Name Comet Laid down Winter, 1813 Out of service After July 3, 1814 Length 16 m | Owner Daniel D. Smith In service June, 1813 Launched 1813 | |
Builder Comet was built and launched at Pittsburgh.
Daniel French designed and built the engine and power train at Brownsville. | ||
The steamboat Comet was the second steamboat to navigate the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The Comet was owned by Daniel D. Smith and she was launched in 1813 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, the Comet was the first of the Western steamboats to be powered by a horizontal high-pressure engine with its piston rod connected to a stern paddle wheel. Daniel D. Smith was the first to defy the steamboat monopoly in Orleans Territory granted to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton.
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Pittsburgh
Daniel French built the steam engine and drive train at Brownsville, Pennsylvania which were installed in the Comet at Pittsburgh prior to July 13, 1813.
The Pittsburgh Gazette announced that Comet had departed Pittsburgh for Louisville, Kentucky on July 13, her first voyage :
On September 7, Robert Fulton wrote to John Livingston at Pittsburgh requesting specific information about the Comet.
In the fall of 1813, a public notice was published in the The Pittsburgh Gazette:
On November 11, Robert Fulton wrote to John Livingston at Pittsburgh:
Apparently, since a trial date was never entered in the docket book for the Allegheny County court, the threatened lawsuit was not pursued.
New Orleans
The Comet, after steaming from Pittsburgh to the port of New Orleans, was entered for the first time in the New Orleans Wharf Register on February 25, 1814. The Comet was identified as "Steam Boat, Capt. Lake", and the fee was "$6". Subsequently, on March 15, April 7, May 2 and July 3, 1814 the Comet was identified as "Steam Boat (Lake)", and the fee was "$6".