AN OHIO RIVER FLATBOAT IN THE 21ST CENTURY
By John E. Schwegman
Flatboats carried many of the earliest settlers to southern Illinois and beyond, but few of these immigrant transporters have survived into the 21st century. Many that deposited their passengers and cargoes here were torn apart for their lumber or were sold and used to transport produce and other goods on down the river to New Orleans or other markets. They were of simple construction and apparently were never brought back upstream.
While studying freshwater mussels along the shore of the Ohio River near Mound City in September of 2000, I came upon a wooden wreck of a boat near the shore at low water. At first glance its major features were apparent, it was large and flat. When I informed a nearby landowner about it, he advised me that bank erosion had exposed it several years earlier. He had examined it and considered it to be an old houseboat dating from the early 1920s. Local lore indicates that a family lived in this vicinity on a houseboat at that time.
The remains of the boat were the lower parts of the sides, the stern and most of the bottom planks. The bow, upper sides and the anterior part of the port (left) side was missing. The boat had sunk while heading diagonally upstream and toward shore. A four-foot square pile of bricks was visible on the floor in the center against the port wall. However, most of the boat was filled with sand and gravel sediment with clay in the lowermost level directly on the bottom. The wreck measured 45 feet long by 12 feet wide.
Initial examination of construction methods revealed that the sides had been hewn by ax from single oak logs and contained many drill holes indicating that the craft had been held together with wooden pegs rather than nails. Based on these observations, I thought that the craft was much older than the early 20th century and was a flatboat rather than a houseboat.
The intent of this article is to describe the wreck as it was found it in the fall of 2000. With the help of my family and Max Hutchison, and Jack Deaton, excavation and removal of the mud and silt that filled the wreck was undertaken in search of the details of its construction and of artifacts that might remain in it. The following description of the boat and its contents are the result of this excavation.
As stated earlier, the 45 foot long sides of the wreck were hewn by axe from single logs that appear to be of white oak. These sides reach 12 to 14 inches in height and were flattened on the inside and outside except for a foot length near the stern where the full roundness of the log was left on the inside. A ledge extends into the boat near the bottom of the inside with a dished out area on its bottom where the cross planking of the boat’s bottom fit to it. This ledge had one inch diameter vertical holes drilled in it at regular six inch intervals which apparently functioned to hold the bottom planks to the sides. The sides also had holes through them near the top at about four foot intervals, possibly formerly holding ribs to support higher side planks that are now missing.
The 12-foot wide stern was of a vertical or squared plank that had one vertical "rib" remaining on the inside near its center. A square beam crossed the bottom of the boat flush against the stern plank and joined the sides together by another board (now missing) that fit on top of it and was fastened by wooden pegs to both the sides and the beam. The bow was missing, but the slope angle at the front end of the starboard (right) side indicates that it sloped up rather than being vertical.
The bottom was of cross planking of varying widths of inch-thick oak. These were generally in poor rotting condition, with some of them in the anterior of the port side being exposed above the river bottom and having been partially worn away. Lying on the bottom were two "stringers" two and a half feet in from the sides that ran the length of the boat and two that crossed the boat. Near the stern these were of square sawed timber, but toward the bow they were of scarcely squared up saplings which were held in place by fitting into holes in the cross beams. They were not attached to the bottom as far as we could tell, and apparently functioned to support a now departed floor a few inches above the bottom. In the stern starboard corner a diagonal beam rested on top of one of these with its ends on the ledge of the side and the top of the stern bottom beam. This may have supported the steering mechanism or may have been a brace.
The four-foot square of bricks rested directly on the bottom planks and probably supported a stove for cooking and heat. The search for artifacts began around the brick pile and then proceeded along the outside edges of the boat. Eventually the entire boat was dug out.
The first artifact to be discovered was a pewter spoon that had the bowl broken from the handle. It looked primitive with a large bowl that had apparently been formed by pressing a piece of sheet pewter into a mold. This process left a rough curled-in edge to the spoon that would make it uncomfortable to eat from. The relatively small handle had been made separate from the bowl and then welded on.
The next artifact found was a chisel-like tool of iron used to drive caulking into cracks in the boat to stop leaks. Next came an iron ax head, and what an ax head! It weighed six pounds and had a curved front end unlike modern single bit axes.
As we proceeded along the side, our shovels came upon several pieces of a broken pottery bowl. These fragments were of redware, made from the same clay that field tile and flower pots are made from today. They were of a single vessel known as a milk bowl. Such bowls were used to separate cream from milk in olden times. This bowl was glazed and decorated with light spiral lines on the inside, but was unglazed and unmarked on the outside. Most of the remainder of the bowl was later found some five feet away toward the center of the boat. These fragments were blacked by burning and had some of the glazing cracked by fire. They are evidence that upper parts of the boat may have burned prior to sinking. However, no evidence of fire was seen on the remaining timbers of the boat we viewed.
We soon discovered two more pewter spoons of similar construction to the first, one intact and one broken, and two wooden handled knives. The knife handles were made of two pieces of rounded wood attached to an iron blade by three iron brads. One of the handles had three grooves in it as if to mark it for identification. The iron or steel blades were represented by a mass of rust. We also found what appeared to be a straight razor minus its handle. A single cast pewter button with a knurled pattern in the center was also found.
Among other items discovered were iron wire, sometimes twisted into "hanks," and a quantity of nails. Most of the nails were bent and appeared to have been used. Some were visibly square while others were so rusty that this could not be determined. Two short lengths of iron tubing that may have been part of a shotgun barrel were also found.
The artifacts that were recovered from the wreck seem to be of a household nature, indicating that the boat had carried passengers and their belongings rather than freight. The fact that a milk bowl was being carried may be a clue that there was livestock aboard.
A few of the items that were recovered help to date the wreck. Redware bowls were generally completely glazed after 1850, so the glazing only on the inside indicates that it was probably made before that time. The construction of spoons in two parts that are later attached together was common before 1800. The pewter button was of a style made about 1780. Of course the time of construction of artifacts is no sure indication of the age of the boat. These items are commonly used for decades and could have been old when the travelers set out on their river voyage.
We may never know the cause of the flatboat’s sinking and abandonment If it was due to accident, one would expect that its wooden planks and artifacts would have been salvaged. The fact they were not could point to foul play.
The infamous river pirate Colonel Plug operated from a base just four miles down-river from the wreck about 1800, and flatboats were his favorite prey. The evidence that the boat was heading upstream when it sank and may have been on fire could indicate it sank under attack. While flatboats apparently had accidents and sank on their own, this wreck is so near Plug’s headquarters at the mouth of Cache River that its sinking here could well be the result of plundering by his gang.
It is hoped that some day the artifacts from this flatboat, if not the remnants of the boat itself, will be on display for the public to view.
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Used with permission of the author.
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956) with Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen, was recently released on DVD and VHS. Colonel Plug's character is in the movie.
A reviewer says, "The problem is that the pirates have been dressing up as Indians to attack boats on the river and this is causing tensions between the real Indians and the settlers."
Travel on the rivers was dangerous because of the threat of Indians and river pirates. The sides of the flatboats usually had sides at lest three feet high to afford protection. Many stories are told about Colonel Plug who learned the art of crying pitifully for help from passing boats. Those who fell for the ploy did not live long enough to regret their mistake. -- from a Howerton family heritage page
Editor's note: We caution you against assuming that this particular flatboat was the victim of pirates, although it could have been. Instead, we encourage you to consider and further research how many settlers were the victims of pirates, and how the pirates operated. The 1962 movie "How the West was Won" also has an episode of Ohio River pirates at work, and may be available from your library.
A massacre involving indians took place near Mound City in 1812.
Art: flatboat passing Tower Rock
Flatboat images from Google
Southernmostillinoishistory.net