 schools, within which there are around 65 departments and centres, including the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) and the Centre for the Study of Democracy. It also has its Policy Studies Institute, Business School and Law School. Westminster had an income of £205.1 million for 2017–2018, of which £22 million was from funding grants, research grants and contracts. The university is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Association of MBAs, EFMD, EQUIS, and the European University Association.


title: University of Westminster

text: Westminster's alumni include a Nobel laureate in Medicine, the inventor of cordite, heads of state, politicians and mayors, Olympians, scientists, BAFTA- and Oscar-winning filmmakers, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Grammy Award-winning musicians, journalists, and poets.


title: University of Westminster

text: The Royal Polytechnic Institution was built by William Mountford Nurse in 1837 and opened at 309 Regent Street on 6 August 1838 to provide (in the words of its prospectus of 1837) “an institution where the Public, at little expense, may acquire practical knowledge of the various arts and branches of science connected with manufacturers, mining operations and rural economy.”


title: University of Westminster

text: Sir George Cayley (1773–1857), the "father of aeronautical engineering", was the first chairman and the Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in August 1839. The Polytechnic housed a large exhibition hall, lecture theatre and laboratories, and public attractions included working machines and models, scientific lectures and demonstrations, rides in a diving bell and, from 1839, demonstrations of photography. Prince Albert visited the institution in 1840, when he descended in the diving bell, and became a patron in 1841. The first public photographic portrait studio in Europe opened on the roof of the Polytechnic in March 1841.


title: University of Westminster

text: In 1847, John Henry Pepper joined the Polytechnic and oversaw the introduction of evening lectures in engineering, applied science and technical subjects for young working Londoners. Pepper wrote several important science education books, one of which is regarded as a significant step towards the understanding of continental drift.


title: University of Westminster

text: In 1848, a theatre was added to the building, purpose-built to accommodate the growing audiences for the Polytechnic's optical shows. These combined magic lantern images with live performances, music, ghosts and spectres, spreading the fame of what was arguably the world's first permanent projection theatre.


title: University of Westminster

text: In 1862, inventor Henry Dircks developed the Dircksian Phantasmagoria, where it was seen by Pepper in a booth set up by Dircks at the Polytechnic. Pepper first showed the effect during a scene of Charles Dickens's novella "The Haunted Man" (1848) at the Regent Street theatre to great success. However, Pepper's implementation of the effect tied his name to it permanently. Though he tried many times to give credit to Dircks, the title "Pepper's ghost" has endured.


title: University of Westminster

text: Under the chairmanship of Joseph Butterworth Owen, the Royal Polytechnic Institution increased its presence in formal classes for young men traditionally denied the opportunity of higher education in the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century. Expansion gradually gave way to financial difficulty, reflecting a long-standing tension between education and the need to run a successful business. A fatal accident on the premises in 1859 caused the first institution to be wound up and a new one formed. Various regeneration schemes were considered, but in 1879 a fire damaged the roof, precipitating the final crisis.


title: University of Westminster

text: In September 1881, the Royal Polytechnic Institution closed, marking a transition to new ownership and a new era of educational development. Christian philanthropist Quintin Hogg (1845–1903) acquired the lease to the building in December 1881 for £15,000, and the premises re-opened on 25 September 1882. About 6,000 members and students – three times the anticipated number – attended during the first 1882/3 session. The institute gradually adopted the name the Polytechnic Young Men's Christian Institute, or simply, the Polytechnic, for short.


title: University of Westminster

text: From 1882 an expanded programme of classes began, including science, engineering and art classes held in conjunction with the Science and Art Department (of the Board of Trade), and a scheme of technical and trade education, related to the City and Guilds of London Institute of Technical Instruction and to the London Trades Council. The building housed classrooms, a swimming bath, gymnasium, and a refreshment room. Activities included daily chapels, Parliamentary debating, a Reading Circle, music and drama societies and several sports clubs.


title: University of Westminster

text: In the early 1880s the Institute attracted much favourable attention from the technical education lobby. Following the City of London Parochial Charities Act in 1883, it became clear that funds would be available to endow the Polytechnic and to found and support institutions on the same model across London. A public appeal was launched in 1888 to raise the required matching funding. The Scheme was finalised under the auspices of the Charity Commissioners in 1891, when the Institute was reconstituted as The Polytechnic-Regent Street (often referred to as the Regent Street Polytechnic), managed by a newly created governing body.


title: University of Westminster

text: On 21 February 1896, the first performance of a moving film (Cinématographe) to a paying UK audience was delivered by the Lumière brothers at the Regent Street Cinema. For this reason the cinema has been described as "the birthplace of British cinema".


title: University of Westminster

text: The building at 309 Regent Street was rebuilt in 1910–1912 to reflect the needs of a growing institution whose student members exceeded 15,000. Pioneering work in emerging professional and commercial disciplines, alongside general interest subjects, was the hallmark of the institution. When Hogg died in 1903, he was succeeded as President by Sir Kynaston Studd (1858–1944), who remained in office until his death in 1944, and did much to continue the traditions of the founder. Two major appeals were launched to support expansion, the first for the rebuilding of 309 Regent Street in 1910–1912, and the second to build the Polytechnic Extension building for the Women's Institute in Little Titchfield Street, which was formally opened in 1929. Both buildings continued to provide sporting and social facilities for members of the Institute as well as workshops and classrooms for students of the Education Department.


title: University of Westminster

text: The Education Department provided a wide range of courses, with a rapid expansion of commercial subjects alongside the original trade and technical classes. Courses ranged from post-elementary school entry for craft and technical training at 13 to degrees accredited by the University of London external degrees programme. Most teaching was in the evening and part-time, though day classes increased throughout the period. Following World War Two there was a rapid growth in the demand for further education and training, which was reorganised following the White Paper on Technical Education in 1956.


title: University of Westminster

text: The variety of levels of work at Regent Street meant that it was designated a regional college rather than a college of advanced technology, after which the governors decided to reduce the proportion of lower level work. Following the establishment of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) in 1964, a number of degree courses were approved and became operational; including Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic, Civil, Building, Production, and Manufacturing), Architecture, Photography (1966), Arts Administration (1967), Life Sciences (1973) and Media Studies (1975).


title: University of Westminster

text: In 1960 the London County Council announced a plan to turn Regent Street into a tri-partite federal college by adding a new College of Architecture and Advanced Building Technology (CAABT) and also a College of Engineering and Science (CES). The existing commercial subjects would remain centred on no 309 Regent Street.


title: University of Westminster

text: CAABT was allocated the Luxborough Lodge site in Marylebone Road and CES a site in New Cavendish Street. Both schemes suffered prolonged delays and the new buildings were not finished until 1970. Holborn College of Law, Languages and Commerce was merged with Regent Street Polytechnic to form the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL).


title: University of Westminster

text: At a ceremony on 21 May 1971, the Lord Chancellor Lord Hailsham, grandson and namesake of Hogg, opened the new buildings and designated the new institution. In 1990, Harrow College of Higher Education became part of the PCL.


title: University of Westminster

text: The PCL was re-designated as the University of Westminster following the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, which created a single funding council, the Higher Education Funding Council, for England and abolished the remaining distinctions between polytechnics (degrees awarded nationally) and universities (degrees awarded by individual university). The newly established university was re-dedicated at Westminster Abbey on 1 December 1992. As a university, Westminster gained the power to grant its own degrees.


title: University of Westminster

text: Dame Mary Hogg (great-granddaughter of Quintin Hogg, founder of the Regent Street Polytechnic) was awarded an honorary doctorate of law (LLD) by the University of Westminster in 1995. Hogg also became part of the court of governors at the university, thus continuing the university's close association with the Hogg family.


title: University of Westminster

text: Westminster's efforts in overseas expansion resulted in the university being awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2000, and again in 2005.


title: University of Westminster

text: In recent years, the university has established the Africa, Arab and China Media Centres; the Centre for the Study of Democracy, the institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture, and absorbed the 90-year-old Policy Studies Institute. In 2002 Westminster established the Westminster International University in Tashkent at the invitation of the government of Uzbekistan.


title: University of Westminster

text: In 2013, the university celebrated 175 years of research, teaching, and providing education for all, regardless of background or financial status. Special events were organised both at campuses in the UK, and with their teams around the world. Celebrations included an interfaith service at Westminster Abbey on 30 January 2013.


title: University of Westminster

text: The Regent Campus comprises a group of buildings clustered around its historic headquarters at 309 Regent Street. The Regent Street Cinema lies within the 309 Regent Street building, and serves as a fully functioning cinema, open to the public. Located nearby is the Little Titchfield Street building, which houses the library for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, including the Westminster Law School, and the Wells Street building.


title: University of Westminster

text: The Marylebone Campus is located on Marylebone Road directly opposite Madame Tussaud's and Baker Street underground station. Built in the 1960s it is home to the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Westminster Business School and the Policy Studies Institute. The P3 exhibition area, a space located in the former concrete construction hall of the School of Engineering, was opened in 2008.


title: University of Westminster

text: The Cavendish Campus is a modern glass and steel building in New Cavendish Street (Fitzrovia), close to the BT Tower. It houses science, engineering and computer laboratories. The campus is close to Warren Street, Great Portland Street and Goodge Street underground stations.


title: University of Westminster

text: The Harrow Campus is in a suburb, outside Central London. It is the base for Media, Arts and Design courses. It is also home to London Gallery West which exhibits a broad mix of contemporary media, art and design work. The nearest Tube station to the Harrow campus is Northwick Park on the Metropolitan line.


title: University of Westminster

text: The University of Westminster is incorporated under the Companies Act as a charity and company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital. It is also an exempt charity under the Charities Act 1993.


title: University of Westminster

text: The university's governing body is the Court of Governors. It meets five times per year and is ultimately responsible for the effective conduct of the activities of the university, including its strategic development, educational character and mission, and finances. The members of the Court of Governors are the trustees of the charity.


title: University of Westminster

text: The University of Westminster is organised into three colleges and 12 schools, within which there are around 65 departments and research centres:


title: University of Westminster

text: The University is also home to the institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture, the Centre for the Study of Democracy and the Policy Studies Institute.


title: University of Westminster

text: Westminster had an income of £205.1 million for 2017–2018, of which more than £22 million was from funding grants, research grants and contracts.


title: University of Westminster

text: The university's coat of arms reflects a number of key aspects of its heritage. The portcullis is the symbol of Westminster whilst the open book symbolises learning. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who agreed to continue as the Patron, is represented by the Tudor rose, one of the royal emblems. The motto of the university, "The Lord is our Strength", is influenced by Quintin Hogg and his Young Men's Christian Institute. The open book on the escutcheon contains a Latin motto which reads as ""Veritas"", meaning "truth".


title: University of Westminster

text: Westminster offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees as well as certificates and diplomas at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. More than two thirds of Westminster's programmes are recognised by the appropriate professional bodies such as the BCS, BPS, CIOB, CABE, ICE, RICS, HPC etc. in recognition of the high standards of relevance to the professions.


title: University of Westminster

text: The university has numerous centres of research excellence and was ranked sixth in the UK and 40th globally for Media and Communications by "QS World University Rankings" 2018. The university was also ranked 15th for Art and Design in the UK, and 18th in the UK for Architecture. The "Times Higher Education" Young University Rankings 2019, which lists the world's best under 50-year-old universities out of 351 universities, ranked Westminster 151–200 in the world.


title: University of Westminster

text: The university achieved world leading and internationally excellent status for most of their work, ranking second for Communications, Cultural and Media Studies research, 6th for Art and Design research, in addition to the university performing strongly in Architecture and the Built Environment, and Geography and Environmental studies. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, almost 80 per cent of Westminster's submitted research across 20 subject areas was judged to be of international quality. In 2013, Westminster was ranked joint second in the UK by the "Architects’ Journal" in their "AJ Top 100" special issue.


title: University of Westminster

text: A Student Representative Council (SRC) was established at the polytechnic in 1933, to create a sense of unity and expand the social activities of its day students. The SRC was affiliated to the National Union of Students but initially restricted itself largely to social activities.


title: University of Westminster

text: After 1945 it began to campaign on issues such as lifting a ban on religious or political activity within the Polytechnic, and establishing a formal Students’ Union. The ban was lifted in 1962 and a Union granted in 1965.


title: University of Westminster

text: University of Westminster Students' Union (UWSU) was founded in 1966 as The Polytechnic Students' Union. Its first President was Owen Spencer-Thomas (1966–1967). During the 1970s the newly formed Polytechnic of Central London Students’ Union (PCLSU) engaged in a strategy of protest and direct action. Against a backdrop of general social unrest, PCLSU campaigned against cuts in student grants, lack of accommodation and the rise in costs for overseas students.


title: University of Westminster

text: After 1992, the Union was based primarily at the Marylebone site, where the SU served all students across four of its campuses. It now has offices on all campuses. The union also operates a bar, The Undercroft, and the Loft venue, located on the Harrow Campus.


title: University of Westminster

text: The union has hosted to numerous musical events and gigs including Fleetwood Mac, and most notably the first and only encounter between Cream and Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.


title: University of Westminster

text: Smoke Radio is a student-run radio station at the University of Westminster. It was founded in 2004 and broadcasts online from a studio in the university's Harrow campus. Since September 2005 the station has run a 24-hour playout system and broadcast a schedule of live programmes during the week. Smoke Radio has won numerous awards at the Student Radio Association Awards (SRA), and recorded a record six wins in 2018.


title: University of Westminster

text: Smoke TV is the student television station of the University of Westminster. Launched in September 2011 it is run by students and targeted at students. The station produces programmes covering campus news, film reviews and sport events and showcases student productions such as short films, TV shows, documentaries and music videos.


title: University of Westminster

text: From 1970-1992 the Students' Union published a magazine called McGarel. In the early 1990s, the Students' Union began expressing an interest in new print media, and The Smoke was conceived in 1992. However, in 2006, The Smoke briefly switched to a newspaper format, initially being published fortnightly during term time. The newspaper format was later scrapped for a much smaller magazine format.


title: University of Westminster

text: "The Quintin Hogg" (informally known as "The QH" or "The Hogg") was launched in September 2012 as a university-wide newspaper. The paper is circulated at all four of the university's campuses.


title: University of Westminster

text: Past student publications included the "Polytechnic Magazine" (1935–1971), "Poly-hoo" (1938–1939), "The Poly Tribune" (1946), "Publicity Committee News" (1946), the "Journal of the Maths and Physics Department" (1945–1946), "the Student Forum" (1949–1953), "New Chameleon" (1962), "Polygon" (1963), "Polygen" (1964), "West One" (1966–1969), "McGarel" (1968–1993), and "Gen" (1970).


title: University of Westminster

text: The university also publishes an annual alumni magazine, "Network", as well as several academic student journals such as the "Law Review" and "Wells Street Journal".


title: University of Westminster

text: Sport has played an important role at the institution since the late 19th century. In 1883, the athletic club, the Harriers, was established and was for many years the largest athletics club in the country.


title: University of Westminster

text: In 1908, the polytechnic organised the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1908 London Olympic Games, also hosting a venue at The Polytechnic Stadium in Chiswick. From 1898, the polytechnic awarded the Studd Trophy, an annual trophy for the best sports performance. Over the years, the award was given to sportsmen from various disciplines, such as swimming, boxing, and cycling, but the majority of awards have been given to track and field athletes.


title: University of Westminster

text: The university has grounds in Chiswick on the Thames with boat house, tennis courts, athletics track and about 12 pitches. There are sports pitches and a sports hall at the Harrow campus while the Regent Campus has a gym, badminton courts and offers sports, martial arts and yoga classes.


title: University of Westminster

text: In the 2017-18 basketball season, the Westminster Dragons won their first university title in over seven years.


title: University of Westminster

text: Notable former Westminster faculty and staff include Sir George Cayley (the father of aeronautical engineering), Charles Algernon Parsons (engineer and inventor of the steam turbine), Rachel Aldred (academic specializing in active mobility), Tom Ang (photographer and BBC presenter), Cherie Blair (senior barrister, wife of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair), Harpal Brar (founder and former chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist)), Richard Burton (visiting lecturer and managing editor of the "Jewish Chronicle"), Nicholas Garnham (emeritus professor in the field of media studies), Andrew Groves (fashion designer), Catherine Grubb, artist (taught at Harrow School of Art), Mayer Hillman (senior fellow emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute), Peter H Millard (president of the UK Nosokinetics Group), Chantal Mouffe (political theorist), Ezra Pound (prominent modernist figure in poetry), Joshua Oppenheimer (Oscar nominated filmmaker), John Henry Pepper (scientist and inventor), Jean Seaton (professor of media history and official historian of the BBC), Alfred Waterhouse (architect and designer of the Natural History Museum), George Checkley (Modernist architect) and Brian Winston (Emmy award-winning documentary script writer).


title: Steamboat

text: A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S (for 'Screw Steamer') or PS (for 'Paddle Steamer'); however, these designations are most often used for steamships.


title: Steamboat

text: The term "steamboat" is used to refer to smaller, insular, steam-powered boats working on lakes and rivers, particularly riverboats. As using steam became more reliable, steam power became applied to larger, ocean-going vessels.


title: Steamboat

text: Early steamboat designs used Newcomen steam engines. These engines were large, heavy, and produced little power, which resulted in an unfavorable power-to-weight ratio. The Newcomen engine also produced a reciprocating or rocking motion because it was designed for pumping. The piston stroke was caused by a water jet in the steam-filled cylinder, which condensed the steam, creating a vacuum, which in turn caused atmospheric pressure to drive the piston downward. The piston relied on the weight of the rod connecting to the underground pump to return the piston to the top of the cylinder. The heavy weight of the Newcomen engine required a structurally strong boat, and the reciprocating motion of the engine beam required a complicated mechanism to produce propulsion.


title: Steamboat

text: James Watt's design improvements increased the efficiency of the steam engine, improving the power-to-weight ratio, and created an engine capable of rotary motion by using a double-acting cylinder which injected steam at each end of the piston stroke to move the piston back and forth. The rotary steam engine simplified the mechanism required to turn a paddle wheel to propel a boat. Despite the improved efficiency and rotary motion, the power-to-weight ratio of Boulton and Watt steam engine was still low.


title: Steamboat

text: The high-pressure steam engine was the development that made the steamboat practical. It had a high power-to-weight ratio and was fuel efficient. High pressure engines were made possible by improvements in the design of boilers and engine components so that they could withstand internal pressure, although boiler explosions were common due to lack of instrumentation like pressure gauges. Attempts at making high-pressure engines had to wait until the expiration of the Boulton and Watt patent in 1800. Shortly thereafter high-pressure engines by Richard Trevithick and Oliver Evans were introduced.


title: Steamboat

text: The compound steam engine became widespread in the late 19th century. Compounding uses exhaust steam from a high pressure cylinder to a lower pressure cylinder and greatly improves efficiency. With compound engines it was possible for trans ocean steamers to carry less coal than freight. Compound steam engine powered ships enabled a great increase in international trade.


title: Steamboat

text: The most efficient steam engine used for marine propulsion is the steam turbine. It was developed near the end of the 19th century and was used throughout the 20th century.


title: Steamboat

text: An apocryphal story from 1851 attributes the earliest steamboat to Denis Papin for a boat he built in 1705. Papin was an early innovator in steam power and the inventor of the steam digester, the first pressure cooker, which played an important role in James Watt's steam experiments. However, Papin's boat was not steam-powered but powered by hand-cranked paddles.


title: Steamboat

text: A steamboat was described and patented by English physician John Allen in 1729. In 1736, Jonathan Hulls was granted a patent in England for a Newcomen engine-powered steamboat (using a pulley instead of a beam, and a pawl and ratchet to obtain rotary motion), but it was the improvement in steam engines by James Watt that made the concept feasible. William Henry of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, having learned of Watt's engine on a visit to England, made his own engine, and put it in a boat. The boat sank, and while Henry made an improved model, he did not appear to have much success, though he may have inspired others.


title: Steamboat

text: The first steam-powered ship "Pyroscaphe" was a paddle steamer powered by a Newcomen steam engine; it was built in France in 1783 by Marquis Claude de Jouffroy and his colleagues as an improvement of an earlier attempt, the 1776 "Palmipède". At its first demonstration on 15 July 1783, "Pyroscaphe" travelled upstream on the river Saône for some fifteen minutes before the engine failed. Presumably this was easily repaired as the boat is said to have made several such journeys. Following this, De Jouffroy attempted to get the government interested in his work, but for political reasons was instructed that he would have to build another version on the Seine in Paris. De Jouffroy did not have the funds for this, and, following the events of the French revolution, work on the project was discontinued after he left the country.


title: Steamboat

text: Similar boats were made in 1785 by John Fitch in Philadelphia and William Symington in Dumfries, Scotland. Fitch successfully trialled his boat in 1787, and in 1788, he began operating a regular commercial service along the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey, carrying as many as 30 passengers. This boat could typically make and travelled more than during its short length of service. The Fitch steamboat was not a commercial success, as this travel route was adequately covered by relatively good wagon roads. The following year, a second boat made excursions, and in 1790, a third boat ran a series of trials on the Delaware River before patent disputes dissuaded Fitch from continuing.


title: Steamboat

text: Meanwhile, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, near Dumfries, Scotland, had developed double-hulled boats propelled by manually cranked paddle wheels placed between the hulls, even attempting to interest various European governments in a giant warship version, long. Miller sent King Gustav III of Sweden an actual small-scale version, long, called "Experiment". Miller then engaged engineer William Symington to build his patent steam engine that drove a stern-mounted paddle wheel in a boat in 1785. The boat was successfully tried out on Dalswinton Loch in 1788 and was followed by a larger steamboat the next year. Miller then abandoned the project.


title: Steamboat

text: The failed project of Patrick Miller caught the attention of Lord Dundas, Governor of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, and at a meeting with the canal company's directors on 5 June 1800, they approved his proposals for the use of ""a model of a boat by Captain Schank to be worked by a steam engine by Mr Symington"" on the canal.


title: Steamboat

text: The boat was built by Alexander Hart at Grangemouth to Symington's design with a vertical cylinder engine and crosshead transmitting power to a crank driving the paddlewheels. Trials on the River Carron in June 1801 were successful and included towing sloops from the river Forth up the Carron and thence along the Forth and Clyde Canal.


title: Steamboat

text: In 1801, Symington patented a horizontal steam engine directly linked to a crank. He got support from Lord Dundas to build a second steamboat, which became famous as the "Charlotte Dundas", named in honour of Lord Dundas's daughter. Symington designed a new hull around his powerful horizontal engine, with the crank driving a large paddle wheel in a central upstand in the hull, aimed at avoiding damage to the canal banks.


title: Steamboat

text: The new boat was 56 ft (17.1 m) long, 18 ft (5.5 m) wide and 8 ft (2.4 m) depth, with a wooden hull. The boat was built by John Allan and the engine by the Carron Company.


title: Steamboat

text: The first sailing was on the canal in Glasgow on 4 January 1803, with Lord Dundas and a few of his relatives and friends on board. The crowd were pleased with what they saw, but Symington wanted to make improvements and another more ambitious trial was made on 28 March. On this occasion, the "Charlotte Dundas" towed two 70 ton barges 30 km (almost 20 miles) along the Forth and Clyde Canal to Glasgow, and despite "a strong breeze right ahead" that stopped all other canal boats it took only nine and a quarter hours, giving an average speed of about 3 km/h (2 mph). The "Charlotte Dundas" was the first practical steamboat, in that it demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships, and was the first to be followed by continuous development of steamboats.


title: Steamboat

text: The American, Robert Fulton, was present at the trials of the "Charlotte Dundas" and was intrigued by the potential of the steamboat. While working in France, he corresponded with and was helped by the Scottish engineer Henry Bell, who may have given him the first model of his working steamboat. He designed his own steamboat, which sailed along the River Seine in 1803.


title: Steamboat

text: He later obtained a Boulton and Watt steam engine, shipped to America, where his first proper steamship was built in 1807, "North River Steamboat" (later known as "Clermont"), which carried passengers between New York City and Albany, New York. "Clermont" was able to make the trip in 32 hours. The steamboat was powered by a Boulton and Watt engine and was capable of long-distance travel. It was the first commercially successful steamboat, transporting passengers along the Hudson River.


title: Steamboat

text: In 1807 Robert L. Stevens began operation of the "Phoenix", which used a high-pressure engine in combination with a low-pressure condensing engine. The first steamboats powered only by high pressure were the "Aetna" and "Pennsylvania", designed and built by Oliver Evans.


title: Steamboat

text: In October 1811 a ship designed by John Stevens, "Little Juliana", would operate as the first steam-powered ferry between Hoboken and New York City. Stevens' ship was engineered as a twin-screw-driven steamboat in juxtaposition to "Clermont"s Boulton and Watt engine. The design was a modification of Stevens' prior paddle steamer "Phoenix", the first steamship to successfully navigate the open ocean in its route from Hoboken to Philadelphia.


title: Steamboat

text: In 1812, Henry Bell's PS "Comet" was inaugurated. The steamboat was the first commercial passenger service in Europe and sailed along the River Clyde in Scotland.


title: Steamboat

text: The "Margery", launched in Dumbarton in 1814, in January 1815 became the first steamboat on the River Thames, much to the amazement of Londoners. She operated a London-to-Gravesend river service until 1816, when she was sold to the French and became the first steamboat to cross the English Channel. When she reached Paris, the new owners renamed her "Elise" and inaugurated a Seine steamboat service.


title: Steamboat

text: In 1818, "Ferdinando I", the first Italian steamboat, left the port of Naples, where it had been built.


title: Steamboat

text: The first sea-going steamboat was Richard Wright's first steamboat "Experiment", an ex-French lugger; she steamed from Leeds to Yarmouth, arriving Yarmouth 19 July 1813. "Tug", the first tugboat, was launched by the Woods Brothers, Port Glasgow, on 5 November 1817; in the summer of 1818 she was the first steamboat to travel round the North of Scotland to the East Coast.


title: Steamboat

text: Steamships required carrying fuel (coal) at the expense of the regular payload. For this reason for some time sailships remained more economically viable for long voyages. However, as the steam engine technology improved, more power could be generated by the same quantity of fuel and longer distances could be traveled. A steamship built in 1855 required about 40% of its available cargo space to store enough coal to cross the Atlantic, but by the 1860s, transatlantic steamship services became cost-effective and steamships began to dominate these routes. By the 1870s, particularly in conjunction with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, South Asia became economically accessible for steamships from Europe. By the 1890s, the steamship technology so improved that steamships became economically viable even on long-distance voyages such as linking Great Britain with its Pacific Asian colonies, such as Singapore and Hong Kong. This resulted in the downfall of sailing.


title: Steamboat

text: The era of the steamboat in the United States began in Philadelphia in 1787 when John Fitch (1743–1798) made the first successful trial of a 45-foot (14-meter) steamboat on the Delaware River on 22 August 1787, in the presence of members of the United States Constitutional Convention. Fitch later (1790) built a larger vessel that carried passengers and freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey on the Delaware. His steamboat was not a financial success and was shut down after a few months service, however this marks the first use of marine steam propulsion in scheduled regular passenger transport service.


title: Steamboat

text: Oliver Evans (1755–1819) was a Philadelphian inventor born in Newport, Delaware, to a family of Welsh settlers. He designed an improved high-pressure steam engine in 1801 but did not build it (patented 1804).


title: Steamboat

text: The Philadelphia Board of Health was concerned with the problem of dredging and cleaning the city's dockyards, and in 1805 Evans convinced them to contract with him for a steam-powered dredge, which he called the "Oruktor Amphibolos". It was built but was only marginally successful. Evans's high-pressure steam engine had a much higher power-to-weight ratio, making it practical to apply it in locomotives and steamboats. Evans became so depressed with the poor protection that the US patent law gave inventors that he eventually took all his engineering drawings and invention ideas and destroyed them to prevent his children wasting their time in court fighting patent infringements.


title: Steamboat

text: Robert Fulton constructed a steamboat to ply a route between New York City and Albany, New York on the Hudson River. He successfully obtained a monopoly on Hudson River traffic after terminating a prior 1797 agreement with John Stevens, who owned extensive land on the Hudson River in New Jersey. The former agreement had partitioned northern Hudson River traffic to Livingston and southern to Stevens, agreeing to use ships designed by Stevens for both operations. With their new monopoly, Fulton and Livingston's boat, named the "Clermont" after Livingston's estate, could make a profit. The "Clermont" was nicknamed "Fulton's Folly" by doubters. On Monday, 17 August 1807, the memorable first voyage of the "Clermont" up the Hudson River was begun. She traveled the trip to Albany in a little over 32 hours and made the return trip in about eight hours.


title: Steamboat

text: The use of steamboats on major US rivers soon followed Fulton's 1807 success. In 1811 the first in a continuous (still in commercial passenger operation ) line of river steamboats left the dock at Pittsburgh to steam down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and on to New Orleans. In 1817 a consortium in Sackets Harbor, New York, funded the construction of the first US steamboat, "Ontario", to run on Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes, beginning the growth of lake commercial and passenger traffic. In his book "Life on the Mississippi", river pilot and author Mark Twain described much of the operation of such vessels.


title: Steamboat

text: By 1849 the shipping industry was in transition from sail-powered boats to steam-powered boats and from wood construction to an ever-increasing metal construction. There were basically three different types of ships being used: standard sailing ships of several different types, clippers, and paddle steamers with paddles mounted on the side or rear. River steamboats typically used rear-mounted paddles and had flat bottoms and shallow hulls designed to carry large loads on generally smooth and occasionally shallow rivers. Ocean-going paddle steamers typically used side-wheeled paddles and used narrower, deeper hulls designed to travel in the often stormy weather encountered at sea. The ship hull design was often based on the clipper ship design with extra bracing to support the loads and strains imposed by the paddle wheels when they encountered rough water.


title: Steamboat

text: The first paddle-steamer to make a long ocean voyage was the 320-ton , built in 1819 expressly for packet ship mail and passenger service to and from Liverpool, England. On 22 May 1819, the watch on the "Savannah" sighted Ireland after 23 days at sea. The Allaire Iron Works of New York supplied "Savannah's"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> engine cylinder, while the rest of the engine components and running gear were manufactured by the Speedwell Ironworks of New Jersey. The low-pressure engine was of the inclined direct-acting type, with a single cylinder and a stroke. "Savannah"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> engine and machinery were unusually large for their time. The ship's wrought-iron paddlewheels were 16 feet in diameter with eight buckets per wheel. For fuel, the vessel carried of coal and of wood.


title: Steamboat

text: The SS "Savannah" was too small to carry much fuel, and the engine was intended only for use in calm weather and to get in and out of harbors. Under favorable winds the sails alone were able to provide a speed of at least four knots. The "Savannah" was judged not a commercial success, and its engine was removed and it was converted back to a regular sailing ship. By 1848 steamboats built by both United States and British shipbuilders were already in use for mail and passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean—a journey.


title: Steamboat

text: Since paddle steamers typically required from of coal per day to keep their engines running, they were more expensive to run. Initially, nearly all seagoing steamboats were equipped with mast and sails to supplement the steam engine power and provide power for occasions when the steam engine needed repair or maintenance. These steamships typically concentrated on high value cargo, mail and passengers and only had moderate cargo capabilities because of their required loads of coal. The typical paddle wheel steamship was powered by a coal burning engine that required firemen to shovel the coal to the burners.


title: Steamboat

text: By 1849 the screw propeller had been invented and was slowly being introduced as iron increasingly was used in ship construction and the stress introduced by propellers could be compensated for. As the 1800s progressed the timber and lumber needed to make wooden ships got ever more expensive, and the iron plate needed for iron ship construction got much cheaper as the massive iron works at Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, for example, got ever more efficient. The propeller put a lot of stress on the rear of the ships and would not see widespread use till the conversion from wood boats to iron boats was complete—well underway by 1860. By the 1840s the ocean-going steam ship industry was well established as the Cunard Line and others demonstrated.


title: Steamboat

text: In the mid-1840s the acquisition of Oregon and California opened up the West Coast to American steamboat traffic. Starting in 1848 Congress subsidized the Pacific Mail Steamship Company with $199,999 to set up regular packet ship, mail, passenger, and cargo routes in the Pacific Ocean. This regular scheduled route went from Panama City, Nicaragua and Mexico to and from San Francisco and Oregon. Panama City was the Pacific terminus of the Isthmus of Panama trail across Panama. The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans to and from the Chagres River in Panama was won by the United States Mail Steamship Company whose first paddle wheel steamship, the SS Falcon (1848) was dispatched on 1 December 1848 to the Caribbean (Atlantic) terminus of the Isthmus of Panama trail—the Chagres River.


title: Steamboat

text: The SS "California" (1848), the first Pacific Mail Steamship Company paddle wheel steamship, left New York City on 6 October 1848 with only a partial load of her about 60 saloon (about $300 fare) and 150 steerage (about $150 fare) passenger capacity. Only a few were going all the way to California. Her crew numbered about 36 men. She left New York well before confirmed word of the California Gold Rush had reached the East Coast. Once the California Gold Rush was confirmed by President James Polk in his State of the Union address on 5 December 1848 people started rushing to Panama City to catch the SS California. The picked up more passengers in Valparaiso, Chile and Panama City, Panama and showed up in San Francisco, loaded with about 400 passengers—twice the passengers it had been designed for—on 28 February 1849. She had left behind about another 400–600 potential passengers still looking for passage from Panama City. The "SS California "had made the trip from Panama and Mexico after steaming around Cape Horn from New York—see SS "California" (1848).


title: Steamboat

text: The trips by paddle wheel steamship to Panama and Nicaragua from New York, Philadelphia, Boston, via New Orleans and Havana were about long and took about two weeks. Trips across the Isthmus of Panama or Nicaragua typically took about one week by native canoe and mule back. The trip to or from San Francisco to Panama City could be done by paddle wheel steamer in about three weeks. In addition to this travel time via the Panama route typically had a two- to four-week waiting period to find a ship going from Panama City, Panama to San Francisco before 1850. It was 1850 before enough paddle wheel steamers were available in the Atlantic and Pacific routes to establish regularly scheduled journeys.


title: Steamboat

text: Other steamships soon followed, and by late 1849, paddle wheel steamships like the SS "McKim" (1848) were carrying miners and their supplies the trip from San Francisco up the extensive Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta to Stockton, California, Marysville, California, Sacramento, etc. to get about closer to the gold fields. Steam-powered tugboats and towboats started working in the San Francisco Bay soon after this to expedite shipping in and out of the bay.


title: Steamboat

text: As the passenger, mail and high value freight business to and from California boomed more and more paddle steamers were brought into service—eleven by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company alone. The trip to and from California via Panama and paddle wheeled steamers could be done, if there were no waits for shipping, in about 40 days—over 100 days less than by wagon or 160 days less than a trip around Cape Horn. About 20–30% of the California Argonauts are thought to have returned to their homes, mostly on the East Coast of the United States via Panama—the fastest way home. Many returned to California after settling their business in the East with their wives, family and/or sweethearts. Most used the Panama or Nicaragua route till 1855 when the completion of the Panama Railroad made the Panama Route much easier, faster and more reliable. Between 1849 and 1869 when the first transcontinental railroad was completed across the United States about 800,000 travelers had used the Panama route. Most of the roughly $50,000,000 of gold found each year in California were shipped East via the Panama route on paddle steamers, mule trains and canoes and later the Panama Railroad across Panama. After 1855 when the Panama Railroad was completed the Panama Route was by far the quickest and easiest way to get to or from California from the East Coast of the U.S. or Europe. Most California bound merchandise still used the slower but cheaper Cape Horn sailing ship route. The sinking of the paddle steamer (the "Ship of Gold") in a hurricane on 12 September 1857 and the loss of about $2 million in California gold indirectly led to the Panic of 1857.


title: Steamboat

text: Steamboat traffic including passenger and freight business grew exponentially in the decades before the Civil War. So too did the economic and human losses inflicted by snags, shoals, boiler explosions, and human error.


title: Steamboat

text: During the US Civil War the Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the "Monitor" and "Merrimack" or the "Battle of Ironclads", was fought over two days with steam-powered ironclad warships, 8–9 March 1862. The battle occurred in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond Rivers meet the James River just before it enters Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the city of Norfolk. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederate States of America to break the Union Naval blockade, which had cut off Virginia from all international trade.


title: Steamboat

text: The Civil War in the West was fought to control major rivers, especially the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers using paddlewheelers. Only the Union had them (the Confederacy captured a few, but were unable to use them.) The Battle of Vicksburg involved monitors and ironclad riverboats. The USS "Cairo" is a survivor of the Vicksburg battle. Trade on the river was suspended for two years because of a Confederate's Mississippi blockade before the union victory at Vicksburg reopened the river on 4 July 1863. The triumph of Eads ironclads, and Farragut's seizure of New Orleans, secured the river for the Union North.


title: Steamboat

text: Although Union forces gained control of Mississippi River tributaries, travel there was still subject to interdiction by the Confederates. The Ambush of the steamboat J. R. Williams, which was carrying supplies from Fort Smith to Fort Gibson along the Arkansas River on 16 July 1863 demonstrated this. The steamboat was destroyed, the cargo was lost, and the tiny Union escort was run off. The loss did not affect the Union war effort, however.


title: Steamboat

text: The worst of all steamboat accidents occurred at the end of the Civil War in April 1865, when the steamboat "Sultana", carrying an over-capacity load of returning Union soldiers recently freed from a Confederate prison camp, blew up, causing more than 1,700 deaths.


title: Steamboat

text: For most of the 19th century and part of the early 20th century, trade on the Mississippi River was dominated by paddle-wheel steamboats. Their use generated rapid development of economies of port cities; the exploitation of agricultural and commodity products, which could be more easily transported to markets; and prosperity along the major rivers. Their success led to penetration deep into the continent, where "Anson Northup" in 1859 became first steamer to cross the Canada–US border on the Red River. They would also be involved in major political events, as when Louis Riel seized "International" at Fort Garry, or Gabriel Dumont was engaged by "Northcote" at Batoche. Steamboats were held in such high esteem that they could become state symbols; the Steamboat "Iowa" (1838) is incorporated in the Seal of Iowa because it represented speed, power, and progress.


title: Steamboat

text: At the same time, the expanding steamboat traffic had severe adverse environmental effects, in the Middle Mississippi Valley especially, between St. Louis and the river's confluence with the Ohio. The steamboats consumed much wood for fuel, and the river floodplain and banks became deforested. This led to instability in the banks, addition of silt to the water, making the river both shallower and hence wider and causing unpredictable, lateral movement of the river channel across the wide, ten-mile floodplain, endangering navigation. Boats designated as snagpullers to keep the channels free had crews that sometimes cut remaining large trees or more back from the banks, exacerbating the problems. In the 19th century, the flooding of the Mississippi became a more severe problem than when the floodplain was filled with trees and brush.


title: Steamboat

text: Most steamboats were destroyed by boiler explosions or fires—and many sank in the river, with some of those buried in silt as the river changed course. From 1811 to 1899, 156 steamboats were lost to snags or rocks between St. Louis and the Ohio River. Another 411 were damaged by fire, explosions or ice during that period. One of the few surviving Mississippi sternwheelers from this period, "Julius C. Wilkie", was operated as a museum ship at Winona, Minnesota, until its destruction in a fire in 1981. The replacement, built "in situ", was not a steamboat. The replica was scrapped in 2008.


title: Steamboat

text: From 1844 through 1857, luxurious palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the North American Great Lakes. Great Lakes passenger steamers reached their zenith during the century from 1850 to 1950. The is the last of the once-numerous passenger-carrying steam-powered car ferries operating on the Great Lakes. A unique style of bulk carrier known as the lake freighter was developed on the Great Lakes. The "St. Marys Challenger", launched in 1906, is the oldest operating steamship in the United States. She runs a Skinner Marine Unaflow 4-cylinder reciprocating steam engine as her power plant.


title: Steamboat

text: Women started to become steamboat captains in the late 19th century. The first woman to earn her steamboat master's license was Mary Millicent Miller, in 1884. In 1888, Callie Leach French earned her first class license. In 1892, she earned a master's license, becoming the only woman to hold both and operating on the Mississippi River. French towed a showboat up and down the rivers until 1907 and boasted that she'd never had an accident or lost a boat. Another early steamboat captain was Blanche Douglass Leathers, who earned her license in 1894. Mary Becker Greene earned her license in 1897 and along with her husband started the Greene Line.


title: Steamboat

text: In April 1815, Captain Henry Miller Shreve was the first person to bring a steamboat, the Enterprise, up the Red River.


title: Steamboat

text: By 1839 after Captain Henry Miller Shreve broke the Great Raft log jam had been 160 miles long on the river.


title: Steamboat

text: In the late 1830s, the steamboats in rivers on the west side of the Mississippi River were a long, wide, shallow draft vessel, lightly built with an engine on the deck. These newer steamboats could sail in just 20 inches of water. Contemporaries claimed that they could "run with a lot of heavy dew".


title: Steamboat

text: Walking the boat was a way of lifting the bow of a steamboat like on crutches, getting up and down a sandbank with poles, blocks, and strong rigging, and using paddlewheels to lift and move the ship through successive steps, on the helm. Moving of a boat from a sandbar was by its own action known as "walking the boat" and "grass-hoppering". Two long, strong poles were pushed forward from the bow on either side of the boat into the sandbar at a high degree of angle. Near the end of each pole, a block was secured with a strong rope or clamp that passed through pulleys that lowered through a pair of similar blocks attached to the deck near the bow. The end of each line went to a winch which, when turned, was taut and, with its weight on the stringers, slightly raised the bow of the boat. Activation of the forward paddlewheels and placement of the poles caused the bow of the boat to raise and move the boat forward perhaps a few feet. It was laborious and dangerous work for the crew, even with a Steam donkey driven capstan winch.


title: Steamboat

text: Double-tripping means making two voyages by leaving a cargo of a steamboat ashore to lighten boats load during times of extremely low water or when ice impedes progress. The boat had to return (and therefore make a second trip) to retrieve the cargo.


title: Steamboat

text: 1854: John Ramsbottom publishes a report on his use of oversized split steel piston rings which maintain a seal by outward spring tension on the cylinder wall. This improved efficiency by allowing much better sealing (compared to earlier cotton seals) which allowed significantly higher system pressures before "blow-by" is experienced.


title: Steamboat

text: 1862: The Allen steam engine (later called Porter-Allen) is exhibited at the London Exhibition. It is precision engineered and balanced allowing it to operate at from three to five times the speed of other stationary engines. The short stroke and high speed minimize condensation in the cylinder, significantly improving efficiency. The high speed allows direct coupling or the use of reduced sized pulleys and belting.


title: Steamboat

text: The "Belle of Louisville" is the oldest operating steamboat in the United States, and the oldest operating Mississippi River-style steamboat in the world. She was laid down as "Idlewild" in 1914, and is currently located in Louisville, Kentucky.


title: Steamboat

text: Five major commercial steamboats currently operate on the inland waterways of the United States. The only remaining overnight cruising steamboat is the 432-passenger "American Queen", which operates week-long cruises on the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers 11 months out of the year. The others are day boats: they are the steamers "Chautauqua Belle" at Chautauqua Lake, New York, "Minne Ha-Ha" at Lake George, New York, operating on Lake George; the "Belle of Louisville" in Louisville, Kentucky, operating on the Ohio River; and the "Natchez" in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating on the Mississippi River. For modern craft operated on rivers, see the Riverboat article.


title: Steamboat

text: In Canada, the city of Terrace, British Columbia, celebrates "Riverboat Days" each summer. Built on the banks of the Skeena River, the city depended on the steamboat for transportation and trade into the 20th century. The first steamer to enter the Skeena was "Union" in 1864. In 1866 "Mumford" attempted to ascend the river, but it was only able to reach the Kitsumkalum River. It was not until 1891 Hudson's Bay Company sternwheeler "Caledonia" successfully negotiated Kitselas Canyon and reached Hazelton. A number of other steamers were built around the turn of the 20th century, in part due to the growing fish industry and the gold rush. For more information, see Steamboats of the Skeena River.


title: Steamboat

text: Sternwheelers were an instrumental transportation technology in the development of Western Canada. They were used on most of the navigable waterways of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC (British Columbia) and the Yukon at one time or another, generally being supplanted by the expansion of railroads and roads. In the more mountainous and remote areas of the Yukon and BC, working sternwheelers lived on well into the 20th century.


title: Steamboat

text: The simplicity of these vessels and their shallow draft made them indispensable to pioneer communities that were otherwise virtually cut off from the outside world. Because of their shallow, flat-bottomed construction (the Canadian examples of the western river sternwheeler generally needed less than three feet of water to float in), they could nose up almost anywhere along a riverbank to pick up or drop off passengers and freight. Sternwheelers would also prove vital to the construction of the railroads that eventually replaced them. They were used to haul supplies, track and other materials to construction camps.


title: Steamboat

text: The simple, versatile, locomotive-style boilers fitted to most sternwheelers after about the 1860s could burn coal, when available in more populated areas like the lakes of the Kootenays and the Okanagan region in southern BC, or wood in the more remote areas, such as the Steamboats of the Yukon River or northern BC.


title: Steamboat

text: The hulls were generally wooden, although iron, steel and composite hulls gradually overtook them. They were braced internally with a series of built-up longitudinal timbers called "keelsons". Further resilience was given to the hulls by a system of "hog rods" or "hog chains" that were fastened into the keelsons and led up and over vertical masts called "hog-posts", and back down again.


title: Steamboat

text: Like their counterparts on the Mississippi and its tributaries, and the vessels on the rivers of California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, the Canadian sternwheelers tended to have fairly short life-spans. The hard usage they were subjected to and inherent flexibility of their shallow wooden hulls meant that relatively few of them had careers longer than a decade.


title: Steamboat

text: In the Yukon, two vessels are preserved: the in Whitehorse and the in Dawson City. Many derelict hulks can still be found along the Yukon River.


title: Steamboat

text: In British Columbia, the "Moyie", built by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1898, was operated on Kootenay Lake in south-eastern BC until 1957. It has been carefully restored and is on display in the village of Kaslo, where it acts as a tourist attraction right next to information centre in downtown Kaslo. The "Moyie" is the world's oldest intact stern wheeler. While the SS "Sicamous" and SS "Naramata" (steam tug & icebreaker) built by the CPR at Okanagan Landing on Okanagan Lake in 1914 have been preserved in Penticton at the south end of Okanagan Lake.


title: Steamboat

text: The SS "Samson V" is the only Canadian steam-powered sternwheeler that has been preserved afloat. It was built in 1937 by the Canadian federal Department of Public Works as a snagboat for clearing logs and debris out of the lower reaches of the Fraser River and for maintaining docks and aids to navigation. The fifth in a line of Fraser River snagpullers, the "Samson V" has engines, paddlewheel and other components that were passed down from the "Samson II" of 1914. It is now moored on the Fraser River as a floating museum in its home port of New Westminster, near Vancouver, BC.


title: Steamboat

text: The oldest operating steam driven vessel in North America is the . It was built in Scotland in 1887 to cruise the Muskoka Lakes, District of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. Originally named the S.S. "Nipissing", it was converted from a side-paddle-wheel steamer with a walking-beam engine into a two-counter-rotating-propeller steamer.


title: Steamboat

text: The first woman steamboat captain on the Columbia River was Minnie Mossman Hill, who earned her master's and pilot's license in 1887.


title: Steamboat

text: Engineer Robert Fourness and his cousin, physician James Ashworth are said to have had a steamboat running between Hull and Beverley, after having been granted British Patent No. 1640 of March 1788 for a "new invented machine for working, towing, expediting and facilitating the voyage of ships, sloops and barges and other vessels upon the water". James Oldham, MICE, described how well he knew those who had built the F&A steamboat in a lecture entitled "On the rise, progress and present position of steam navigation in Hull" that he gave at the 23rd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement for Science in Hull, England on 7 September 1853.


title: Steamboat

text: The first commercially successful steamboat in Europe, Henry Bell's "Comet" of 1812, started a rapid expansion of steam services on the Firth of Clyde, and within four years a steamer service was in operation on the inland Loch Lomond, a forerunner of the lake steamers still gracing Swiss lakes.


title: Steamboat

text: On the Clyde itself, within ten years of "Comet's" start in 1812 there were nearly fifty steamers, and services had started across the Irish Sea to Belfast and on many British estuaries. By 1900 there were over 300 Clyde steamers.