Texas (steamboat)

The texas, in American English,[1] is a structure or section of a steamboat that includes the crew's quarters.

[2] In this period, steamboat cabins were conventionally named after states and the officers' quarters were the largest.

[3][4] The term became widely known after the publication of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

In the section in which Huck and Jim encounter a wrecked steamboat: "... there ain't nothing to watch but the texas and the pilot-house; and do you reckon anybody's going to resk his life for a texas and a pilot-house such a night as this, when it's likely to break up and wash off down the river any minute?"

Jim couldn't say nothing to that, so he didn't try.On the Great Lakes, lake freighters have deck houses at the bow and stern with cargo holds in the center.