The Durham boat was a large wooden, flat-bottomed, double-ended freight boat used on interior waterways in North America beginning in the middle of the 18th century. They were replaced by larger, more efficient canal boats during the canal era beginning with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.
A December 25, 2007 photo of Durham boats used in reenactment of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on December 25 and 26, 1776
An 1807 drawing of a Durham boat with sails traveling on the Mohawk River, a tributary to the Hudson River, as it passes through a V-shaped rock wing dam similar to eel weirs constructed by Native Americans
An 1831 watercolor painting of a Durham boat under sail on the St. Lawrence River
A replica of a Durham boat, the Erie Traveler, in flight locks in Lockport, New York
George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River
George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, which occurred on the night of December 25–26, 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, was the first move in a complex and surprise military maneuver and attack organized by George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, which culminated in their attack on Hessian forces garrisoned at Trenton. The Hessians were German mercenaries hired by the British.
Washington Crossing the Delaware, an 1851 portrait by Emanuel Leutze depicting Washington and Continental Army troops crossing the river prior to the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776
The cover of Thomas Paine's The American Crisis, published the week before Washington's covert crossing of the Delaware, infused a much-needed sense of optimism into Continental Army troops, who were beginning to doubt their ability to prevail militarily against the British Army, then the largest and most powerful army in the world. It also inspired delegates in the Second Continental Congress, who were troubled by recent Continental Army military defeats.
The Passage of the Delaware, an 1819 portrait depicting the crossing by Thomas Sully
Reenactors cross the Delaware in Durham boats on December 25, 2005
