[PeaRidge]

Reading from the left, the columns are marked "Ships, Barks, Brigs, Schrs (Schooners), St. Ships (steam ships)" parenthesis mine. The total shipping arrivals were 1918. The final column is marked S. Boats. The document does not define that item, but you can define it for yourself, if you like.

[Heyworth]

The document does not define that item, but you can define it for yourself, if you like.

Man, you just can't ever admit that you're wrong, can you? Okay, I choose to define it as Steam Boats, and I've got corroboration from a variety of sources to show that I'm right and that the number of steam boats arriving in New Orleans in any year of the period is much more like 3000 than 300. For instance:

"the first steamboat came downriver in 1812. In 1821, 287 steamboats arrived in New Orleans; by 1826, there were 700 steamboat arrivals. In 1845, 2,500 steamboats were recorded, and during the 1850's an average of 3,000 steamboats a year called at the city."

http://www.madere.com/history.html

" By 1834, the number of steamboat arrivals in New Orleans annually was 2,300, indicative of that port's trade. "

http://www.moah.org/exhibits/archives/steam.html
(are you going to claim that steamboat traffic had declined 90% between the 1830s and 1850s?

Finally, I'd point out that the heading on the table specifies steam boats and I contend that they wouldn't then have a column heading for that labelled "st. ships" and another labelled "s. boats" if the latter wasn't the steam boats of the heading.