Kentucky Boats

The travel diary of Mary Coburn Dewees, 1788:

October 18th. Our boat being ready we set off for the river and arrived their at 12 O’Clock and went on board immediately. She lay just below the mouth Youghiogeny which empties into the Monongahela. at 2 o’clock we push down the river very slowly, intend stopping at Fort Pitt, where we expect to meet the Waggon with the rest of our Goods. our Boat resembling Noahs Ark not a lilttle. at Sun set got fast on Braddock’s upper ford where we staid all that night and ’till 10 O Clock the next day.

19th With the Assistance of some people that was coming up in a flat we got off. The water very low. I am much afraid we shall have a tedious passage. our boat 40 foot long our room 16 by 12 with a Comfortable fireplace. our Bed room partioned off with blankets, and far preferable to the Cabbins we met with after we crossed the Mountains. we are clear of fleas which I assure you is a great relief for we were almost devoured when on shore. [p. 136]

Francis Baily, another British tourist, 1796:

October 17th, 1796: . . . these boats, which may be more properly termed rafts, are built without one particle of iron in their composition; they are generally from 30 to 40 feet long, and about 12 feet broad, and consist of a framework fastened together with wooden pins, which constitutes the bottom of the boat, and to this is fastened a flooring, which is well calked to prevent leaking; the sides are about breast high and made of thin plank; and sometimes there is a rude kind of covering, intended to keep the rain out. These boats draw very little water, not enough to sink the framework at the bottom of the water, and are generally furnished with a pair of oars, not so much to expedite their progress, as to keep them from the shore when they are driven towards it by the current; and there is a pole projecting from the stern, to steer them with. When they are going down the stream, it is immaterial which part goes foremost; and their whole appearance is not much unlike a large box floating down with the current. . . .[p. 186]

Thursday, November 24th, 1796. — The river having risen within these few days, in consequence of some rain which had lately fallen, we started from Pittsburgh this afternoon, about three o’clock; however, we did not proceed above four miles down, as the stream was very slow, and we were afraid to venture in the night in consequence of the riffles, which were not completely covered; therefore, seeing some other boats near the shore, we made towards them, and joined them for that evening. I thought it a very pleasant sight to see so many boats floating down the stream at the same period. The late dry weather had prevented all navigation for some time, and the vast body of emigrants and storekeepers who were bound for Kentucky made them take this advantage of proceeding on their voyage. Accordingly, as soon as the river was reported to be navigable, all the Kentucky boats (as this flat-bottomed craft is termed) were in motion, and eager to pursue their route. As the gentleman who travelled with me was going to establish a settlement on the Miami river, he had got every article that he thought would be necessary in his new habitation; therefore, we were not so badly accomodated as some of the boats were, who went sometimes most miserably supplied, with scarcely a covering to the boat or a blanket to lie down on, and barely a pot or a kettle to dress what provisions they might chance to meet with. We had laid in a sufficient quantity of beef, mutton, flour, bacon, and what other provisions we thought we might want, and we had three or four good feather beds and plenty of bedding; and as it was very cold weather, we stopped every crevice we conveniently could, and made ourselves a very comfortable habitation . . . [p. 190]

All quotes are from Ellen Eslinger’s Running Mad for Kentucky. Frontier Travel Accounts (University Press of Kentucky, 2004).

Eslinger adds that a note in Baily’s diary said:

The boat we had was 12 feet broad, 36 feet long, and drew 18 inches of water when she had upwards of 10 tons of goods in her.

I also found this little passage from Baily of interest, mostly because I’ve live with riffles all my life and the word doesn’t seem in the least exotic:

. . . for in low water on the Ohio, there are a number of rocky shoals which extend the whole width of the river, and over which the water is driven with great impetuosity, causing it to ruffle and roar like a milltail, which makes it dangerous for boats going down at this season of the year [late fall], till the water has risen high enough to cover these obstructions. These places, which are very numerous till you arrive at Tart’s Rapids, are called by the inhabitants “Riffles,” I suppose, a corruption from the word “ruffle,” as the water is violently agitated in those part. [p.188].

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