born Oct. 21, 1785, Burlington county, N.J., U.S.
died March 6, 1851, St. Louis, Mo.
U.S. inventor and explorer.
He grew up on the western Pennsylvania frontier and began making trading voyages after his father's death in 1799. In the War of 1812 he was skipper of the Enterprise , the second steamboat on the Mississippi, carrying supplies for Andrew Jackson 's army. Though it was the first steamboat to reach Louisville, Ky. (1815), the trip convinced Shreve of the need for a new design for river steamers. His design for the Washington
with a flat shallow hull, a steam engine on the main deck, and a second deck
established the Mississippi steamboat type. To clear rivers of debris, he later designed the first snag boat. His camp on the Red River in Louisiana grew into a permanent settlement as Shreveport.