Parts of a Riverboat – Labeled Sternwheel Steamboat

All 21 parts on the diagram

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Hull and decks 7

Hull A river steamboat's hull is broad and flat. That way the boat floats in very shallow water.
Main deck It carried the boilers, the fuel, the engines and the freight.
Boiler deck It sits one deck above the boilers; no boilers are on it.
Hurricane deck The third deck up, also called the roof. The boat's big bell stands on it.
Texas The crew's rooms are here. The pilothouse stands on top of it.
Pilothouse It is the highest room on the boat. From it the pilot can see far up and down the river.
Forecastle The capstan and the landing stage are kept here. The crew gather here at a landing.

Stacks, signals and bow gear 8

Smokestacks Rivermen also call them chimneys or stacks. Most boats have two.
Hog chains They run from the hull up over posts and back down. They are tightened with turnbuckles. They are rods, not chains.
Bell The boat's large signal bell stands on the hurricane deck.
Steam whistle It warned other boats in fog. It also told the next landing the boat was coming.
Calliope It runs on steam from the boilers. It played for the passengers and for the people waiting at the landing.
Jackstaff It often flies a flag. The pilot sights along it to line the bow up with a point on shore.
Landing stage Passengers walk ashore over it, so the boat can land almost anywhere. Also called a stage or stage plank.
Capstan Early ones were turned by hand with bars. Later ones ran on steam.

Steam and the wheel 6

Paddlewheel A boat with one wheel at the stern is a sternwheeler. A sidewheeler has one on each side.
Boilers A fire burns in the firebox under them. Its smoke goes up the smokestacks.
Steam engine It turns steam pressure into the turning of the paddlewheel. The steam comes from the boilers.
Pitman It joins the engine to the crank on the wheel. It works like the connecting rod of a steam locomotive.
Buckets Each bucket pushes against the water. It is a plank, or several planks bolted together.
Rudders A sternwheel boat has more than one rudder, sometimes four or five.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 against two independent sources, a name kept only where both use it. (1) Steamboats.org, Glossary of Steamboat Terms and its steamboat model pages, https://www.steamboats.org/history-education/glossary.html (boiler, boiler deck, bucket, capstan, forecastle, hog chains, hurricane deck, jackstaff, main deck, pilothouse, pitman, rudder, stacks, stage, texas; the calliope, hull, landing stage, paddlewheel, steam engine and steam whistle pages). (2) Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883), Project Gutenberg text https://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-0.txt (chimneys, pilot-house, texas, boiler deck, hurricane deck, jack-staff, big bell, forecastle, stage, capstan, boilers, engines, rudder, steam-whistle). (3) Wikipedia, text only: Paddle steamer (paddle wheel, buckets, sternwheel and sidewheel), Connecting rod (pitmans on paddle steamers), Hog chains, Deck (ship) (boiler deck, hurricane deck, main deck) and Calliope (instrument). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; a composite of no one boat, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

These are the parts of a riverboat of the kind that worked the Mississippi: a sternwheel steamboat, with its decks named the way rivermen named them. The second view enlarges the stern.

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The decks, bottom to top

The main deck is the open one just above the hull, where the boilers, engines and freight sit. Above it is the boiler deck with the passenger cabins, then the hurricane deck, which is the roof. On the roof stands the texas, a narrow cabin for the crew, and on top of the texas the pilothouse.

How the wheel turns

Fire under the boilers makes steam. The steam drives the engine, and a long rod, the pitman, turns a crank on the paddlewheel. The buckets on the wheel's rim push against the river.

Rivermen say stacks or chimneys, never funnels.
Hog chains are iron rods, not chains: they keep the two ends of the long, shallow hull from sagging.

Questions and answers

What is the wheel on a riverboat called?

A paddlewheel. A boat with one wheel at the stern is a sternwheeler, and one with a wheel on each side is a sidewheeler. The boards around the rim that dip into the water are called buckets.

What are the decks on a riverboat called?

From the bottom: the main deck, the boiler deck and the hurricane deck, which is the roof. The texas is a long cabin on the roof, and the pilothouse sits on top of it.

What is the texas on a steamboat?

A long, narrow cabin on the hurricane deck that holds the crew's rooms, with the pilothouse on top. The name honors the state of Texas, which joined the United States at about the time the cabin was first added.

Why do riverboats have tall smokestacks?

To carry sparks from the fires high above the boat. A steamboat loaded with cotton could burn, so the sparks had to be kept as far from the cargo as possible.