Durham boat
Videos
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
Bateau
Videos
A bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes. The name derives from the French word, bateau, which is simply the word for boat and the plural, bateaux, follows the French, an unusual construction for an English plural. In the southern United States, the term is still used to refer to flat-bottomed boats, including those elsewhere called jon boats.
Two colonial bateaux in the Buffalo Inner Harbor. These 25-foot replicas were built based on the remains of 1756-era colonial bateaux recovered by the Adirondack Museum from Lake George in 1960.