TIP #423 - AHOY MATEY! The romance of the open seas and swashbuckling tales of daring-do have excited the hearts of many young men throughout history. But the call of the sea was not limited to the heroes of the past; Kentucky boys and mean fell this tugstrings of their souls too. Alas, they were many miles from the Atlantic Ocean, but to the man with sailing in his heart, he found something a little closer. River transportation, it is said, helped develop Kentucky more than the one-lane roads between major cities or the railroad. Kentucky has some fine navigable rivers - The Big Sandy, the Licking, the Kentucky, the Green, the Cumberland, the Tennessee and the Ohio. Produce which had been driven overland for many years began moving on the rivers. The start was modest: the canoe, the pirogue, the rafts, flatboats, barges and keelboats. A special breed of men steered these boats, strong, often violent and determined. I have just finished reading an excelled book by the late Janice Holt Giles entitled Run Me a River. Mrs. Giles was a gifted author of novels based on Kentucky, drawing on real people and real events and adding her own fictitious characters. If you enjoy reading about early Kentucky, please check out her 24 some novels, now being reprinted by the University of Kentucky. One can't put the books down. The flatboat were the backbone of inland water navigation. They were made totally of wood, flat bottomed and could only go downstream. They were rapidly built, and when reaching their destination, were often left behind with the crew walking back the entire route with the lumber from the boat remaining in New Orleans and sold to be used for building cabins and stores as lumber was scarce there. People nicknamed the boats "Kentucky Boats", so prized they were, and they were also called Arks, broadhorns or Arkansas, Louisiana, tobacco and family boats. They were anywhere from 12 to 25 feet wide and from 20 to 60 feet long. A small cabin, built like a box, housed family or crew. It was steered with a 30-45 foot oar known as a gouger, and 2-4 long side oars called side horns or sweeps. They were not the safest boat in the world - any debris could swing into them, they were vulnerable in tides and floods. Individuals who took passage on the flatboats were often exposed to other dangers - inexperienced pilots, Indians, pirates and much illness. Many articles were shipping, most safely, including glass, animals, millstones, salt, hemp, tobacco, corn, fruit, whiskey and much more. In the 1820's the steamboat took away the majority of the business of the flatboats but they were still used as late as the Civil War. Keelboats were found in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to haul cargo along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. They had a carvel-built hull, pointed on both ends with a keel running the length of the bottom. This made the boat easier to steer and it could travel upstream too. All keelboats were basically the same shape but sizes varied. Regular keelboats were about 40 feet long and 7-9 feet wide. Larger keelboats were known as barges and could be up to 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. The Packet was the third style which was a passenger boat rather than a cargo ship. The latter normally was about 120 feet long and had separate cabins, toilet facilities and other features for human passengers. All had a single cabin on the deck for the crew and cargo. They were sometimes seen with sails or they could be rowed or poled. Poling was a hard job. The men stood on running boards along the sides of the boat (8 to 16 men at a time), with long poles going to the bottom of the river. They literally pushed the keelboat upstream. The keelboats also lost out to steam power but were still being used as late as 1840. Steam navigation was the answer to the riverman's prayers and culminated in a voyage of the New Orleans in 1811 and the Enterprise in Louisville in 1814, that opened wide the doors for river transportation. Steamboats were the invention that revolutionized river transportation as well as ocean-going vessels. It became a rapid way, during that time, to transport people, animals and goods. It made quite a picture on the western rivers at its debut in 1811, belching smoke and fire at about the same time as the New Madrid Earthquake was rattling and comets were circling the heavens. The steamboat was strong, having deep hulls and powered by heavy low-pressure engines that couldn't go too far up the smaller tributary streams and found difficult in navigating the Ohio. River channels had to be deepened. State, county, city and private corporations started building dams and locks on the Licking, Kentucky, Green and Barren Rivers. The steamboats used in western waters was modified to handle the rivers - longer, wider, hull bottoms flattened and keels shrunk. This made it possible to run in shallower waters. High-pressure engines were added, although some improvements caused problems of making the boat more prone to explosion and they were fuel guzzlers. In 1856, a 120-ton Isaac Shelby steamed the Kentucky River which drew eleven inches of water; and a mere three years later a steam boat on the Green River carrying 10 tons of freight drew only eight inches. The main deck contained the boilers and engines along with the cargo. Richer passengers had cabins on the second (boiler) deck. A cabin called the Texas sat atop the cabin roof, above that was the pilothouse. The smokestacks were built tall creating more draft and helped keep sparks off the cabin roof. Wood and coal were burned. Stern-wheelers came into their own after the Civil War. The Cincinnati and the U S Mail Line were both long-lasting lines. Various boats and captains offered different types of service; some picked up cargo at each ferry stop and delivered it for individuals (bringing them goods back on their return trip), and there was great competition between the various lines - some independently owned, some owned by businesses. The wealthy enjoyed the thought of a scenic trip on the river - it was much better than bouncing along in a buggy or stagecoach. Over the years the cabins became fancier and more niceties were added to induce the passenger to ride the steamboat. The age of the steamboat also made and broke Kentucky cities. Cities which lie along a major waterway thrived - Paducah, Covington, Newport, Henderson, Owensboro and Louisville. The only difficulty at the latter was the Falls of the Ohio. Crewmen were known as roustabouts - a sometimes surly, argumentative breed unto themselves; many Blacks served as roustabouts, enjoying the adventure and freedom of the waters. Many roustabouts were the average hard-working young man who was providing for his family while enjoying the adventures just around the bend. They worked hard and earned every cent they made. Henry Shreve owned the Washington and was highly profitable. Steamboats reached the peak of their usage during the 1850's when the railroad was making inroads into their business. High water, low waters, ice floes ... none of these impeded the railroad. Some boats caught fire and exploded, some were crushed by ice ... but the pilots of these steamboats led an adventuresome life. I have wondered why one seldom finds river pilot, roustabout or other titles on the census records with any frequency. Perhaps it is because in the area I research, there was not as many so occupied. But, it is also possible that they were never here when the census was being taken and were polling their way down the Green River or other river. How exciting a life it was! See also: Louis C Hunter, Steamboats on the Western Rivers, Cambridge, Mass, 1949 and many web sites with excellent photos and drawings of some of the old steamboats. Next week, the Shakers. (c) Copyright 2 January 2003, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved, sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Col. Sandi Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ GORIN worldconnect website: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~sgorin SCKY resource links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html