I missed these replies from my post in 2011. Thanks for the extra verses of all the ships. Thanks to Rob for the info on the musical. I looked up musicals relating to this and find "Big River" and "The Mighty Mississippi". The selections found in these are not those pointed out by Rob. Rachel, if you should find more to add to this saga, I'll be glad to hear it. As I said above, the first ship to go up the Mississippi was "Zebulon M. Pike" in 1817 followed by others bearing that name.                                  Much obliged