interesting spectacle to the inhabitants of this place, who saluted the vessels as they passed with three cheers, and by firing a small piece of ordnance from the banks."[67] "The building and lading of ships is now considered as an enterprize of the greatest importance in this part of the country. The last (1802) there were launched from the ship-yard of Captain Devol, on the Muskingum river, five miles above its mouth, the ship 'MUSKINGUM,' of 204 tons, owned by Benjamin Ives Gilman, Esq. and the brigantine 'ELIZA GREENE,' of 115 tons, owned by Charles Greene, Esq. merchants at Marietta. At the spring flood of the present year, the schooner 'Indiana,' of 100 tons, the brig 'Marietta,' of 130 tons, and another of 150 tons, also built here, were launched and descended the river for New Orleans and the trade to the West Indies. Good judges of naval architecture have pronounced these vessels equal, in point of workmanship and materials, to the best that have been built in America. The firmness and great length of their planks, and the excellency of their timbers, (their frames being almost wholly composed of black walnut, a wood which, if properly selected, has nearly the strength of white oak, and the durability of the live oak of the south without its weight) it is believed will give these vessels the preference over any built of the timber commonly made use of, in any market where there are competent judges. This part of the country owes much to those gentlemen, who, in a new and experimental line, have set this example of enterprize and perseverance."[68] One ship from Marietta is said to have had the existence of her port of clearance questioned in Italy. In 1811 we learn that ship-building was not prospering as might be supposed; misfortunes and accidents "have given a damp to ships building at present."[69] On an inland river, where the winds and the amount of rainfall at any time were very uncertain, it must have been a most difficult thing to cope successfully with low water and shifting sand bars and other innumerable obstacles to navigation in the Ohio. The times were ripe for another power, one which did not require that the vessels have deep draught, as was the case with sailing vessels. The dawning of the new era of steam navigation cannot be introduced better than by quoting a unique paragraph from _The Navigator_ of 1811: