Durham boat
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | various |
| Operators: | commercial freight haulers |
| In service: | c. 1750 - c. 1830 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Durham boat |
| Length: | 40 ft (12 m) to 60 ft (18 m) |
| Beam: | 8 ft (2.4 m) |
| Draught: | up to 2 ft (0.61 m) when loaded |
| Propulsion: | setting poles, oars or sails |
| Speed: | varied |
| Capacity: | 12 to 18 tons while traveling downstream and two tons while traveling upstream |
| Complement: | two to four crew, plus steersman |
| Armament: | none |
| Notes: | built to ferry freight on interior waterways of North America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries |
The Durham boat was a large wooden, flat-bottomed, double-ended freight boat which was in use on many of the interior waterways of North America beginning in the middle of the eighteenth century. They were displaced by larger, more efficient canal boats during the canal era beginning with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The Durham name became associated with this boat type due to their use by the Durham Ironworks of Durham, Pennsylvania for hauling freight on the Delaware River.
Durham boats were flat-bottomed and double-ended, much like large bateaux in both construction and appearance. Beyond that, very little is known of construction details. No plans exist and likely they were not used. No extant remains have been found and very little written description exists. Probably they were built with heavy stems at bow and stern and a series of frames amidships, likely from natural oak crooks when available, and planked with sawn boards, likely pine although builders would have used whatever material was available.
These boats would have varied from place to place, from builder to builder and also evolved over time, however in general, they were 40 feet (12 m) to 60 feet (18 m) long and 8 feet (2.4 m) wide. The bottoms were planked and flat, without a keel, but possibly with a larger “keel-plank” in the center. The sides were vertical and parallel, tapering to sharp at either end. Unlike the bateau, they were decked at both ends and had cleated walking boards along either side. They would have been fitted with a long “sweep” or steering oar and one mast which usually held two square sails.
The Durham boat “…was the sole means of moving commodities in both directions on the river between Philadelphia and points above tide. This boat was well known on the Delaware for more than a century.. even after the building of the canals, it was used on them as well as on the river to a considerable extent.” They are also noted for their use in Washington's crossing of the Delaware River during the American Revolution.
"They were used as early as 1758, by John Van Campen, for the transportation of flour to Philadelphia, manufactured from wheat grown in the Minisink."
The sides of the Delaware River Durhams were vertical with a slight curvature to meet a similar curvature of the bottom which was otherwise flat. The sides were straight and parallel until they began to curve to the stem and stern posts, about twelve or fourteen feet from the ends, where the decks began, the rest of the boat being open.
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Wikipedia