No part of the United States was so dependent on sea and river transport as Florida in the latter nineteenth century. The state has an exceptionally long coastline and possesses a number of rivers that needed little or no channel improvement to become navigable. Many settlements remained unserved by railroads until the final years of the century. Florida's leading product, lumber, required low-cost ocean transport to reach markets.
One component of Florida's water transport was scheduled steamship service. A number of steamship routes on both the Atlantic and the Gulf were established by parent railroad companies. A second component was the large fleet of steamboats carrying passengers and freight to hundreds of riverside docks. Some of the smaller steamboats, such as the Marion which the accompanying drawing shows steaming on the Oklawaha River, were barely 20 feet broad. In addition to these two components, many hundreds of steamships and sailing vessels arrived at irregular intervals at Florida ports. Their diverse incoming cargoes ranged from machinery to ice. Outbound cargoes included cattle for Cuba, cotton for England, and especially lumber for Europe and the Northeast.
