Wanted: Illinois
& Michigan Canal Workers
Information for Stone
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 "Stone" or "Lime Boat" had a hull similar to the preceding two, but its deck was open and its bulwarks built higher as an aid in hauling stone. It was used to carry rock from Lockport's quarries. Unlike the Lake and Grain boats, its deckhouse was in the bow.
(Vierling 1986, 48, 50-51)
Return to Wanted: Illinois & Michigan Canal Workers Lesson Plan