Paddle wheel ships were a big part of California Gold Rush history.
Paddle wheel ships were a kind of ship that carried people to the gold mines. Paddle wheel ships had two smoke stacks, one on either side of the ship. They also had a paddle on either side, and they had masts and sails. Paddle wheel ships had flat bottoms.
Paddle wheel ships were smaller than clipper ships, but go they could move ahead when there was no wind. Steam engines made a paddle wheel ship move. These ships had to stop several times a trip in order to get coal for their engines.
Believe it or not, steam engines have been around for 300 years.
In England in 1698, Thomas Savery patented the first working steam engine. This was a very uncomplicated engine to operate. The modern steam engine was made in 1802 in England and the U.S.
Since a paddle wheel ship was a steam boat, if the steam got plugged up, the engine could blow up. A paddle wheel ship could be hard for people to control and that is one way the ships crashed.
Another way was that the paddle wheel ships might take a shortcut and hit rocks in the sea. Some people tried to go through the Channel Islands to get to California more quickly, but they sometimes sank. Believe it or not the people on paddle wheel boats did this because they had gold fever and they went crazy for gold. Learn more about Gold Rush shipwrecks.
By Jordan, Weston
Clipper ships date back to the War of 1812. But when gold was discovered in California, it became profitable to build and operate sailing ships that looked more like racing vessels than cargo carriers.
Clipper ships could often make it to California more quickly than other kinds of ships. For a while these expensive ships paid for themselves on a single voyage.
Between one and four hundred clipper ships were built. They were tall and beautiful, and their masts seem to rise up to the sky. The clipper ship’s bow (front) was knife-edged. They ranged in size from a few hundred tons to over 4000 tons.
But the large amount of clipper ships sailing to California lasted only about a decade (ten years.) After 1855 these fast ships quickly vanished.
By Ms. Rechtfertig