An “ark” or flat-boat.
1820. The flat-bottom boat is a mere raft, with sides and a roof, but it is more roomy and convenient than the “keel,” if well built and light. An immense oar is placed on the roof on each side, near the bow (which has given these boats the nickname of “broad horns”) and another at the stern.—James Hall, ‘Legends of the West,’ p. 324 (Lond.).
1826. Next in order are the Kentucky flats, or in the vernacular phrase, “broad-horns,” a species of ark, very nearly resembling a New England pig-stye. They are fifteen feet wide, and from forty to one hundred feet in length, and carry from twenty to seventy tons.—T. Flint, ‘Recollections,’ p. 13.
1829. Equally broad at the bow and the stern, it was but natural that these unique crafts went by the name of “broad-horns.”—Shields, ‘Life of Prentiss,’ p. 31 (1884).
1839–40. Washington Irving. (N.E.D.)
1840. At Wheeling I embarked on a flat-bottomed family boat, technically called a “broad-horn.” In this ark I floated down the Ohio.—Knick. Mag., xvi. 157.
1840. England means to bring the whole celestial empire to terms, by effecting reprisals upon a few broad-horns, classically called junks.—Daily Pennant (St. Louis), Aug. 11.
1846. Boys, this ’ere life won’t do. I’ll stick to the broadhorn ’cordin’ to contract; but once done with it, I’m off for a frolic. If the Choctas or Cherokees on the Massassip don’t give us a brush as we pass along, I shall grow as poor as a starved wolf in a pitfall. I must, to live peaceably, point my rifle at something more dangerous than varmint.—T. B. Thorpe, ‘Mysteries of the Backwoods,’ p. 122.
1847. Ben was an old Mississip’ roarer—none of your half and half, but just as native to the element, as if he had been born in a broad horn.—Robb, ‘Streaks of Squatter Life,’ &c., p. 64 (Phila.). (Italics in the original.)
1850. At the landing a large broad-horn was lazily sleeping, squatted on the muddy waters like a Dutch beauty over a warming-pan.—H. C. Lewis (‘Madison Tensas’), ‘Odd Leaves,’ p. 58.
