Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837, part 1Flagg, Edmund
History
Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837, part 1
Flagg, Edmund
Illinois -- Description and travel; Mississippi River Valley -- Description and travel; Missouri -- Description and travel
[11] The "Baltimore" (73 tons) was built at Pittsburg in 1828; the
"Roanoke" (100 tons), at Wheeling in 1835. It is reported that from
1831 to 1833, of the sixty-six steamboats which went out of service,
twenty-four were snagged, fifteen burned, and five destroyed by
collision with other boats. See James Hall, _Notes on the Western
States_ (Philadelphia, 1838), p. 239.--ED.
[12] The keel-boat Hindoo, with merchandise to the amount of $50,000,
is a late instance.--FLAGG.
[13] Brown's Island, two miles and a half long by half a mile at its
greatest width, is located six or seven miles above Steubenville,
Ohio, following the course of the river.--ED.
[14] The keel-boat was usually from sixty to seventy feet long, and
fifteen to eighteen broad at beam, with a keel extending from bow to
stern, and had a draft of twenty to thirty inches. When descending the
stream, the force of the current, with occasional aid from the pole,
was the usual mode of locomotion. In ascending the stream, however,
sails, poles, and almost every known device were used; not
infrequently the vessel was towed by from twenty to forty men, with a
rope several hundred feet in length attached to the mast. These boats
were built in Pittsburg at a cost of two to three thousand dollars
each.
The barge was constructed for narrow, shallow water. As a rule it was
larger than the keel-boat; but of less draft, and afforded greater
accommodations for passengers.
Broad-horn was a term generally applied to the Mississippi and Ohio
flat-boat, which made its advent on the Western waters later than the
barge or the keel-boat. It was a large, unwieldy structure, with a
perfectly flat bottom, perpendicular sides, and usually covered its
entire length. It was used only for descending the stream.
"The earliest improvement upon the canoe was the pirogue, an invention
of the whites. Like the canoe, this is hewed out of the solid log; the
difference is, that the pirogue has greater width and capacity, and is
composed of several pieces of timbers--as if the canoe was sawed
lengthwise into two equal sections, and a broad flat piece of timber
inserted in the middle, so as to give greater breadth of beam to the
vessel." Hall, _Notes on the Western States_, p. 218.--ED.
[15] Flint.--FLAGG.
[16] For an account of the first steamboat on the Ohio, see Flint's
_Letters_, in our volume ix, p. 154, note 76.--ED.
[17] Latrobe.--FLAGG.
_Comment by Ed._ Charles J. Latrobe (1801-75) visited the United
States in 1832-33. His _Rambles in North America in 1832-3_ (New York,
1835) and _Rambles in Mexico_ (New York and London, 1836) have much
value in the history of Western travel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account