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Flatboat facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Keelboat and flatboat
A flatboat passing a long cigar-shaped keelboat on the Ohio River.

A flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it is large, sturdy tub with a hull.

A flatboat is almost always a one-way vessel, and is usually dismantled for lumber when it reaches its downstream destination.

George Caleb Bingham - Jolly Flatboatmen in Port
George Caleb Bingham, Jolly Flatboatmen in Port, (1857, St. Louis Art Museum)

Images for kids

  • Traveling-by-flatboat-engraving-by-Alfred-R-Waud

    An Alfred Waud engraving showing persons traveling down a river by flatboat in the late 1800s.

  • Mississippi River at New Orleans 1873 Measom

    Flatboats among the river traffic at New Orleans, 1873

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Flatboat Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.