Why were steamboats invented?

Why were steamboats invented?
I know it sounds simplistic, but, the literal reason steam revolutionized travel by water was to move 'into' the wind. Before the days of steam, sea or estuarial travel was limited to travel almost completely 'down' wind, or, away from the direction the wind was blowing, virtually 'half' the possible directions.Steam travel, on the other hand, could happen in virtually all possible directions, even directly into quite high winds. This concept alone and by itself was revolutionary to all concerned with sea travel and a large proportion of those were literally unable to make the transition to thinking in this new way. Suddenly, the needs of all steam ships included fuel, vastly more fresh water for boilers and a whole new category of 'engineers' to run the new powerplant.__________________________________________________________________So people could travel through water.