Wanted: Illinois & Michigan Canal Workers
Information for Lake Boat Crew

Canal boats. Although many of the commercial boats using the canal were dissimilar in appearance, their dimensions were more uniformly standardized. All were no larger than 105 feet long by 17½ feet wide, and had a hull 6½ feet high, drawing a fully laden draft of four feet eight inches. All were also built close to the water with mostly straight lines from bow to stern. The deckhouses and hatches were suppressed in height, for easy passage under low bridges, and the boat's rails were of row of elongate freeing-ports along each gunwale. These size restrictions, of course, limited any boat's cargo capacity to a little over 100 tons. Although packets were built higher, they too were limited in height by the overhead obstructions. (Some of the steamboats had retractable smokestacks for passing under low bridges.)

The crew of the freight boats included the captain, a steersman and a bowsman; while on most packets there was the captain, two helmsmen and a cook. Freight boats also had only one driver (to drive the animals along the towpath) the while the packets had two.

Of the freight boats there were three basic types: The Lake Boat, the Grain Boat, and the Stone or Lime boat.

The"Lake Boat" was the earliest type and common in the late 1860 s. It was about 60 feet long, nearly 17 feet wide, and had a hull height of 6' 6". Its cargo capacity was about a 150 tons. Its only cabin was in the stern, and the hatches were forward from the cabin to the bow. This stern was upswept and had two small windows on each side of the rudder. From the raised stern deck the steersman was able to see over the cargo area and safely steer the boat.

(Vierling 1986, 48-49, 51)

Lake Boat

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