Looking for firsthand accounts of life aboard seagoing paddle-steamers

S

SeaTurtle

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They certainly weren't the most practical design for seagoing traffic, but for some reason blue-water paddle-steamers have always held a special place in my heart. Given that they were in their heyday around the Civil War period, I wondered if folks here could recommend any firsthand accounts/memoirs of what it was like to serve aboard seagoing paddle-steamers, whether naval or civilian?
 
I can think of a number of them, like the collection of letters of William F. Keeler aboard the USS Florida, or John Wilkinson's book about running the blockade. Are looking for insight into a particular area?
 
I can think of a number of them, like the collection of letters of William F. Keeler aboard the USS Florida, or John Wilkinson's book about running the blockade. Are looking for insight into a particular area?

My preference would be the Pacific region or the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean. But I'm open to other parts of the world. Doesn't have to be specifically related to the Civil War either; there was plenty of other interesting stuff involving paddle steamers around this era (like Commodore Perry's "Black Ship" expedition to Japan, or the trans-Atlantic paddlewheel ocean liners). The main thing I'm looking for is a firsthand view of what service was like aboard these sorts of vessels.
 
One of the finest naval reminiscences I've read is Lamson of the Gettysburg: The Civil War Letters of Lieutenant Roswell H. Lamson, U.S. Navy by James M. and Patricia R. McPherson. Lamson served on a number of ships in the North Blockading Squadron and ended up as captain of the side-wheeler Gettysburg, a former blockade runner and fastest ship in the squadron.
 
A book I'm re reading at present: "The Ocean Railway" by Stephen Fox, published by Harper Collins 2003, ISBN 0-00-653216-0.
It's a history of the 19th Century Trans-Atlantic Steamships & Companies. Chapter 9, Life on a Steamer, gives both passenger and crew viewpoints. The whole book is much to be recommended.
 
An interesting book I came across (and ordered) is The First Atlantic Liners: Seamanship in the Age of Paddle Wheel, Sail, and Screw by Basil Greenhill and Peter Allington. It isn't a firsthand memoir itself, but it uses contemporary sources (such as ships logs) to investigate the technicalities of running an oceangoing paddle-steamer back when they were used on trans-Atlantic shipping lines in the mid-19th century.
 
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