The scenic value of the Humberside region (s.p.b.) was much promoted and valued, by citizens of Hull who might discover that the whole region was not flat! In promoting steamboat day trips the emphasis was as much on exploring the two great feeder rivers that met at Trent Falls as on the Estuary itself. Gainsborough, as well as Burton Stather, were often destinations up the River Trent from the Estuary the contrast between the scarp slope of the Lincolnshire Heights immediately east and the expansive Vale of Trent to the west being a clear attraction. Similarly Selby and Cawood, even York, might be visited up the River Ouse. The opening of Goole’s first dock in the 1820s meant that Goole could become an attractive destination later in the century.
D’Orley (s.p.b.) tells us that in 1833 a promotional booklet was published entitled ‘The Trent and Humber Picturesque Steam Companion’, this giving dates and times of sailings and, to make it more appealing, it included a map of the region and views of the region produced by Greenwood, a Hull engraver (Greenwood’s ‘Picture of Hull, 1835’ is a very good source of evidence about Hull at that time). Furthermore, D’Orley tells us that steamers from Hull to Gainsborough were timed to meet stage coaches to Retford, Sheffield and Newark ‘and under favourable circumstances, London also’. Thus Estuary and river timetabled steamers could relieve long distance travellers of some of the tiresome travel by stage coach, this including travellers to the capital city who could board a coastal steamer at Hull.