Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
KEELBOATS
KEELBOATS. Once the primary means of carrying trade goods up river and cargoes down river, keelboats averaged sixty feet long, eighteen feet wide, with a five-foot cabin above the deck. The average cost of building one was $2,500. Keelboats had a sharp bow and stern and carried a swivel gun on the bow for protection. These boats were capable of carrying twenty tons of trade goods and were pulled, poled or rowed. (1)
A keelboat crew included a patron or captain, bosseman or assistant patron, and twenty voyageurs who pulled the boat up river. The voyageurs pulled the boat by means of a 300-yard cordell rope attached to the upper portion of the boat's mast. The patron kept the boat in the channel as the bosseman shouted orders. The keelboat under ideal conditions could be pulled fifteen miles per day. (2)
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Source:
"River Transportation," National Park Service pamphlet.