June 8, 1809
The steamboat Phoenix departed from New York City for Philadelphia. This voyage would earn the Phoenix a place in transportation history as the first steamboat to sail the open ocean.
The Phoenix was built about two years earlier in Hoboken, New Jersey, by engineer and lawyer John Stevens (1749-1838) and his son Robert L. Stevens (1787-1856). Their original plan was to operate the 50-foot (15-meter)-long Phoenix between New Brunswick, New Jersey, and New York City. This plan had to be reassessed, however, as a result of major restrictions placed on steamboats operating in the harbor at New York City.
Robert Fulton (1765-1815), largely credited with inventing the first commercially successful steamboat, and his business partner Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813) had obtained a monopoly for those waters. These constraints motivated John Stevens to risk taking the Phoenix over the open ocean so that he could operate that vessel more profitably on the Delaware River in the Philadelphia region.
This voyage had its notable share of challenges, with a schooner accompanying the Phoenix driven off by a storm en route. Ultimately, however, the Phoenix made harbor at Barnegat in central New Jersey and — after staying there for several days until that storm subsided — made her way along the remainder of the state and up the Delaware River.
The Phoenix subsequently make her first trip along the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Trenton, New Jersey, early the following month. John Stevens continued to make key contributions to maritime travel. Just over two years after the Phoenix’s historic voyage, for example, a ship created by Stevens and named the Juliana began operations as the first steam-powered ferry.
Image Credit: Public Domain
For more information on the steamboat Phoenix, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(steamboat)
Transportation History 
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