The Directory will contain maps of the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, White, Red, Ouachita, Yazoo and other rivers, with the towns and cities, laid down, with correct distances.

"[2] After receiving a copy, the Journal and Messenger, of Macon, Georgia, editorialized:[3] Horrible Sacrifice of Life on Western Waters in Forty-Four Years.—From Lloyd's forthcoming Steamboat Directory we learn that since the application of steam on the Western waters there have been thirty-nine thousand six hundred and seventy-two [39,672] lives lost by steamboat disasters, three hundred and eighty one [381] boats and cargoes lost, and seventy [70] boats seriously injured amounting in the aggregate to the enormous sum of sixty-seven millions of dollars [US$67,000,000 (equivalent to $2,190,900,000 in 2023)].

It is to be hoped that this forthcoming work will have the effect of arresting the attention of the Government to the importance of western interests so far as our great rivers and lakes are concerned.

[4] In June 1856, Godey's Lady's Book published an article called "Girls Should Be Taught to Swim" that apparently referenced Lloyd's Steamboat Directory.

Licensed Pilots and Engineers — Fast Time of Boats; The Earthquake in 1812, &c., &c., One Hundred Fine Engravings, and Sixty Maps; Being a Valuable Statistical Work, as well as a Guide-Book for the Travelling Public.

[16][17][18][19][20][21] The "disasters on the western waters" portion of the book is illustrated with woodcut etchings that "reveal a repetitive motif when looked at in a larger format: bodies thrown in the air, depicted in flight at the moment of explosion.