flatboat

A Flatboat is a rectangular boat with a flat bottom and square ends used to transport freight on inland waterways. Essentially a large, sturdy raft, a flatboat also had a raised edge. 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 from Illinois to New Orleans (1828, 1831).

See also

• Narrowboat
• Horse-drawn boat

Reference

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

External links

• George Caleb Bingham "Jolly Flatboatmen" c. 1857

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