History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 4 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

These dangers are increased by the remarkable fluctuation in the depth of the water in the rivers, which is sometimes so great, as to admit the navigation of the largest vessel, and again so small, as to render it impossible to construct vessels with draught of sufficient lightness to float upon them.

On the Ohio, the rapids are chiefly caused by bars, or as they are termed “chains of rock,” extending across the river, which, when the water is low, impede navigation and sometimes stop it altogether. Artificial means have, however, in some instances been adopted whereby a greatly increased volume of water is thrown into a single channel, but hitherto these schemes have not been of much practical utility, though the money expended in the removal of “snags” and other temporary obstructions has tended to render the navigation of the Ohio, as well as of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Red River, comparatively safe and easy to what it was when steam-boats were for the first time despatched upon these mighty streams.

Peculiar description of wharves and levees.

In consequence of the great fluctuations in the depth of the western rivers, no regular wharves or jetties can be formed alongside of which the boats engaged in the traffic can land their passengers and goods. In lieu of these, therefore, the banks of the river opposite to the towns, or where landing-places are necessary, are sloped off at a considerable inclination and paved with ordinary paving-stones. At intervals along the shore, and, also, at different distances up the bank, piles are driven with large ringbolts attached to their heads for the purpose of mooring the boats. Owing, also, to the same cause, and the ever varying strength of the currents of the rivers, it is necessary that the boats employed on them should be as light as possible combined with the requisite strength, of small draught of water, and of great power, so as to be able to pass over the sandbanks and make headway against the currents.

Description of steamers employed.

In order that the boats may land passengers without difficulty at these sloping banks or “levees,” as they are termed, and also discharge and take in freight and passengers, their bows have a very long rake, so that when they strike the bank the bow gradually rises out of the water till it has sufficient hold upon the bank to maintain its position while landing the cargo, without any material assistance from the warps attached to the mooring post. To facilitate the operation of landing, the forecastle deck carries its width in most cases right to the stem, so as to furnish the necessary platform for discharging and loading cargo. In order, also, to meet the frequent occurrence of very shallow water during the summer months, a class of boats has been constructed termed light-water steamers. They differ from the ordinary description of boats, in that they are built in the lightest possible manner and with a comparatively small engine power, so that their speed seldom exceeds from 6 to 7 miles per hour; they have, however, the advantage of being able to navigate rivers the ordinary boat could not traverse, their draught of water ranging from 12 to not more than 18 inches when laden with cargo and passengers.

The vessels employed on the Mississippi vary in size from 150 to 1500 tons burden, and in some cases more. It is necessary, too, that these should be built so to draw as little water as possible, the largest not exceeding when loaded from 7 to 8 feet, as this great river is also impeded by bars or “chains” extending across it, though not to the same extent as the Ohio and other smaller rivers. At New Orleans, the levee or quay is from four to five miles in extent, with an average breadth of 100 feet. It is 15 feet above low-water mark, or that condition of the river when its waters retire within their natural bed, and is 6 feet above the level of the city, to which it is graduated by an easy descent. It is constructed of the alluvial soil brought down from the north, and deposited in the vicinity by the waters of the Mississippi.

Boats of the Mississippi.

Prior to the general introduction of steam navigation, the trade carried on by flat boats occupied a great space in this now important emporium of commerce. Hundreds of long, narrow, black, dirty-looking, crocodile-like craft lay sluggishly without moorings, upon the soft batture,[154]—a heterogeneous compound produced from the territories of the Upper Mississippi and its numerous tributaries, while they poured out their contents upon the quay. These rafts, or flat boats as they are technically called, which frequently had on board cargo to the value of from 3000l. to 5000l., are covered with a raised work or scantling, giving them the appearance of long, narrow cabins, built for the purpose of habitation, but really designed to protect their contents from the weather. They are guided by an oar at the stern, aided with an occasional dip of two huge pieces of timber, which move on each side like fins (rude imitations of the leeboards to be found in Dutch galiots or Thames barges), and float with the stream at the rate of 3 miles the hour. Such were the means of carriage of the up-country’s products on the Mississippi about half a century ago, and steam-boat navigation has not diminished the number of these flat boats. They are so natural, simple, and cheap a mode of transporting produce down the stream, that as long as the Mississippi passes with such rapidity from its source to its embouchure in the gulf, the traveller will be sure to meet with these unsightly masses floating on its bosom; swayed to and fro by its currents, countercurrents, and eddies, often shifting end for end like some species of shell-fish, and not unfrequently resembling the crab, preferring the oblique to the forward movement.

Boatmen.