ABSTRACT
Native American watercraft on the northeastern waterways of the continent during the 16th and 17th centuries consisted of floats, rafts, dugout canoes, birch canoes, pirogues, and coracle skin boats called "bull boats" made of buffalo hide. American pioneers built and used a variety of other small craft on the inland waterways, each type an adaptation to the environment in which it worked. Such craft included Durham boats, arks, Kentucky boats, keelboats, flatboats, barges, broadhorns, Mackinaw boats, Mohawk boats, New Orleans boats, Ohio packet boats, Schenectady boats, and Susquehanna boats. The relatively inexpensive and safe horse-powered vessels were found to be excellent ferryboats as they were well-suited for traveling short distances, necessitated by the limited endurance of the animals. The steamboat made a lasting impression that altered the face of national and international waterborne travel. The steamboat had humble beginnings, developing from a technology that was initially applied to more mundane industrial tasks.
