flatboat

A flatboat is a rectangular boat with a flat bottom and square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways. The flatboat could be any size but, essentially, it is large , sturdy tub with a hull that displaces water and so floats in the water; therefore, the flatboat is not a raft, which floats on the water. A flatboat was almost always a one-way vessel, and was usually dismantled for lumber when it reached its downstream destination. Varieties of flatboat in the early 19th century included the mid-range broadhorn and Kentucky boat, and the longer-range New Orleans boat, which was fully covered.

Depiction, smaller flatboat.

An average of 3,000 flatboats descended the Ohio River each year between 1810 and 1820. Abraham Lincoln twice piloted a flatboat carrying produce to New Orleans, from Indiana in 1828 and from Illinois in 1831.

• Narrow boat
• Horse-drawn boat
• Keelboat

References

• Bogan, Dallas (1979). Warren County, Ohio and Beyond. p. 162. 

External links

• George Caleb Bingham "Jolly Flatboatmen" c. 1857

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