The Steamboat Walk-in-the-Water Sailing into a Lake Erie Sunset -oil on board; 28" x 18"

Very little information exists about the earliest steamboats that sailed the Great Lakes. In the case of The Walk-in-the-Water, the only records available were the dimensions given in the Custom Enrollment documents: 338 tons, 135 foot keel, 32 foot beam and a very shallow draft. From a brief description of the engine and boiler, I was able to build a small model of the engine. I had to generate the ship sectionals and lines according to the enrollment document dimensions and two existing but very primitive paintings. From these sources I was able to build the hull around the boiler and engine to recreate this historical vessel as accurately as possible. Because of her great importance to Buffalo's history and the development of the Upper Great Lakes, I wanted to solve the mystery of what this important little steamboat looked like

In 1818 Josepheus Bradner Stuart hired Noah Brown, a shipbuilder from New York City, to build The Walk-in-the-Water, the first steamboat built on the Niagara River for use on the Upper Great Lakes. Noah Brown had built the US fleet at Erie, so he was well acquainted with shallow Lake Erie and the difficulties navigating this lake. In her short but very successful commercial career, she carried soldiers, pioneer settlers and supplies to tiny settlements that later became Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago. Under steam alone in flat water she could do over eight knots.

A limited edition of prints from this painting shall be donated to the Buffalo Chapter for Multiple Sclerosis for its fund raising art auction in February of 2005.

Price on request.