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4 - Benjamin Tibbet's engine

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Steamboat construction also stimulated and challenged the ingenuity of early New Brunswick inventors and entrepreneurs. One such person was Benjamin Tibbets of Fredericton who, in the early 1840's, had developed an early and widely used version of the compound steam engine in a local foundry. This was four years before the design evolved separately in Europe.

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Benjamin Tibbets' engine
1845

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Designed by Frederictonian Benjamin Tibbets, and launched on May 3rd 1845, the Reindeer featured the world's first compound marine engine. The revolutionary steam system consumed less than 1/3 of the fuel used by other engines and traveled significantly faster. It could sail from Fredericton to Saint John in about six hours on three dollars of fuel, while similar vessels would make the trip in fifteen hours on ten dollars of fuel; no other boat in the world could boast such rates of fuel consumption per unit of horse-power. Another factor which contributed to it's record breaking speed was Tibbets streamlined hull design, which he modeled after aboriginal birch bark canoes. Aboriginal canoes sit on top of the water instead of cutting through it, effectively offering much less resistance.

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Reindeer
1845
St. John River, New Brunswick, Canada

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The Reindeer remained the fastest boat on the river up until it was removed from service in 1860. Her famous engine was then transferred to the new steamboat Antelope.

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Antelope
1861
St. John River, New Brunswick, Canada

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Fifteen years later the engine was used in the tugboat Admiral where it continued to give good service until 1918. The engine remained in service for over seventy-five years as a testimony to Tibbets' great ingenuity, skill, and craftsmanship.

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Early tugboat
1870
St. John River, New Brunswick, Canada