THE EVOLUTION OF RIVER CRAFT
The evolution of craft on the Ohio River portrays in a remarkable manner
the economic development of the Central West. Being the one practicable
artery in the empire between the Appalachian uplift and the Mississippi,
and the Blue Ridge and the Great Lakes, this river was, from the
beginning of the eighteenth century onward, the main route of
immigration and commerce, and the story of those years is contained in
the story of these craft which carried the freight and fortune of the
millions who came and built homes and labored here.
The greater the detail with which this study is examined the more
interesting and enlightening it becomes. Of the score and more of
distinctive craft which regularly plied this waterway not one but is
significant of some change in the social order of things, indicative of
some open or secret development which, unnoticed at the time perhaps,
marked a new forward movement in our social evolution. Such an
indication may be thought slight but it was a straw which marked the
direction of the sweeping current of advance, and the swiftness of it.
Compared with the evolution of methods of travel by land, the evolution
on our rivers was rapid and spectacular. The "freighter" or "Conestoga"
of 1790 was practically the same as that of 1840: a half century had
witnessed little change in wagons and stages, save minor improvements.
But compare the craft of 1790 on the Ohio with that of 1840. The canoe,
pirogue, keel-boat, "bark," barge, brig, schooner, galley-boat, batteau,
and dug-out were forgotten--a consequence of the early application of
steam-power to boats rather than to vehicles. When, in 1811, "The
Orleans" went steaming down the Ohio from Pittsburg, and when, six years
later, the "Washington" convinced a desparing public that steamboat
navigation would succeed on "western waters" the new era in western
history dawned.
In the earliest days the primitive light canoe, the unwieldy pirogue,
and the heavy batteau were the common means of navigation on the Ohio.
The canoe was made from the bark of trees; quickly made and quickly worn
out, if the water was low, by continually coming in contact with the
bottom. The pirogue was likewise quickly made; the canoe was paddled,
the pirogue pushed by oars or setting-poles. The canoe easily glided up
stream; the pirogue ran easily with the current but could not ascend the
stream without the expenditure of much labor. Often the words canoe and
pirogue were used interchangeably of the same craft; in George Rogers
Clark's famous march to Vincennes in 1779, the army, upon arriving at
the Little Wabash, February 13, built a boat which in Bowman's _Journal_
is called a "canoe," and in Clark's _Memoir_, a "pirogue." The batteau,
better known in the West as the barge, was a square box of any length,
width, and depth. It was distinctively a downstream craft, and in the
early days rarely ascended with a load any river of current. The canoe
and pirogue, compared with the barge, were craft of little burden
though those of generous size would carry the loads of a score of men.
The barge or batteau was the freight craft and could be loaded with any
burden the stage of water permitted.
These three craft reigned supreme on the Ohio and its tributaries
probably until the close of the Revolutionary War, or about 1785. The
canoe never abdicated and never can so long as man loves the water; at
numerous points along the Ohio today many a tourist may be seen enjoying
the exquisite delight of "paddling his own canoe." The batteau or barge
has its direct descendant in the wooden and magnificent steel barges in
which thousands of tons of coal and ore are transported yearly up and
down the Ohio. The pirogue has been forgotten. But in the era of
exploration and conquest these boats had a story which disproves the
adage that history repeats itself. The history of that last half of the
eighteenth century cannot be repeated here or elsewhere. There is no
other valley in the world that is to be found, explored, conquered,
reconquered and settled like the Ohio Basin. What a line of daring
_voyageurs_ that was from La Salle to Céloron and Washington, who
feasted their eyes upon the virgin beauty of La Belle Rivière, from
their heavily-loaded, long canoes; in these craft came the explorers of
Ohio and Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois; they ploughed the waters of the
Muskingum far back in the distant day when those waters were, as the
name implies, clear as an elk's eye; they forged slowly up the Licking
and Scioto, the Beaver and the Kanawhas. In the early days the canoe was
the customary bearer of two significant kinds of freight: wampum and
Indian goods and presents, and packs of peltry. The history of the canoe
cannot be repeated, for the Indians are vanished who loved the bright
presents brought to them from the East; and the fur bearing animals
which once supplied the eastern markets are gone. We speak of the value
of our cargoes on the Ohio today; it is great, truly; but what would be
the value today of the furs brought in one season down the Wabash,
Licking, Miami, Scioto, Kanawha, Muskingum, and Beaver and up the Ohio
to Pittsburg, in those days when canoes bore their precious tons of
freight? Compared to the number of persons engaged in it, the old trade
(in today's markets) would be considered a hundred per cent more
remunerative.
The burdens those long canoes could bear should not be underestimated.
When Washington made his journey down the Ohio in 1770 he "embarked in a
large canoe," October 20, at Pittsburg, "with sufficient store of
provisions and necessaries, and the following persons, besides Dr. Craik
and myself, to wit: Capt. Crawford, Joseph Nicholson, Robert Bell,
William Harrison, Charles Morgan and Daniel Rendon, a boy of Capt.
Crawford's...."
In the era of conquest the canoe played an important part in
transporting small bodies of men swiftly and, which was frequently not
less important, silently, to their destinations. But now it was that the
heavy barge acquired importance as a factor in the making of the West.
It was the quarter-master's and commissariat's sole reliance, and in
these great clumsy hulks which floated with the current, sometimes with
the aid of sails, were transported the armament and stores which made
possible the forts that at once came into existence in the valley--Forts
Mclntosh, Henry, Harmar, Finney, Washington, and others. These boats
were huge boxes, covered and uncovered, square at each end, and
flat-bottomed. A batteau, in distinction from a barge, was widest in the
middle and tapered to a point at each end, of about fifteen
hundred-weight burden and could be managed by two men with oars and
setting-poles.[47]
The batteau form was more or less adopted by later barges; but the
ordinary early barge was much the shape of the present-day coal barge.
The "canal boat" form, or batteau, was a later development.
American expansion westward, as elsewhere suggested, was favored more by
the Ohio River than by any and all others: it ran the right way.
Throughout the earlier decades of the pioneer era the greater portion of
traffic was down stream. Even in the later days of steamboating the
downstream traffic was ever heaviest. In 1835 the total tonnage received
and entered at the port of Pittsburg was 63,221 tons; of this, 41,533
tons was export. In 1837 the total number of boats arriving at Pittsburg
from February 10 to July 1 was five hundred and ninety-three; the total
number departing was five hundred and eighty-two.[48] If the upstream
trade did not equal the downstream trade in the days of steamboats, it
can be readily imagined how great was the difference in the days of
rowed and pushed craft. Upstream traffic began to thrive with the
founding of Pittsburg and other cities in the upper Ohio Valley. A
market was then created, and the product of the lower valley began to
ascend.
Thus dawned the era of the famous keel-boat, the first craft of burden
that plied to and fro on western waters. True, the name was applied to
craft that came earlier. Colonel Burd, the English officer who led one
of the marauding expeditions from Detroit into Kentucky in the
Revolutionary War, came from the lakes and ascended the Licking in
keel-boats. It is given on good authority that Tarascon, Berthoud and
Company of Pittsburg introduced the use of keel-boats on the Ohio in
1792.[49]
The keel-boat heralded a new era in internal development, an era of
internal communication never known before in the Central West. As a
craft it is almost forgotten today. Our oldest citizens can barely
remember the last years of its reign; but the cry of the steersman to
"lift" and "set" that once rang in our river valleys, is still one of
the undying memories of their childhood days. It was a long, narrow
craft perhaps averaging twelve to fifteen feet by fifty, and pointed at
both prow and stern. On either side were provided what were known as
"running boards," extending from end to end. The space between, the body
of the boat, was enclosed and roofed over with boards or shingles. A
keel-boat would carry from twenty to forty tons of freight well
protected from the weather; it required from six to ten men, in addition
to the captain, who was usually the steersman, to propel it upstream.
Each man was provided with a pole to which was affixed a heavy socket,
The crew, being divided equally on each side of the boat, "set" their
poles at the head of the boat; then bringing the end of the pole to the
shoulder, with bodies bent, they walked slowly along the running boards
to the stern--returning quickly, at the command of the captain, to the
head for a new "set." "In ascending rapids, the greatest effort of the
whole crew was required, so that only one at a time could 'shift' his
pole. This ascending of rapids was attended with great danger,
especially if the channel was rocky. The slightest error in pushing or
steering the boat exposed her to be thrown across the current, and to be
brought sideways in contact with rocks which would mean her destruction.
Or, if she escaped injury, a crew who had let their boat swing in the
rapids would have lost caste. A boatman who could not boast that he had
never swung or backed in a chute was regarded with contempt, and never
trusted with the head pole, the place of honor among the keel-boat men.
It required much practice to become a first rate boatman, and none would
be taken, even on trial, who did not possess great muscular power."[50]
Under certain circumstances it was serviceable to catch hold of the
bushes and trees on a river's bank and pull a keel-boat upstream; this
was commonly known as "bushwhacking" and was particularly useful in
times of high water. The number of keel-boats on the Ohio was not as
large, probably, as would be supposed. It is on record that from
November 24, 1810 to January 24, 1811--two winter months--twenty-four of
these craft descended the "falls" of the Ohio at Louisville. It is
probable that at this time there were not over three or four hundred
keel-boats regularly plying the Ohio and its tributaries.
The narrowness of the keel-boat, it will be noted, permitted it to ply
far up the larger tributaries of the Ohio and to a considerable way up
its smaller tributaries--territory which the barge and flat-boat could
never reach. It is probable, therefore, that the keel-boat brought much
territory into touch with the world that otherwise was never reached
save by the heavy freighter and the pack-saddle; indeed it is probable
that this was the greatest service of the keel-boat--to reach the rich
interior settlements and carry their imports and exports. The place of
the keel-boat is now taken by such packets as the Greenwood and Lorena
which bring to Pittsburg the produce of such valleys as the Kanawha and
the Muskingum. In this connection it is proper to emphasize a fact
suggested elsewhere: that the inhabitants of the Central West, from the
earliest times until today, have found the favorite sites of occupation
to be in the interior of the country, beside the lesser tributaries of
the Ohio.[51] Thus as the pioneer settlements spread up on the Licking,
Muskingum, Hockhocking, Scioto, and Miami, a boat like the keel-boat,
which could ply in any season of the year and on the narrow creeks and
"runs," was an inestimable boon. Again, take for instance the salt
industry, which in the day of the keel-boat was one of the most
important, if not the most important, in the Central West; as values
were a century ago the best of men did well to "earn his salt." These
salt springs and licks were found at some distance from the main artery
of travel, the Ohio, and it was the keel-boat, more enduring than the
canoe, and of lighter weight and draught and of lesser width than the
barge, which did the greater part of the salt distribution, returning
usually with loads of flour. The heyday of the keel-boat was also the
day of the portage path--which played a most important part in the
development of the land. These portages or carries were mostly located
far in the interior where rivers flowing in opposite directions took
their rise. The keel-boat was the only craft of burden that could ascend
many of our streams to the carrying-place; they were also less unwieldy
to carry than the old batteau which was used also in the portage
carrying-trade.[52] Mention has been made of Burd's invasion of Kentucky
during the Revolutionary War, in keel-boats. If this was not a misnomer
it is probable that they were brought from the lakes and carried across
the portage, as was done in the case of Hamilton's capture of Vincennes.
The keel-boat may be considered, therefore, the first upstream boat of
burden which plied the Ohio and its tributaries; its special functions:
first, the upstream trade, second, to touch and connect interior
settlements and do the carrying-trade of the portages.
The great craft of burden on the Ohio and its larger tributaries were
the barges and the flat-boats, the latter commonly known as the Kentucky
"broad-horns" or Kentucky boats, and New Orleans boats. The Ohio and
Mississippi barge resembled the "West Country" barges of England and the
"wherries" of London. They were great, pointed, covered hulks carrying
forty or fifty tons of freight and manned by almost as many men. They
were the great freighters of the larger rivers, descending with the
current and ascending by means of oars, poles, sails and
cordelles--ropes by which the craft was often towed from the shore. The
following description of a barge journey, from the pen of the famous
naturalist Audubon, is perhaps one of the most accurate left to us:
"We shall suppose one of these boats under way, and, having passed
Natchez, entering upon what were called the difficulties of their
ascent. Wherever a point projected so as to render the course or bend
below it of some magnitude, there was an eddy, the returning current of
which was sometimes as strong as that of the middle of the great stream.
The bargemen, therefore, rowed up pretty close under the bank, and had
merely to keep watch in the bow lest the boat should run against a
planter or sawyer. But the boat has reached the point, and there the
current is to all appearance of double strength and right against it.
The men, who have rested a few minutes, are ordered to take their
stations and lay hold of their oars, for the river must be crossed, it
being seldom possible to double such a point and proceed along the same
shore. The boat is crossing, its head slanting to the current, which is,
however, too strong for the rowers, and when the other side of the river
has been reached, it has drifted perhaps a quarter of a mile. The men
are by this time exhausted, and, as we shall suppose it to be 12
o'clock, fasten the boat to a tree on the shore. A small glass of
whiskey is given to each, when they cook and eat their dinner, and
after resting from their fatigue for an hour, recommence their labors.
The boat is again seen slowly advancing against the stream. It has
reached the lower end of a sandbar, along the edge of which it is
propelled by means of long poles, if the bottom be hard. Two men, called
bowsmen, remain at the prow to assist, in concert with the steersman, in
managing the boat and keeping its head right against the current. The
rest place themselves on the land side of the footway of the vessel, put
one end of their poles on the ground and the other against their
shoulders and push with all their might. As each of the men reaches the
stern, he crosses to the other side, runs along it and comes again to
the landward side of the bow, when he recommences operations. The barge
in the meantime is ascending at a rate not exceeding one mile in the
hour.
"The bar is at length passed, and as the shore in sight is straight on
both sides and the current uniformly strong, the poles are laid aside,
and the men being equally divided, those on the river side take to
their oars, while those on the land-side lay hold of the branches of
willows or other trees, and thus slowly propel the boat. Here and there,
however, the trunk of a fallen tree, partly lying on the bank and partly
projecting beyond it, impedes their progress and requires to be doubled.
This is performed by striking into it the iron points of the poles and
gaff-hooks, and so pulling around it. The sun is now quite low, and the
barge is again secured in the best harbor within reach for the night,
after having accomplished a distance of perhaps fifteen miles. The next
day the wind proves favorable, the sail is set, the boat takes all
advantages, and meeting with no accident, has ascended thirty
miles--perhaps double that distance. The next day comes with a very
different aspect. The wind is right ahead, the shores are without trees
of any kind, and the canes on the bank are so thick and stout that not
even the cordelles can be used. This occasions a halt. The time is not
altogether lost, as most of the men, being provided with rifles, betake
themselves to the woods and search for the deer, the hares or the
turkeys that are generally abundant there. Three days may pass before
the wind changes, and the advantages gained on the previous five days
are forgotten. Again the boat proceeds, but in passing over a shallow
place, runs on a log, swings with the current, but hangs fast with her
lee-side almost under water. Now for the poles! All hands are on deck,
bustling and pushing. At length, towards sunset, the boat is once more
afloat, and is again taken to the shore where the wearied crew pass
another night.
"I could tell you of the crew abandoning the boat and cargo and of
numberless accidents and perils, but be it enough to say, that advancing
in this tardy manner, the boat that left New Orleans on the 1st of
March, often did not reach the Falls of Ohio [Louisville] until the
month of July, sometimes not until October; and after all this immense
trouble, it brought only a few bags of coffee and at most one hundred
hogsheads of sugar. Such was the state of things as late as 1808. The
number of barges at that period did not amount to more than 25 or 30,
and the largest probably did not exceed one hundred tons burden. To
make the best of this fatiguing navigation, I may conclude by saying
that a barge which came up in three months, had done wonders, for I
believe few voyages were performed in that time."[53]
This is the story of an Orleans boat in distinction from a Kentucky boat
which was smaller and not so well finished.[54] The heavy up-river loads
of the Orleans boats--sugar and molasses--were very important cargoes
and illustrate the place the barge took in pioneer history; they were
the freighters which carried on the larger rivers the heavy cargoes of a
country fast filling with a new population. They plied, like the
keel-boat, up and down stream but could not ascend the smaller rivers or
reach portages of the larger streams because of their draught and size.
There were, of course, small barges that could go wherever a keel-boat
went; it was these that were common on certain portage path trades.[55]
The small barge was practically a keel-boat (without running boards)
save only in shape.
The flat-boat was the important craft of the era of immigration, the
friend of the pioneer. It was the boat that never came back, a
downstream craft solely. The flat-boat of average size was a roofed
craft about forty feet long, twelve feet wide and eight feet deep. It
was square and flat-bottomed and was managed by six oars; two of these,
about thirty feet long, on each side, were known as "sweeps" and were
manned by two men each; one at the stern, forty or fifty feet long
including its big blade, was called the "steering oar;" a small oar was
located at the prow, known as the "gouger," which aided in steering the
boat in swift water. One man only was needed at the steering oar and at
the gouger.
"Kentucky" and "New Orleans" were the significant names for the old-time
flat-boats, for Kentucky and New Orleans were the destinations of the
large majority. The nominal difference between a Kentucky and New
Orleans boat was that the former was commonly roofed only half over
while the latter was stronger and was entirely covered with a roof. How
to buy or build a "flat" was the first query of the pioneer father as he
finally arrived at one of the ports on the upper Ohio. Often several
families joined together and came down the river on one flat-boat, a
motley congregation of men, women, children and domestic animals
surrounded by the few crude, housekeeping utensils which had been
brought over the mountains or purchased at the port of embarkation.
Perhaps all of the details which engrossed a prospective pioneer's
attention are suggested in the previous quotations from _The Navigator_.
These Kentucky "broadhorns," or "broadhorn flatboats" as they were also
called, almost invariably carried a tin horn by means of which some one
on board would announce their arrival or make known their whereabouts in
a fog. This weird music, reverberating from hill to hill, was heard far
and wide and was welcomed by the country people.
The history of the flat-boat comes down within the present generation,
for as late as the beginning of the Civil War flat-boating was common
on the Ohio River. In the early day the flat-boat was the sign of
immigration; not so in the later day. The flat-boats of the fifties bore
cargoes to the southern ports, or cargoes to be retailed along the
Mississippi River plantations. Any enterprising man who owned or could
build a "flat," bought up the crops of his neighborhood, put them
aboard, and was ready to start on the "fall rise." Flat-boats were
loaded at the bow--sometimes through trapdoors in the roof--the cargo
stored away in the hold. For through freight, apples and potatoes were
the staples. If it was intended to "coast" (peddle the cargo to the
plantations) the freight also included cider, cheese, pork, bacon, and
even cabbage. Apple and peach brandy was a most profitable investment;
especially if apple brandy, with a few peaches in it, could be palmed
off on the thirsty darkies as peach brandy.
A yellow page of an old account-book of 1858 leaves record that the
proprietor of one "flat" purchased the entire product of a neighboring
farm and took it south that fall. The items and their cost price on
shore is interesting:
350 bu. wheat @ $1.05 per bu. $367.50
208 bbls potatoes @ 2.05 per bbl. 426.40
17 bbls seed potatoes @ 1.2 5 per bbl 21.25
20 hogs, 6086 lbs. @ 4.33 per hundred 263.52
5 bbls beans 15.25
9 bbls & 13-1/2 lbs. sauer-Kraut 66.87
Portion of a flat boat 70.00
---------
$1,230.79
A yearly cash income of $1,230.79 would make many a farmer of our day
contented.
The proprietor of the flat-boat left on his three thousand mile trip
taking only a couple of farm hands with him as crew. They lived in the
stern of the boat under the same roof that sheltered the cargo, but
separated by a partition. It was all clear sailing, night and day.
Almost the only work was to keep the craft in the current. Several miles
above the "falls" at Louisville, pilots would be found in skiffs ready
to climb aboard and steer the "flat" down the rapids for ten dollars or
less. If the cargo was intended for the coasting trade, business began
at the first large plantations. This was in the day of overseers who
liberally patronized these "coasters," giving in payment drafts on New
Orleans. The darkies were, in some cases, allowed to make their own
purchases; they did not neglect the liquor, often exchanging molasses
for brandy even, gallon for gallon.
Upon arriving at his destination, the proprietor sold his remaining
stock and boat, invested his money in sugar and molasses, and embarked
with his freight on a packet for home. Thus two profits were cleared.
The advent of the Civil War was evident to these latter day boatmen;
watches were always kept on the outlook lest the "lines" be cut. At the
opening of the war flat-boats were frequently fired upon. When the
business was again revived in 1866 it was a new, sad South the flat-boat
men found. The negroes were "free," the overseers gone, the coasting
trade ruined; through freights were found to be the only ones that paid
after 1865.
Collins asserts that Captain Jacob Yoder took the first flat-boat down
the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans in 1782; "the late Capt.
Jos. Pierce of Cincinnati, Ohio, had erected over the remains of his old
friend Capt. Jacob Yoder, an iron tablet (the first cast west of the
Alleghanies) thus inscribed:
'JACOB YODER
Was born at Reading, Pennsylvania, August 11, 1758; and was | a
soldier of the Revolutionary army in 1777 and 1778. | He emigrated
to the West in 1780; and in May, 1782, from Fort Redstone, | on the
Monongahela river, in the | FIRST FLAT BOAT. | That ever descended
the Mississippi river, he landed in | New Orleans, with a cargoe of
produce. | He died April 7, 1832, at his farm in Spencer County,
Kentucky, and lies | here interred beneath this tablet.'"
Flat-boats were, both in early and modern times, always used or sold at
their destination for lumber. Thus the early bargemen and flat-boat men
who made down river trips returned largely on foot, until the era of
steamboats. The long journey across country from New Orleans through the
low fever-infested country and into Kentucky was a dangerous and
arduous experience.[56] "A large number of these boatmen were brought
together at New Orleans. Their journey home could not be made in small
parties, as they carried large quantities of specie, and the road was
infested by robbers. The outlaws and fugitives from justice from the
states resorted to this road. Some precautionary arrangements were
necessary. The boatmen who preferred returning through the wilderness
organized and selected their officers. These companies sometimes
numbered several hundred, and a greater proportion of them were armed.
They were provided with mules to carry the specie and provisions, and
some spare ones for the sick. Those who were able purchased mules, or
Indian ponies, for their use, but few could afford to ride. As the
journey was usually performed after the sickly season commenced, and the
first six or seven hundred miles was through a flat, unhealthy country,
with bad water, the spare mules were early loaded with the sick. There
was a general anxiety to hasten through this region of malaria. Officers
would give up their horses to the sick, companions would carry them
forward as long as their strength enabled; but although everything was
done for their relief which could be done without retarding the progress
of their journey, many died on the way or were left to the care of the
Indian or hunter who settled on the road. Many who survived an attack of
fever, and reached the healthy country of Tennessee, were long
recovering sufficient strength to resume their journey home. One would
suppose that men would have been reluctant to engage in a service which
exposed them to such great suffering and mortality without extraordinary
compensation; but such was the love of adventure and recklessness of
danger which characterized the young men of the West, that there was no
lack of hands to man the boats, although their number increased from
twenty-five to fifty per cent yearly. The fact that some of these
boatmen would return with fifty Spanish dollars, which was a large sum
at that day, was no small incentive to others, who perhaps never had a
dollar of their own."[57]
The "ark" of pioneer days was, as the name implies, the earliest type of
houseboat. "These boats," Mr. Harris records, "are generally called
'Arks;' and are said to have been invented by Mr. Krudger, on the
Juniata, about ten years ago [1795]. They are square, and flat-bottomed;
about forty feet by fifteen, with sides six feet deep; covered with a
roof of thin boards; and accommodated with a fire-place. They require
but four hands to navigate them, carry no sail, and are wafted down by
the current."[58]
Rafting logs down the Ohio was one of the great employments of the men
of three-quarters of a century ago. "Our raft," testified an old
_voyageur_ who went down the Allegheny and Ohio from Olean, New York in
1821, "was one hundred and twenty feet long and sixty wide and about
two feet deep. It had eight oars. In the center was our cabin, which
was twenty by sixteen, and contained, of course, our provisions and
valuables, ... and our _stove_. This was a patent range peculiar to
those days and quite wonderful in its way. It was made of a wooden box
lined with clay. It had a hole in the top for a kettle, and another
through which the smoke passed to an aperture in the roof of our cabin,
left for that purpose.... Our crew consisted of ten persons, including a
man and his wife and one child, who were going to migrate.... There are
many eddies along the river and at them we tried to tie up at night in
order to be out of the current.... From Pittsburg to Cincinnati, five
hundred miles, the river being broad and deep and free from snags, we
could travel night and day.... At one point in our trip we saw a raft
stranded on an island; but the Captain did not seem to take the matter
very seriously to heart, and answered our salutations by singing and
dancing and lustily waving his hat as we passed by.... At Limestone,
[Maysville] Ky., seventy miles east of Cincinnati, I stopped and sold
some shingles, the raft and the rest of the crew going on. After I had
transacted my business, I took passage on another going to C.
[Cincinnati]. At L. [Limestone] I remember seeing a bell on a tavern for
the first time. This raft had the misfortune to run into a flatboat
loaded with coal, and also the audacity to sneak off before the damage
was discovered to avoid both delay and expense.... Once there [at
Cincinnati] we hired a gang of men to wash the lumber, which was covered
with dirt and weeds; they then drew it to the lumber yard, where we sold
it.... I was not sorry when I reached my home ... on the evening of the
10th of June. I had been away since the middle of February."[59]
The galley--a model boat with covered deck impelled by oarsmen--was not
an unfamiliar craft in the early river days. It was such a boat as this
that General George Rogers Clark armed as a gunboat on the lower Ohio
and used as a patrolling gunboat during the Revolutionary War. The
famed "Adventure Galley," of the New England pilgrims to Marietta, was a
craft of this pattern. It was forty-five feet long and twelve feet wide,
with an estimated burden of fifty tons. Her bows were raking or curved,
strongly built with heavy timbers and covered with a deck roof.[60] It
is probable that the first mail boats which ran on the Ohio in 1793 were
of similar design. This service, established by Jacob Myers between
Cincinnati and Pittsburg, was advertised on November 16 as leaving
Cincinnati at 8 A. M. every alternate Saturday, requiring one month for
the round trip. The proprietor took great credit to himself, "claiming
to be 'influenced by love of philanthropy and desire of being
serviceable to the public.' He further stated: 'No danger need be
apprehended from the [Indian] enemy, as every person on board will be
under cover, made proof against rifle or musquet balls, and port holes
for firing out of. Each boat is armed with six pieces carrying a pound
ball; also a number of good musquets, and amply supplied with
ammunition, strongly manned with choice hands, and the masters of
approved knowledge. A separate cabin is partitioned off for
accommodating ladies on their passage; conveniences are constructed so
as to render landing unnecessary, as it might, at times, be attended
with danger. Rules and regulations for maintaining order and for the
good management of the boats, and tables of the rates of freightage,
passage, and carrying of letters; also, of the exact time of arrival and
departure at all way places, may be seen on the boat and at the printing
office in Cincinnati. Passengers supplied with provisions and liquors,
of first quality, at most reasonable rates possible. Persons may work
their passage. An office for insuring at moderate rates the property
carried, will be kept at Cincinnati, Limestone, (i. e. Maysville) and
Pittsburgh.' Packet-boat promises then, like steamboat promises
nowadays, were not _always_ kept; instead of on November 30th, the
second boat did not leave until December 10th, 'precisely at 10 o'clock
in the morning.'"[61]
In the days before steamboats, sails were greatly used on almost every
manner of craft, and were made of every conceivable material. The great
barges of early days were moved by sails when the wind was
favorable.[62] Both barges and keel-boats were "provided with a mast, a
square sail...."[63] Canoes were frequently provided with sails and
their progress was more or less dependent on the winds.[64]
The story of the building of the first brigs and schooners on the Ohio
and its tributaries, the dreams of their proprietors and masters, and
the experiences of their crews, is a subject worthy of a volume. The
building of these larger craft for the Mississippi and ocean trade
suggests at the outset the long, conflicting story of Mississippi
control which can only be hinted at here.
This business of building sailing vessels in the Ohio Basin began the
decade before the nineteenth century opened, and grew more and more
important until steam navigation revolutionized the river trade. These
brigs and schooners were, without doubt, distinctively down river craft,
which never returned; they were therefore the export carriers, and the
importance of their place in history may be found in the fact that their
appearance marks the rise of the export business to a position of
prominence, as the use of the keel-boat marked the rise of what may be
called interstate commerce.
In the year 1792 the company of shipbuilders previously mentioned,
Tarascon, Berthoud, and Company, who put the first keel-boats into
business on the Ohio, built the schooner "Amity" of one hundred and
twenty tons, and the "Pittsburgh," a ship of two hundred and fifty tons.
In 1793 the schooner "was sent to St. Thomas, and the ship to
Philadelphia, both laden with Flour. The second summer, they built the
brig 'Nanina,' of two hundred, and the ship 'Louisiana,' of 350 tons.
The brig was sent direct to Marseilles; the ship was sent out ballasted
with our _stone coal_, which was sold at _Philadelphia_, for 37 1-2
cents per bushel. The year after they built the ship 'Western Trader'
of 400 tons."[65] By 1800, therefore, cargoes of flour, iron, beef,
pork, glass-ware, furniture of black walnut, wild cherry, and yellow
birch, and beverages of varying character were awaiting the great hulls
of these new ships of several hundred tons. In 1803 Thaddeus Harris
found several of these ships on the stocks at Pittsburg; three had been
launched before April, "from 160 to 275 tons burden."[66] On May 4 he
wrote at Marietta: "the schooner 'Dorcas and Sally,' of 70 tons, built
at Wheeling and rigged at Marietta, dropped down the river. The
following day there there passed down the schooner 'Amity,' of 103 tons,
from Pittsburg, and the ship 'Pittsburg,' of 275 tons burden, from the
same place, laden with seventeen hundred barrels of flour, with the rest
of her cargo in flat-bottomed boats. In the evening the brig 'Mary
Avery,' of 130 tons, built at Marietta, set sail. These afforded an
interesting spectacle to the inhabitants of this place, who saluted the
vessels as they passed with three cheers, and by firing a small piece of
ordnance from the banks."[67] "The building and lading of ships is now
considered as an enterprize of the greatest importance in this part of
the country. The last (1802) there were launched from the ship-yard of
Captain Devol, on the Muskingum river, five miles above its mouth, the
ship 'MUSKINGUM,' of 204 tons, owned by Benjamin Ives Gilman, Esq. and
the brigantine 'ELIZA GREENE,' of 115 tons, owned by Charles Greene,
Esq. merchants at Marietta. At the spring flood of the present year, the
schooner 'Indiana,' of 100 tons, the brig 'Marietta,' of 130 tons, and
another of 150 tons, also built here, were launched and descended the
river for New Orleans and the trade to the West Indies. Good judges of
naval architecture have pronounced these vessels equal, in point of
workmanship and materials, to the best that have been built in America.
The firmness and great length of their planks, and the excellency of
their timbers, (their frames being almost wholly composed of black
walnut, a wood which, if properly selected, has nearly the strength of
white oak, and the durability of the live oak of the south without its
weight) it is believed will give these vessels the preference over any
built of the timber commonly made use of, in any market where there are
competent judges. This part of the country owes much to those gentlemen,
who, in a new and experimental line, have set this example of enterprize
and perseverance."[68] One ship from Marietta is said to have had the
existence of her port of clearance questioned in Italy.
In 1811 we learn that ship-building was not prospering as might be
supposed; misfortunes and accidents "have given a damp to ships building
at present."[69] On an inland river, where the winds and the amount of
rainfall at any time were very uncertain, it must have been a most
difficult thing to cope successfully with low water and shifting sand
bars and other innumerable obstacles to navigation in the Ohio. The
times were ripe for another power, one which did not require that the
vessels have deep draught, as was the case with sailing vessels.
The dawning of the new era of steam navigation cannot be introduced
better than by quoting a unique paragraph from _The Navigator_ of 1811:
"There is now on foot a new mode of navigating our western waters,
particularly the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This is with boats
propelled by the power of steam. This plan has been carried into
successful operation on the Hudson river at New York, and on the
Delaware between New Castle and Burlington.--It has been stated that the
one on the Hudson goes at the rate of four miles an hour against wind
and tide on her route between New York and Albany, and frequently with
500 passengers on board. From these successful experiments there can be
but little doubt of the plan succeeding on our western waters, and
proving of immense advantage to the commerce of our country. A Mr.
Rosewalt, a gentleman of enterprise, and who is acting it is said in
conjunction with Messrs. Fulton and Livingston of New York, has a boat
of this kind now on the stocks at Pittsburgh, of 138 feet keel,
calculated for 300 or 400 tons burden. And there is one building at
Frankfort, Kentucky, by citizens who no doubt will push the enterprise.
It will be a novel sight, and as pleasing as novel to see a huge boat
working her way up the windings of the Ohio, without the appearance of
sail, oar, pole, or any manual labour about her--moving within the
secrets of her own wonderful mechanism, and propelled by power
undiscoverable!--This plan if it succeeds, must open to view flattering
prospects to an immense country, an interior of not less than two
thousand miles of as fine a soil and climate, as the world can produce,
and to a people worthy of all the advantages that nature and art can
give them, a people the more meritorious because they know how to
sustain peace and live independent, among the crushing of empires, the
falling of kings, the slaughter and bloodshed of millions, and the
tumult, corruption and tyranny of all the world beside. The immensity of
country we have yet to settle, the vast riches of the bowels of the
earth, the unexampled advantages of our water courses, which wind
without interruption for thousands of miles, the numerous sources of
trade and wealth opening to the enterprising and industrious citizens,
are reflections that must rouse the most dull and stupid.... From the
canoe, we now see ships of two or three hundred tons burden, masted and
rigged, descending the same Ohio, laden with the products of the
country, bound to New Orleans,--thence to any part of the world.--Thus
the rise and progress of the trade and the trader on the western waters,
thus the progress of our country from infancy to manhood, and thus the
flattering prospects of its future greatness through the channels of the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers."[70]
These words came true in a miraculously short space of time. Previous to
the adoption of the steamboat navigation, say in 1817, the whole
commerce from New Orleans to the upper country was carried in about
twenty barges, averaging one hundred tons each, and making but one trip
a year. The number of keel-boats employed on the Upper Ohio could not
have exceeded one hundred and fifty, carrying thirty tons each, and
making one trip from Pittsburg to Louisville and back in two months, or
about three voyages in the season. The tonnage of all the boats
ascending the Ohio and Lower Mississippi was then about sixty-five
hundred.
In 1811 the first steamboat was constructed at Brownsville,
Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela. Several others were built soon after,
but it was probably fifteen years before steamboats came into such
general use as to cause any diminution in the flat-and keel-boat
navigation. These first boats were built after models of ships, with
deep holds. They also were constructed with low pressure engines and
heavy machinery. Hence they were useless in low water, very hard to
propel against the current, and their carrying capacity was greatly
reduced. In order to attain greater speed, the builders soon made the
boats long and narrow but it was not until they came to the decision
that boats would run faster on the water than in it, and began making
them flat and broad, that they finally got a boat capable of carrying a
thousand tons, when drawing only four feet, and when empty only two and
one-half feet. Then with a high pressure engine at each wheel they could
make unprecedented speed; and these boats afforded traveling and freight
accommodations equal to any. Although the prices of passages did not
exceed hotel rates, yet more bountifully filled tables were not to be
found on land and the boats were marvels of splendor in their
appointments. The chief improvement made in the river steamboats was
placing one large wheel at the stern of the boat entirely behind the
hulk and with long paddles the full length of the beam, operated by
double engines and quartering cranks. This had the advantage of allowing
the wheel to fly in the eddy water of the boat, while it cleared the
boat of the afterdraft. With these improvements rapid currents and
shallow waters could be conquered.
In 1832 it was calculated that the whole number of persons deriving
subsistence on the Ohio, including the crews of steam- and flat-boats,
mechanics and laborers employed in building and repairing boats,
woodcutters, and persons employed in furnishing, supplying, loading and
unloading these boats, was ninety thousand. At this time, 1832, the
boats numbered four hundred and fifty and their burden ninety thousand
tons. In 1843 the whole number of steamboats constructed at Cincinnati
alone was forty-five; the aggregate amount of their tonnage was twelve
thousand and thirty-five tons, and their cost $705,000. This gives an
average of two hundred and sixty-seven tons for each boat and about
$16,000 for the cost of each.
The models of these 1843 boats, as well as their finish and
accommodations, evinced a progressive improvement upon earlier boats.
They had more length and less draught, and were faster than those of the
last generation, while the hulls were more staunch, though they
contained less weight of timber. The cabins were not so gaudy and
expensive as those of former years but were greatly superior in comfort
and convenience.
In 1844 the number of steamboats employed in navigating the Mississippi
and its tributaries was four hundred and fifty. The average burden of
these boats was 200 tons each, making an aggregate of 90,000 tons and
their aggregate value, at $80 per ton, was $7,200,000. Many of these
were fine vessels, affording most comfortable accommodations for
passengers, and compared favorably in all particulars with the best
packets in any part of the world. The number of persons engaged in
navigating the steam-boats at this time varied from twenty-five to fifty
for each boat, or an average of about thirty-five persons, which gives a
total of 15,750 persons employed.
It appears from the reports of the Louisville and Portland Canal at this
time that more than seven hundred flat-boats passed that canal in one
year. There were, therefore, probably four thousand descending the
Mississippi, and counting five men to a boat there were 20,000 persons
employed in flat-boating. The cost of these boats was in the
neighborhood of $400,000, which, as they did not return, was an annual
expense; the cost of loading, navigating, and unloading them
approximated $900,000, making a total annual expenditure upon this class
of boats $1,300,000.
If, in 1834, the number of steamboats on western waters was two hundred
and thirty, and they carried 39,000 tons, the expense of running them
could be estimated as follows:[71]
60 boats, over 200 tons, 108 running
days, at $140. per day-- $1,512,000.
70 boats, 120-200 tons, 240 running
days, at $90. per day-- 1,512,000.
100 boats, under 120 tons, 270 running
days, at $60. per day-- 1,620,000.
-----------
Total yearly expenses $4,645,000.
In 1844 the calculation was:
110 boats, over 200 tons, 180 running
days, at $140 per day-- $2,772,000.
140 boats, 120-200 tons, 240 running
days, at $90 per day-- 3,024,000.
200 boats, under 120 tons, 280 running
days, at $60-- 3,240,000.
-----------
Total yearly expenses $9,036,000.
This sum, reduced to the different items producing it, would be
apportioned as follows:
For wages, 36% $3,252,960.
For wood, 30% 2,710,800.
For provisions, 18% 1,626,480.
For contingencies, 16% 1,445,760.
-----------
Total $9,036,000.
To this should be added:
Insurance, 15% on $7,200,000 $1,080,000.
Louisville and Portland Canal tolls-- 250,000.
Interest on $7,200,000. Investment at 6% 432,000.
Wear and tear of boats, 20% 1,440,000.
------------
Total $12,238,000.
Add for flat-boats, as above, 1,380,000.
------------
Total annual cost of transportation $13,618,000.
There were steadily employed at the Cincinnati shipyards, during the
year 1843, in the heavier portions of the work, 320 hands at the
boatyards, 200 joiners, 200 engine- and foundry-men, 50 painters, making
the total number of persons employed 770.
Within the same year, there were built at Louisville, New Albany, and
Jeffersonville, 35 boats, of 7,406 tons, which cost $700,000. These
boats cost $20,000 each, averaged 211 tons, and cost about $95 per ton.
At Pittsburg, the same year, there were built 25 boats, of 4347 tons;
the average tonnage of these boats was about 173 tons.
The aggregate number of boats built in 1843, is about as follows:
Cincinnati, 45 boats, 12,035 tons
Louisville, New Albany, and Jeffersonville 35 boats, 7,406 "
Pittsburg, 25 boats, 4,347 "
Add for all other places, 15 boats, 3,000 "
------
Total. 26,788 tons
The whole tonnage of western boats previous to 1843, being 90,000 tons,
and the annual loss by destruction and superannuation being twenty per
cent, the decrease by the latter cause for 1843, was 18,000 tons, and
the increase 26,788 tons, making a net increase of 8,788 tons.
By the official returns in 1842 it appears that the whole steamboat
tonnage of the United States was 218,994 tons; this was divided as
follows:
_Southwest_
New Orleans, 80,993 tons
St. Louis, 14,725 "
Cincinnati, 12,025 "
Pittsburg, 10,107 "
Louisville, 4,618 "
Nashville, 3,810 "
-------
Total 126,278 tons.
_Northwest_
Buffalo, 8,212 tons
Detroit, 3,296 "
Presque Isle, 2,315 "
Oswego, 1,970 "
Cuyahoga, 1,859 "
------
Total 17,652 tons.
_Seaboard_
New York, 35,260 tons
Baltimore, 7,143 "
Mobile, 6,982 "
Philadelphia, 4,578 "
Charleston, 3,289 "
Newbern, 2,854 "
Perth Amboy, 2,606 "
Apalachicola, 1,418 "
Boston, 1,362 "
Norfolk, 1,395 "
Wilmington, 1,212 "
Georgetown, 1,178 "
Newark, 1,120 "
Miscellaneous, 4,767 "
------
Total 76,064 tons.
At this time the steamboat tonnage belonged to the internal commerce of
the country, as, with the exception of two or three in the Gulf of
Mexico, we had no steam vessels engaged in foreign commerce. Of the
whole 218,994 tons, it appears that two-thirds belonged to the West; and
as a portion of the other tonnage was employed on routes leading to the
West and connecting with our highways, the commerce of the West no doubt
amounted to more than two-thirds of the commerce of the Union. And,
estimating the number of steamboats from their average tonnage, there
must have been in 1842, one thousand in the United States, of which six
hundred belonged to the West.
The table of tonnage above given, shows where this vast commercial
marine was employed; first, in the Mississippi Basin; next, in the city
of New York; and then on the Lakes. From the port of New York there were
some seventy or eighty steamboats constantly running--on the Lakes there
were hundreds. In the valley of the Mississippi the number of steamboats
they employed was equal to the whole number of those employed in
England. This will appear from the following statement from McCullough's
gazetteer of the steamboat tonnage of Great Britain in 1834:
_Steam Ships_ _Tonnage_
England 434 43,877
Scotland 105 13,113
Ireland 84 17,674
British dependencies 49 8,032
--- ------
Total, 672 82,696
It appears then that the steamboat tonnage of the Mississippi Valley
(1842) exceeded by forty thousand tons the entire steamboat tonnage of
Great Britain (1834). In other words, the steamboat tonnage of Great
Britain was only two-thirds that of the Mississippi Valley. The
magnitude of this fact will be best appreciated by considering that the
entire tonnage of the United States was but two-thirds that of Great
Britain, showing that this proportion is exactly reversed in western
steamboat trade. The influence of the West in pushing the steamboat to
its ultimate use as a common carrier has been most remarkable.