Keelboat

A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht.

The cargo-capable working boats have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often use leeboards if forced in open water.

The modern recreational saliling keelboats have prominent fixed fin keels, and considerable draft.

## Contents

* 1 Historical working keelboats
* 1.1 Great Britain
* 1.1.1 "Keel" as a unit of coal
* 1.2 United States
* 2 Sailing keelboats
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Historical working keelboats

File:2004NickelKeelRevUnc.tif

A keel boat,[1] keelboat,[1] or keel-boat[2] is a type of usually long, narrow cigar-shaped riverboat,[1] or unsheltered water barge which is sometimes also called a poleboat—that is built about a slight keel and is designed as a boat built for the navigation of rivers, shallow lakes, and sometimes canals that were commonly used to transport cargo.

Keelboats were similar to riverboats, but like other barges were unpowered and were typically propelled and steered with oars or setting poles—usually the latter. Keelboats have been used for exploration, such as during the Lewis and Clark Expedition,[3] but were primarily used to transport cargo or settlers in the early 19th century.[4] The process of moving a keelboat upriver was extremely difficult, though current dependent.

### Great Britain

The term keel was associated in Great Britain with three particular working boat types. The Norfolk Keel ancestor of the Norfolk Wherry, the Humber Keel and the Tyne Keel.

Keelboats played a central role, from the 13th century until the second half of the 20th century, in the movement of coal from northeast England to market. The mined coal was transported to the river Tyne where it was shipped downstream on keelboats maned by keelmen and controlled by the Newcastle Hostmen.

#### "Keel" as a unit of coal

A keel was a unit used to measure coal in the northeast of England, being the quantity of coal carried by a keelboat on the Tyne and Wear rivers. In 1750 it was said to be equal to 8 Newcastle chaldrons (waggons), a measure of volume, or a weight of 21 (long) tons 4 cwt (21.54 metric tons).[5]

### United States

In America they were used in great numbers by settlers making their way west in the century-plus of wide-open western American frontiers, ca. 1775-1890.[1][2] They were also used extensively for transporting cargo to market, and for exploration and trading expeditions, for water transport was then most effective means to move bulky or heavy cargo.

Most of these keelboats were 50 to 80 feet (15 to 24 m) long and 15 feet (5 m) wide. They usually had a cabin in the middle or at the rear, but were sometimes constructed with an open deck.[3]

Mike Fink is probably the most noted American keelboater in history.

Historical account of two keelboats published in the original Courier Journal of Lafayette, Indiana, in 1833:

> We stop the press to announce the arrival this morning of the steam-boat, REPUBLICAN, Toll, Master from the rapids of the Wabash. The Republican had in tow keel boats, "the Hoosier Lady" and "the Hoosier Boy," bringing freight to Lafayette, Messrs Taylor & Harter, Taylor & Li J. McCormick, J. B. Seamen and Hunter, and for Messrs, Ewing of the Bridge at Logansport. This is the first arrival at Lafayette this year. We understand the Republican is going to try and ascend the Wabash at Logansport. If she is successful she be the first one that ever has been, and with entitlement to the premium, which we learn is been offered by General Tipton and other enterprising and worthy citizens of that first arrival. The Wabash is in steam boating condition, and we may experience several arrivals, in a few days.

## Sailing keelboats

A keelboat race in California

In Ireland the Howth 17 was designed by Sir Walter Boyd in 1897, and is the oldest one-design racing keelboat in the world.

## See also

* 'Classic' keelboat classes (list of keelboat classes designed before 1970)
* Ferryboat
* Flatboat
* Keelmen
* Lewis and Clark's keelboat
* List of sailing boat types
* Mike Fink Keel Boats
* Norfolk Wherry
* Riverboat

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Keelboats". http://home.att.net/~mman/Keelboat.htm. ""The keelboat which my brothers had in 1828, I think, was the first which navigated the Kansas river. After I came the keel boat was used altogether on the Kaw River (Kansas River) ...""
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Official town website, history. "welcome to Brownsville". http://www.brownsvilleboro.com/. "Brownsville situated, at the westernmost point of Fayette County, on the National Road and overlooking the Monongahela River was the gateway to the west. Thomas Brown, realizing that pioneers would be drawn to the Brownsville area to get to the Ohio Valley and the state of Kentucky, purchased land in the 1700s (decade) and by mid-18th century a town was being mapped out. It was then, that the town of Brownsville (named for Thomas Brown and formerly known as Redstone Old Fort) became a "keel-boat" building center as well as other businesses for travelers. The businessmen from Brownsville supplied transportation and supplies to the traveling pioneers, and the town became very prosperous. The steamboat industry soon took over to facilitate traffic along the Monongahela River. The very first steamboat, the Enterprise, to travel to New Orleans and return by its own power was designed and built in the Brownsville boatyards and launched from the Brownsville Wharf in 1814."
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mussulman, Joseph (April 2014). "Flagship: Keelboat, Barge or Boat?". http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/496.
4. ↑ Riley, Franklin Lafayette (1903). Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society. VII. Oxford, Mississippi: Mississippi Historical Society. p. 482. https://books.google.com/books?id=_0wUAAAAYAAJ&q=setting+pole+barge&pg=PA482.
5. ↑ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.)

## External links

* Classic Boat guide to X One Design Keelboat
* Solent XOD Forum on CrewInCowes.co.uk website
* Website with Keelboat history and details
* The Keelboat Age on Western Waters, by Leland D. Baldwin, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1941. (provides the authority for the previous linked website)
* Steambots Times, Keelboats

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