From my reading, the earliest SMALL steam engines used for powering boats were in existence by 1850, and were really quite usable and widely employed on inland waterways before the Civil War.  I have no specifics for small fishing boats, but there would have been no reason that such were powered in the same way by those years.  The oncs of which I have read burned wood, since not until well after the war were petroleum distillates such as fuel oil available.  I GUESS - GUESS only - that coal was too heavy for such small boat use.  Paul    
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jack Fallin 

  ....At one point did it become common for a
  schooner's yawl to be equipped with an engine and employed as a
  pushboat?  1870s? -80s?-90s?  Also, would those first pushers have been
  powered by steam/coal, or were small oil-fueled steam engines
  available?

  Jack Fallin
  Walnut Creek, CA

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