For years, Andrew Mayford operated flatboats on the Mississippi, but when he was presented with the opportunity to pilot the first steamboat, the New Orleans, from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, he was skeptical, but Nicholas and Lydia Roosevelt's vision convinced him that he embarking on a history-making adventure.
However, once the trip began, his whole world-view was shaken. not just the changes in the landscape caused by the New Madrid earthquake, but also his desire to remain an unattached bachelor.