Mike Fink, called "king of the keelboaters", was a semi-legendary brawler and river boatman who exemplified the tough and hard-drinking men who ran keelboats up and down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
An early drawing of Mike Fink, on a keelboat, with rifle in hand, ready to take on anyone who challenged him to a shooting match
A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open water, while modern recreational keelboats have prominent fixed fin keels, and considerable draft. The two terms may draw from cognate words with different final meaning.
Barges twice: A long cigar-shaped keelboat passing a "flatboat" on the Ohio River.
A yacht race in California
Side-view of the keelboat from the Lewis and Clark Expedition on the back of the 2004 nickel