Steamscow 'Cinderella' and Ferryboat 'Cincinnati'

The steamscow passes a pinnace headed in the other direction, then steams on past the huge paddlewheeler.

Edwin S. Porter is credited as running the camera on this one, and it's a fairly good example of motion on the water. Except that it's a foggy day. And it's been done before. Maybe not for two vessels of this sort, but there's nothing on the Internet to indicate either of them were remarked on in the era.

It was a dull era for the actuality short. A.E.Weed was out in Missouri, taking shots of the St. Louis Exposition and what look to be contract films for the Missouri State Board of Education (if that's the name of the organization) to tout their modern athletic programs. Meanwhile, between his grand projects, Porter shot stuff like this, mostly to fill out the catalogue, and possibly because he was planning some intermediate shots for one of them. "The Life of An American Fireman" was a huge artistic hit for him that year. Maybe he was planning something about the American Sailor.