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While such ideas were fomenting and formulating, Captain proceeded to build his first steamboat---the first with double deck---and named it George Washington. His plans were so radically different from anything ever turned out by Livingston and Fulton, foremost shipbuilders of the time, or by Roosevelt, or French, that the astounded public declared him crazy.
Through legislation Livingston and Fulton had virtually procured a monopoly of the rivers of the Louisiana Purchase territory and had issued orders that no steamboat built by others than themselves could be operated upon such rivers; they also decreed that all steamboat owners and operators must procure their licenses from them under penalty of $1,000 fine and one year's imprisonment. Captain Shreve knew all this, but set his jaw in determination at the same time he set the course of the George Washington toward New Orleans, where he arrived in triumph in 1817; he had mastered the mighty river and the event was acclaimed the equal of Jackson's of two years before.
The glory faded abruptly when his boat was attached by the sheriff in the firm name of Livingston and Fulton, although both were then dead. Shreve decided to make a test case as to whether the rivers of the Southwest could be controlled by a monopoly. He retained a reputable lawyer in New Orleans and, after a long and spectacular trial, won the case.
Back in Louisville, he was honored with banquets and balls. Answering calls for a speech at one dinner he made the startling assertion that the time would come when the trip from New Orleans to Louisville would be made in ten days. The guests warmly applauded, with the mental reservation "poor fellow has gone daft."
Henry Shreve had accomplished his ambition and was now ready to work on his cherished invention for extracting impedimenta from river channels. Within the next four years he had perfected one of the greatest inventions of the age---the snagboat. He proved its ability and value to the Government, and was granted a patent in 1824; also, as recognition of his ability, he was appointed superintendent of improvement of western waters, which position he held until 1841.
