See *1820. These vessels are named in an English Act of 1695. (N.E.D.) But those which were used on the great rivers of the U.S. were much larger. See a note by Dr. (now Sir J. A. H.) Murray in Notes and Queries, 9 S. vii. 65, with an account of the keel by Mr. R. Oliver Heslop of Newcastle.
1801. Went down the Mississippi, Jan. 1 to June 30, 1801, “440 flat-boats, 26 keel boats, and 7 large canoes.”—Mass. Spy, Nov. 25.
1810. The navigation of the Allegheny is easy for boats called keels from fifty to seventy feet long, sharp at both ends, drawing little water, carrying a good burthen, and calculated to be set against the stream, so as to surmount it from eight to twenty miles a day in proportion to the strength of the current operating against them.—F. Cuming, ‘Sketches of a Tour,’ p. 75 (Pittsburgh). (Italics in the original.)
1819. James Timon and son advertise for sale, “a new keel boat about 40 tons burthen.”—St. Louis Enquirer, Sept. 15.
1819. A certificate by Col. Leavenworth for the use of a keel boat from Prairie du Chien to the River St. Peter’s.—Id., Nov. 13.
1820. W. H. Savage advertises for sale “The Keel Boat Firefly, about 30 tons burden, 8 poles, one boat-hook, 7 oars.”—Id., March 25.
1820. The River [Ohio] is navigated by Steam Boats, Barges, Keel Boats, Flat Boats or Arks, &c.—Western Review, Jan. (Lexington, Ky.).
1820. Time, tide, and captains of keel-boats know nothing of the solicitudes of sentimental travellers, and hurry us away from a famous spot, with as little ceremony as from a half finished breakfast.—James Hall, ‘Letters from the West,’ p. 95 (Lond.).
*1820. The keel is a long, sharp vessel, drawing but little water; when loaded, the hull is nearly all immersed, but there is a deck or roof, about six feet high, covered on all sides so as to exclude the weather, and leaving only a passage of about a foot wide, which is called the running board, along the gun-wale, and a small space at the stem and stern.—Id., p. 323.
1822. A keel-boat was lost in the Missouri a few days since.—Mass. Spy, July 10.
1823. Two keel-boats belonging to general Ashley left St. Louis on the 9th inst. for the Yellow-Stone.—Missouri Intelligencer, March 25.
1824. Mr. Clay said: “The difference between a nation with and without the arts may be conceived by the difference between a keel-boat and a steam-boat, combating the rapid torrent of the Mississippi.”—Mass. Spy, May 5.
1835. “Keel-boats,” which are one remove from the flat-boat, having some pretensions to a keel.—Ingraham, ‘The South-West,’ i. 105.
1840. A keel-boat arrived here on Sunday last, with about thirty Mormons.—Cincinnati Chronicle, Aug. 26.
1845. He engaged four young emigrants who were working their passage in the keel (with leave of its owner) to row the skiff to Cincinnati.—‘The Cincinnati Miscellany,’ ii. 197.
1853. A well-manned little keel-boat or pierrogue might have accomplished the voyage.—Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis, June 23.
