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Images from Yale University Beinecke Library Digital Collection
  • Sketches of the Keelboat Sketches of the Keelboat, ca. January 21, 1804, Field Notes, reverse of document 7 Journals 2 1986 Yale University Permission to reproduce image required. http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/
  • N.D.
  • Images
undated, ca. January 21, 1804 - Clark, William
  • In this material, upside down to the main body of writing on the page, Clark (Clark, William) again tries to figure the number of men needed and their assignments to the different boats. The "Big boat" is the keelboat. The following paragraph begins the reverse of document 7 (printed upside down in Osgood).
  • Here follow two sketches of the keelboat, which are the most important sources of information about that vessel (see fig. 7).
  • For further information, see above, August 30, 1803, and sources cited there. A key to the keelboat diagram. Clark (Clark, William) drew a figure of the "pins to row by" in place of numbers on the last line.
  • undated, ca. January 21, 1804
  • Journals
  • Clark, William
Lewis & Clark among the Indians 2. The Teton Confrontation
  • As Clark and his party paddled back to the keelboat, Black Buffalo made one last demand. He and two of his warriors waded out ten feet from shore and asked to be taken on the keelboat.
  • And once again, on the way back to the keelboat, they were offered Sioux women. As before, the offer was rejected. Tired by a full day of talking and visiting, the American party, along with the Partisan and one of his soldiers, made their way on the white pirogue back to the keelboat. The evening stillness was shattered when some clumsy steering caused the pirogue to slam broadside against the keelboat's anchor cable.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • James P. Ronda
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • The next morning the men moved the anchorless keelboat to a more defensible position beside a relatively open shore.
  • Lewis drew his sword to cut the mooring rope and free the keelboat. Clark seized a firing taper, ready to touch off the nearest swivel.
  • During an afternoon of raging wind, the keelboat smacked into a log. The blow threw it into a trough in the waves.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
Fort Mandan Miscellany - Unknown
  • All along the captains had distinguished between their "permanent party" and the others, boatmen and soldiers, who would return from some point up the Missouri (Missouri River) . The heavy keelboat would become less useful as the river became shallower in its upper reaches, while the hired boatmen would be less necessary when the keelboat went back.
  • Winter 1804-1805
  • Journals
  • Unknown
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • To restore order he dredged up chores. He had the keelboat heeled over on its side and made doubly sure every crack in the bottom was watertight.
  • On May 8, he loaded the spick-and-span keelboat, manned it with twenty oars, and rowed it several miles up the Mississippi.
  • A strong back eddy would sometimes carry a keelboat several hundred yards upstream with no effort on the part of the crew.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
September 4, 1803 - Lewis, Meriwether
  • and then speaks of two canoes (as he does the next day, September 5), but this is probably two vessels in addition to the keelboat and not two canoes in addition to the keelboat and pirogue. Again the confusion of terminology.
  • September 4, 1803
  • Journals
  • Lewis, Meriwether
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • The next day they overtook the keelboat, which had been going slowly upriver in charge of Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor.
  • Fortunately Clark was nearby with the keelboat. He ordered it alongside, and nearly everyone jumped overboard to help.
  • As it returned, packed tight with Indians, the swivel gun on the bow of the keelboat banged out two salutes. The reply by the Yanktons was livelier.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • The next day they overtook the keelboat, which had been going slowly upriver in charge of Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor.
  • Fortunately Clark was nearby with the keelboat. He ordered it alongside, and nearly everyone jumped overboard to help.
  • As it returned, packed tight with Indians, the swivel gun on the bow of the keelboat banged out two salutes. The reply by the Yanktons was livelier.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
May 13, 1804 - Clark, William
  • As Biddle's interlineations indicate, the crew of the keelboat consisted primarily of those intended at the time for the permanent party to the Pacific (Pacific Ocean) , in the squads of Sergeants Floyd (Floyd, Charles) , Ordway (Ordway, John) , and Pryor (Pryor, Nathaniel Hale) .
  • May 13, 1804
  • Journals
  • Clark, William
November 3, 1804 - Clark, William
  • These five probably returned with the keelboat sent down the Missouri (Missouri River) in April 1805. It is likely but not certain that among them were the ones who wintered at Fort Mandan (Fort Mandan (N.
  • November 3, 1804
  • Journals
  • Clark, William
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • Here, if he was lucky, he might pick up two or three enlisted men who met the exacting qualifications he had in mind—young, unmarried, enduring men, powerfully muscled for the work of pushing the keelboat upstream with oars, setting poles, and tow rope. Much depended on that keelboat.
  • There is some evidence that he had even specified two masts, a highly unusual feature for a keelboat—just as the iron boat he had ordered at Harpers Ferry was unusual in its way.
  • Quite likely he was the one who told Lewis that the keelboat, ordered for July 20, was nowhere near completion. Lewis stormed to the boatyard.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
May 14, 1804 - Ordway, John
  • The composition of the party at this time is discussed in Appendix A. The keelboat (batteaux) is discussed at Lewis's (Lewis, Meriwether) entry for August 30, 1803, and the pirogues are considered at entries for September 4, 1803, and May 13, 1804.
  • May 14, 1804
  • Journals
  • Ordway, John
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • For more than a month the crew had been struggling intermittently and fruitlessly to free the two pirogues and the keelboat from the ice. Initially the captains had feared the accumulation would crush them.
  • To the physical objects they sent downstream on the keelboat they added voluminous reports on the climate, topography, river drainage systems, soil fertility, and Indian cultures of all Upper Louisiana Territory.
  • The captains' diplomacy was showing firm signs of moving ahead, and the keelboat would be well protected if any band of truculent Sioux tried to interfere.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • The men also hauled the unwieldy keelboat partway up the bank and stabilized it with wedges against the fluctuations of the rivers.
  • He drew plans for reconstructing the keelboat and began making a map of the lower Missouri, using material gleaned from Mackay and, presumably, from notes sent him by Lewis.
  • Dissatisfied with the keelboat, he planned to reconstruct it, beginning with a single new mast thirty-two feet tall and jointed at the bottom so it could be lowered.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
August 11, 1806 - Clark, William
  • Somehow Dickson (Dickson, Joseph) was struck by one of these instead of a ball, hard enough to cause some injury. The party sent back in the keelboat under Corporal Richard Warfington (Warfington, Richard) ; see April 7, 1805.
  • August 11, 1806
  • Journals
  • Clark, William
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • For transporting this material he planned on obtaining, at South West Point, a keelboat about sixty feet long, with an eight-ton burden. This would be backed up by a forty-foot "canoe."
  • After his keelboat and pirogue had ascended the Missouri as far as possible, then what?
  • If that proved true, the pirogue (though not the big keelboat) could be carried and skidded across the divide. The pirogue alone, however, might not be enough for moving the men and supplies to the Pacific.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
August 30, 1803 - Lewis, Meriwether
  • As Clark's (Clark, William) drawings show, it was basically a galley, little resembing the classic keelboat of the "Western Waters." It does strongly resemble a Spanish river galley of the 1790s illustrated in Nasatir (SWV), frontispiece—apparently a drawing by Clark (Clark, William) .
  • August 30, 1803
  • Journals
  • Lewis, Meriwether
Lewis & Clark among the Indians 1. The Voyage Begins
  • As the Lewis and Clark flotilla—keelboat and pirogues—rocked against the river current, it represented months of careful preparation.
  • At the same time, other men were detailed to convert the keelboat's main sail into a temporary awning to shield the diplomats from the August sun.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • James P. Ronda
September 20, 1806 - Clark, William
  • Amos Stoddard (Stoddard, Amos) judged them better for shallow water than keelboats. Long, 213 n. 105; Stoddard (Stoddard, Amos) , 303.
  • September 20, 1806
  • Journals
  • Clark, William
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
November 25, 1803 - Lewis, Meriwether
  • Clark (Clark, William) sketched the area, including Tower Rock (Tower Rock) , the Sugar Loaf (Sugar Loaf) , and their keelboat anchored near the shore, on Atlas maps 3a and 3b. Thwaites (JR), 59:143–45; Thwaites (EWT), 14:96–98, 26:89–90.
  • November 25, 1803
  • Journals
  • Lewis, Meriwether
November 22, 1803 - Lewis, Meriwether
  • Probably Charles Findley (Findley, Charles) , who operated a ferry in the area. Houck, 3:61. Keelboats, which had hulls with keels on the bottom, were able to move upstream, unlike flatboats, which were flat bottomed.
  • November 22, 1803
  • Journals
  • Lewis, Meriwether
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • He had given Lewis a plant reputedly useful as an antidote to the bites of rattlesnakes and rabid wolves—a specimen so curious that Lewis had sent it to Jefferson, with a special note, when the keelboat went back down the river in April 1805. During the Corps's recuperative pause at Traveler's Rest, June 30 through July 2, 1806, Lewis composed a long letter to Heney while sitting under a net to protect himself from mosquitos.
  • In a final attempt to sway Le Borgne, the grand chief of Big Hidatsa town, Clark fired off the swivel gun that had once been mounted on the keelboat but had proved unsuited to the white pirogue. He then ceremoniously gave the weapon and some powder to Le Borgne.
  • From the others they learned that, yes, JoeGravelines had taken an Arikara chief downstream on the keelboat in the spring of 1805, as scheduled. Rumor said the chief had died somewhere in the United States; anyway, he had not returned home.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
April 7, 1805 - Lewis, Meriwether
  • The difficulty arises with the anonymous "Frenchmen" on the keelboat and accompanying the boat in a canoe. The two in the canoe are not readily identifiable.
  • April 7, 1805
  • Journals
  • Lewis, Meriwether
Weather, April 1805 - Clark, William; Lewis, Meriwether
  • Dak.)) , when Codex C was apparently sent down the Missouri (Missouri River) with the keelboat. Lewis's (Lewis, Meriwether) Weather Diary has observations and marginal remarks through April 9, but lacks the 4:00 p.m. temperature, weather, and wind observations.
  • Weather, April 1805
  • Journals
  • Clark, William; Lewis, Meriwether
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • The fort would be built in the shape of a triangle, its apex pointing toward the bluff and its open front facing the Missouri, close to the beach where the keelboat and the two pirogues were moored. Decisions about personnel accompanied the decisions about the fort.
  • Perhaps they hoped they would be allowed to catch rides back to St. Louis aboard the keelboat. Because it was too big for use on the upper river, it would be sent downstream after the ice had broken with specimens and reports for President Jefferson.
  • Newman and Reed would also return in the keelboat. Until it left all of them would have plenty of winter work to keep them occupied.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains A Natural History
  • Full-sized replicas of the Lewis and Clark keelboat and a pirogue (both authentically made for an IMAX documentary movie) will also be on display.
  • Chamberlain The Lewis and Clark Keelboat Information Center is a newly finished, state-operated tourist information center located just off I-90 near the bridge crossing Lake Francis Case. The Center is devoted largely to Lewis and Clark, with a somewhat simplified keelboat reconstruction that has been incorporated into the structure of the building itself.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Paul A. Johnsgard
Lewis & Clark among the Indians
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • James P. Ronda
North Dakota Quarterly 71.2 (2004): 6–27.
  • Under the right conditions it could push the keelboat and pirogues against the bottom of the river by way of setting poles.
  • At the end of the winter Meriwether Lewis wrote a letter to his mother Lucy Marks, in which he said, "So far, we have experienced more difficulty from the navigation of the Missouri, than danger from the Savages." It was clear that the great keelboat, fifty-five feet in length, drawing at least three feet of water, could proceed no farther.
  • They would be shipped downriver in the spring, with the keelboat, when it carried reports, specimens, maps, artifacts, and all that was no longer needed back down to St.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Clay S. Jenkinson
Lewis & Clark among the Indians 3. The Arikara Interlude
  • When the expedition resumed its progress up the Missouri River on September 29, Black Buffalo was on board the keelboat while the Partisan was waiting in the wings. Standing on a sandbar, the Partisan and two of his warriors demanded transportation as far as the Arikara villages.
  • In the afternoon the wind picked up and the Missouri suddenly became a choppy lake. Rocking dangerously, the keelboat seemed ready to founder. Black Buffalo, fearing for his life, pleaded to be put ashore.
  • As if to put an exclamation point to Lewis's presentation, three shots were fired from the bow swivel gun on the keelboat. The captains may have hoped the two Sioux would be reminded of how close those guns had come to firing on their warriors just a few days before.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • James P. Ronda
Lewis & Clark among the Indians 4. The Mandan Winter
  • While the men struggled throughout the day with the heavy keelboat, more and more Mandans came to the riverbank to watch what must have seemed an outlandish spectacle.
  • Opposite the Hidatsa village of Mahawha, the keelboat and pirogues were anchored and camp was established. Lewis then took an interpreter, perhaps Jusseaume, and paid a courtesy call at Rooptahee.
  • Their plans gone awry, the captains spent the day entertaining the chiefs who were already there. Tours of the keelboat were conducted for the visiting dignitaries, who promptly pronounced it and York to be "great medicine."
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • James P. Ronda
The Journals of Lewis and Clark: Almost Home
  • For instance, in addition to a general entry on boats, we also pointed readers to specific types of boats mentioned in the text, such as bateaux, bull boats, canoes, keelboats, pirogues, and the iron-frame boat. When entries became too long, we added subcategories.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Gary E. Moulton
Great Plains Quarterly 24:4 (2004): 263–82.
  • The captains met on shore with three chiefs: Black Buffalo, Partisan and Buffalo Medicine, then took them out to the keelboat. When Clark returned the Chiefs to shore, several Tetons attempted to detain him.
  • Eventually, they allowed Clark to return to the keelboat; two of the chiefs went with him. This text attributes the initiation of hostilities to the Tetons with an attempted detainment of Clark, although it notes Black Buffalo was a calming influence.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Kevin S. Blake
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • But Congressman William Dickson of Tennessee, whom he had counted on to arrange for a keelboat and pirogue, had not answered his letters, and Major William McRae, who had been delegated to enlist, on approval, personnel for the expedition, wrote that a sufficient number of qualified men could not be found among the riffraff at the Point.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
Lewis & Clark among the Indians 5. Lewis and Clark as Plains Ethnographers
  • On April 3, 1805, as the expedition was making final preparations for leaving Fort Mandan, Clark drafted a list of all those specimens and samples sent back to St. Louis with Warfington's keelboat crew. Among the boxes, trunks, and cages were a number of objects illustrating Indian life.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • James P. Ronda
Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains A Natural History
  • On August 30, 1804, in what is now western Cedar County, Nebraska, one tried to land on the mast of their keelboat and was captured. It was subsequently given to the local tribe of Yankton Sioux.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Paul A. Johnsgard
Exploring the Explorers: Great Plains Peoples and the the Lewis and Clark Expedition Great Plains Quarterly 13.2 (1993): 81–90
  • In the 1790s Spanish officials briefly experimented with small galleys but nothing could quite compare with the impressive keelboat captained by Lewis and Clark. Here was a river craft unique in design and impressive in size.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • JAMES P. RONDA
Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains A Natural History
  • On August 30, 1804, in what is now western Cedar County, Nebraska, one tried to land on the mast of their keelboat and was captured. It was subsequently given to the local tribe of Yankton Sioux.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Paul A. Johnsgard
Montana 29:3 [1979]: 16–27.
  • More correctly, they reported that the entourage had arrived in three large boats—Lewis and Clark's keelboat and two large pirogues. Under the command of "Captn. Clerk & Captn Lewis" the group was reportedly bound for the Rocky Mountains, but had to winter at the "Mandals."
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • John A. Alwin
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • With no one in charge of the specimens the captains had either sent back down the Missouri on the keelboat from Fort Mandan or had brought with them, the materials became scattered and many were lost.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
J & MC Quarterly 80.4 (2003): 866–883
  • For instance, can the description of the keelboat and the pirogues be amplified? Did the captains meet James Mackay, the former North West Company partner, in person, and if so where and on what occasions?
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Bernard DeVoto
Great Plains Quarterly 4.1 (1984): 54–69.
  • The appurtenances of the trip—knives, tomahawks, fishing gear, weapons, keelboat and canoes, handmade clothing, scientific instruments, and many other items used and collected by the exploring party—would have been of enormous interest and value to the public at that time and to future generations.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Silvio A. Bedini
The Way to the Western Sea Lewis and Clark across the Continent
  • He had been keeping a daily record, the argument runs, but did not feel the material was well enough polished to send to Jefferson with the other items that left Fort Mandan on the keelboat. He hoped to refine the journals and dispatch them to Washington aboard a pirougue scheduled to go downstream from the headwaters of the Missouri.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • David Lavender
Lewis & Clark among the Indians 9. The Way Home
  • Throughout their long voyage Lewis and Clark were always at pains to show as forcefully as possible the military prowess and technological strength of the new republic. Parades, keelboat curiosities, telescopes, mirrors, and the omnipresent airgun were all for that purpose.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • James P. Ronda
Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains A Natural History
  • Besides their basic exploratory party of 28 men, they had added 2 interpreters, including Touissant Charbonneau as well as Sacagawea and her infant son, Baptiste, born only about two months previously. The keelboat and its crew of eleven men were sent back to St. Louis, along with many specimens and artifacts that were destined for Washington DC.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Paul A. Johnsgard
The Men of the Lewis & Clark Expedition The Men of the Lewis & Clark Expedition
  • Both captains reported times when the worries of leadership prevented them from sleeping: William Clark, when the entire crew was required to spend the night on their keelboat, surrounded by hundreds of Teton warriors; Lewis, when he camped near Lemhi Pass with a band of Shoshones, whom he feared were about to abandon him before he could purchase any of their desperately needed horses.
  • Nevertheless, from the unelaborated facts alone a dramatic narrative emerges, one that is chock full of more heart-pounding near misses than most novels of the day would have dared attempt: a crumbling riverbank nearly overwhelms the keelboat; Lewis nearly falls to his death from a cliff; a confrontation with the Teton Sioux nearly turns deadly for both sides; men nearly freeze to death on the northern Plains; buffaloes nearly trample them and grizzly bears nearly catch them; a pirogue containing the most valuable cargo nearly capsizes; the expedition nearly takes a disastrous turn up the wrong river; a violent hailstorm nearly kills some of the men, while a flash flood nearly sweeps Clark to his death; Sacagawea nearly dies from sickness; her people, the Shoshones (with their all-important horses), nearly abandon Lewis; while crossing the Bitterroot Range, nearly lost, everyone nearly starves; the Nez Percés nearly decide to kill rather than befriend the weak and starving strangers; Columbia River cascades and then ocean swells nearly swamp the small flotilla of dugout canoes; Blackfeet warriors nearly leave Lewis and a few companions horseless and gunless in hostile territory;, Lewis is shot and nearly killed in a hunting accident.
  • N.D.
  • Texts
  • Charles G. Clarke

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