Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of keelboat. Charles, the foot keelboat struck a log. First Known Use of keelboat , in the meaning defined at sense 1. Keep scrolling for more. Learn More About keelboat. One type, now less common, carries cargo or passengers along narrow waterways. The other is a sail boat for recreational purposes.
One of the main features of each, however, is the presence of a keel along the bottom side of the boat's hull. These types of boat derives its name from its primary structural component: a long beam that stretches along the bottom of the body, or hull.
The feature serves two functions: providing a strong foundation for the structure of the boat and helping guide the boat forward as it moves along waterways. The riverboat style of keelboat has its origins in the past, when water transportation was more commonplace. Companies and individuals that sold and distributed goods often needed efficient water vehicles to transport their commerce from one area to another. A trapper and his Indian wife are paddling a dugout canoe and towing an Indian-style bullboat loaded with furs, as they look for a place to land.
The graceful open boat in the center is a flat-bottomed Mackinaw, while some keelboats are moored on the right. The first steamboat, the Chippewa, arrived at Fort Benton in July, , after a journey of more than 2, miles from St.
These keelboats varied in size. An average boat was perhaps sixty feet long, ten feet wide and about four feet deep. The boat was propelled by poles. These poles were about sixteen feet long, light and strong, with a steel point on the lower end and a knob or button on the upper end.
From twelve to twenty men were required to propel the boat. An ordinary raft crew consisted of eight men and a pilot. It was a very common arrangement for two raft crews to pole a loaded keelboat up river and float the boat down with the next raft. One man acted as pilot and an equal number of men, with their long poles, took their places on the running board at the bow end of the boats. With the steel pointed end of their pole on the river bottom, and the knob end against their shoulders the men, in a stooping position, walked to the stern end, then quickly raised their poles and ran back, to the bow end to repeat the operation.
The raft pilot in charge of the keelboat was a big half-breed by the name of La Satte, who lived in Chippewa Falls. My partner and I made arrangements with him to work our passage up river.
It was new work to both of us but we stood it all right, and I made several more trips that same season, also worked on the keelboats off and on for several seasons more. It was the middle of October, , when my partner and myself arrived at Chippewa Falls. Guthrie Jr. His occupation then was that of a keelboat man, transporting cargo — mostly salt — from Shawneetown to New Orleans.
John had started out on a keelboat trip to New Orleans. At first sight he decided to meet and marry the girl with such beautiful hair.
The two were married in After his marriage John continued his keelboat trips to New Orleans. His last homeward trip, in , was the most eventful of any he had spent on the river. On the way up-stream, he met, coming down, the New Orleans, the first steamboat to ply the western rivers. He experienced one of the New Madrid earthquake shocks. And when he finally reached Shawneetown, Nancy introduced him to a brand-new son, William, the first of 13 children — 12 boys and one girl.
Lisa, who had been a sea-captain, took much pains in rigging his boat with a good mast, and main and top-sail: these being great helps in the navigation of this river. Our equipage is chiefly composed of young men, though several have already made a voyage to the upper Missouri, of which they are exceedingly proud, and on that account claim a kind of precedence over the rest of the crew.
We are in all, twenty-five men, and completely prepared for defence. There is, besides, a swivel on the bow of the boat, which, in case of attack, would make a formidable appearance: we have also two brass blunder- busses in the cabin, one over my birth, and the other over that of Mr.
O wen's Dictionary of , the 8-volume encyclopedia in the expedition's traveling library, defined barge in two senses. On the one hand it was, "in naval affairs, a boat of state. A "tilt" or "tile" was a shelter or awning made of tarpaulin canvas, coated with tar for waterproofing held up by wooden hoops of fir or ash. The term barge could also denote "a flat bottomed vessel employed for carrying goods in a navigable river, as those upon the river Thames, called west-country barges.
Barges of that general description began to appear on the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers about Some were about the same length as a commercial keelboat, but could be up to twice as wide, with a burden or capacity of up to 40 tons, and a draught of three or four feet of water.
The names and physical descriptions of watercraft of the early 19th century were difficult to clarify even then. Here is the way Timothy Flint , the Harvard-educated American author and missionary on the Mississippi between and , opened his essay on the state of nautical design and nomenclature during that decade: "No form of water craft so whimsical, no shape so outlandish, can well be imagined, but what, on descending from Pittsburg to New Orleans, it may some where be seen lying to the shore, or floating on the river.
Nearly six times out of ten they opted for the generic "boat. C onstruction of the barge in Pittsburgh proved to be a nightmare. Lewis arrived there early in the afternoon of July 15 after an uneventful mile journey from Harpers Ferry. He immediately fired off a note to Jefferson which he closed with the remark that "the Ohio is quite low, but not so much so as to obstruct my passage altogether.
On July 22 he confided to Jefferson:. The person who contracted to build my boat. The usual navigation season was nearing its end, and the river continued to drop daily, approaching a historic low. Nevertheless, I was determined to leave whenever the boat was finished, "though I should not be able to make a greater distance than a mile pr.
Furthermore the well-meaning builder promised the barge would be done by the 13th. Lewis explains:. However, a few days after, according to his usual custom he got drunk, quarrelled with his workmen, and several of them left him, nor could they be prevailed on to return: I threatened him with the penalty of his contract, and exacted a promise of greater sobriety in future which, he took care to perform with as little good faith, as he had his previous promises with regard to the boat, continuing to be constantly either drunk or sick.
I spent most of my time with the workmen, alternately presuading and threatening, but neither threats, presuasion or any other means which I could devise were sufficient to procure the completion of the work sooner than the 31st of August; by which time the water was so low that those who pretended to be acquainted with the navigation of the river declared it impracticable to descend it. Lewis finally began his mile voyage down the Ohio River on August Overall, it was a tedious eight-week journey.
Owing to the exceptionally low streamflow that year, it was necessary on numerous occasions to manhandle the craft over rocky riffles, or hire farmers to drag it over with horses and oxen. Today, 21 dams with interlocking reservoirs guarantee clear sailing the year around for commercial as well as pleasure traffic on the Ohio River. Upon the Corps' departure from their winter encampment at the mouth of the River Dubois, on 14 May , the barge was the flagship, with two pirogues—large rowboats of six and seven oars, respectively—completing the captains' little fleet.
In the spring of , when the rest of the Corps of Discovery set out from Fort Mandan with the two pirogues and six dugout canoes , headed for shallower water on the upper Missouri, the barge was sent back downriver under the command of Corporal Warfington. Its fate after arrival in St. Louis is unknown. F igures 2 and 4, which appear in Clark's Field Notes about 21 January , illustrate his plans for improving the barge. The boat had a mainmast with a square sail, plus a spritsail see the discussion of the white pirogue when it left Pittsburgh, but broke twice under strong winds before reaching Wood River, and the sprit broke on the Ohio River in early September.
The men were still working on Clark's hinged replacement at Camp Dubois in mid-April of Rising from the stern in Clark's drawing is an ensign-staff which bears a naval pennant showing the national origin of the boat and its crew. Note: The ensign-staff and flag are absent from Richard Boss's model—shown at the top of this page—only because they had accidentally been broken off and mislaid prior to the time the photograph was taken.
T he tholes , as Clark noted in his sketch, are "pins to row by. Also, they allow the oars to be left to lie over the side in the event of "action," or emergency, such as the need for the two men at the bow and stern oars to quickly seize the halyards to handle the sail. Clark added the rectangular blocks of wood in which the thole-pins were mounted in order to raise the fulcrum several inches, allowing the oars to be raised enough to avoid high waves and large obstacles such as sawyers.
Rowlocks were made with either one or two pins; Clark used one, which was the more common practice at that time. At the points where the oars are to rest in the oarlocks, the oars are attached to the thole-pins with grommets , which are made by wrapping a single strand of hemp rope around the loom, or inboard length, of the oar, twisting the bight into a loop and slipping it over the thole-pin, then wrapping it around the loom again and tying off the ends.
T he square sail hangs from a long cylindrical timber called a yard, and is hoisted up the mast with a block and tackle. The sail is loose-footed—that is, without a spar or "boom" to keep the bottom of it securely spread. The two rows of ropes faintly visible across the lower part of the sail are "reef points" by which the sail can be gathered up and tied in order to reduce the sail's area in a strong wind.
On September 30, , for example, Clark reported a hard wind which turned the boat and made it rock, which frightened the Sioux chief they had taken aboard. Each has an iron tip on its lower end, for a secure purchase among the mud, sand and rocks of the river.
Setting poles were especially useful for fending off drifting logs and snags, and avoiding rocks, shoals and sandbars. C lark showed a rope attached to an eye-bolt at the bow on the water-line. It was probably used to moor the boat to a tree any time they "came to"—stopped to rest or encamp. Cordelling with that line would have been impractical because it would usually draw the bow toward shore.
Instead, the line was attached to a pivot point on the mast-head, and led forward, according to Boss, "through the eye of a 10 to foot adjustable pendant which was secured at the bow. By adjusting the length of the pendant, the tow line's effective fore and aft point of attachment relative to the vessel's center of lateral resistance could be controlled.
T he notes accompanying the sketch in Figure 4 pertain to the storage lockers Clark devised, including hinged lids that could be raised for defensive protection.
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