wheelhouse

The wheelhouse on a paddlewheel riverboat are covering the paddlewheel(s). That's mainly for the sidewheelers, as sternwheelers on the Western Rivers did not have wheelhouses; but sternwheelers on the west coast (Sacramento River, Columbia River, Alaska) did have wheelhouses even on sternwheelers. Very few pilots ever stepped foot in the wheelhouse of a Mississippi River steamboat. They left that be the domain of the engineers, strikers, or the mate and his gang of rousters to tend to and watch after. A pilot steers from the pilothouse. The boat's paddlewheel is in the wheelhouse.

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