Keelboat

Keelboat ( German: " Keelboat " ) was a type of boat that was used in the first half of the 19th century on the rivers of the American West, particularly the Ohio River, the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. It is characterized by a very shallow draft with a large capacity that was required on the very flat, wide rivers.

Construction and drive

The boats had a length of 8-20 m, with a width of 3-6 m, a room depth of 1 to 1.30 m and a draft depending on the load of not more than 80 cm. Of the previously usual flatboats, which were derived from rafts, they differed by the solid keel, and were therefore also suitable for the ride against a substantial flow. At the stern, the helmsman stood at the helm. In the middle, over almost the entire length and have a good meters narrower than the boat, a cargo box was installed, in which the charge has been transported. Particularly large keelboats sometimes had a rear structure, under which lay a cabin.

The drive possibilities of keelboats were varied. Upstream, they were usually moved by human power by towing, this was not possible because of dense riparian vegetation, they were punted. These narrow walkways were installed on both sides of the boat, where the crew was running against the direction of travel and the boat forward repressed with rods against the ground. A small keelboat could be moved from six to ten men against the flow, larger need up to 50 men. If the wind is a simple pole with a large sail could be raised and on deep wide sections, estuaries, were some belts available. Under favorable conditions, so speeds were 30 km a day (18 miles ) can be achieved, typically was 20 km / day.

As the boat was preferably moves on the inside of river bends, called the slip face both when towing as in Punting, it was necessary to change at almost every bend in the river. In case of heavy flow only under substanziellem loss of height that was possible. Contemporary literature reports of a river section on which the team must move the boat 54 miles (86 km) to manage five miles ( eight kilometers ) of the river.

The crews of keelboats was recruited almost exclusively from the French-born population of Louisiana and called Voyageurs. They were despite the hard work poorly remunerated. A Voyageur on the Missouri River earned in 1820 about 100 U.S. dollars a year and got to kind something dehulled a kg of maize mixed with some suet or tallow per day, and two cotton shirts, a pair of heavy boots and a blanket per year.

Use

Rivers were the first roads in the American West and keelboats played an important role as a transport in the first half of the 19th century. The first keelboat was built in 1792 by a shipyard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and quickly sat down opposite the previously usual by flatboats. With only one trip down the river was possible, leading to the trade patterns of the 18th century, from American cities to the east across the Ohio River and the Mississippi River to the settlements of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain and the French Louisiana and its capital New Orleans proceeded. In 1814 drove 598 flatboats and keelboats 324 from Ohio to New Orleans and transported 88,350 tons of cargo.

With the keelboats of the Missouri River was accessible and the fur traders were supplied with goods exchange and the skins are transported in large quantities in the cities of the East. Even the great geographical expeditions on which the continent was explored, exploited keelboats, the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804/ 06 or the overland journey of Astorians, fur traders of the American Fur Company, on the way to the first American base on the Pacific coast Fort Astoria in 1811.

From 1817 sailed the first paddle steamer down the Ohio and the Mississippi. In the 1830s steamships were built, which were also suitable for the shallow headwaters of the Missouri. They solved the keelboats from almost anywhere.

Bird's eye view of the same boots

Keelboat of Lewis and Clark on a U.S. coin