[LMB] A picture of the Fetch?

[Peter Granzeau]

At 06:31 PM 5/6/2008, Lois Fundis wrote:
>I thought I'd post the link to this picture in case
>some people wanted help visualizing the boats in
>Passage. I ran across this picture while looking up
>something else on the website of one of our local
>counties:
>http://www.brookewv.org/images/lc.jpg
>It's a reproduction of one of the boats used by the
>Lewis and Clark Expedition. The boat, like the ones
>it's a reproduction of, was made on this end of the
>Gray, er, Ohio River (actually near Pittsburgh) and
>transported L&C et al.

I think the pictured boat is a "keelboat", not a "flatboat", which is what the _Fetch_ was.  Note the boat has a rudder attached to the hull shape, not a steering oar.  The _Fetch_ would have been square at both ends, with a large house on it (that is like the one shown), and would have had two large oars (sweeps), each manned by someone standing on the roof. Keelboats could be towed upriver; flatboats were essentially rafts, and would be broken up for their lumber at the end of their (one-way) trip.


-- 
Regards, Pete
pgranzeau at cox.net