Durham Boats
Durham Boats
DURHAM BOATS. Developed to carry iron ore, grain, whiskey, and other bulk freight between Philadelphia and the northern counties of New Jersey, they ranged between forty and sixty feet in length, were eight feet wide, and drew only twenty inches of water when fully loaded. The largest could carry fifteen tons. They could be sailed or poled. William S. Stryker describes them as being "like large canoes,… usually painted black, pointed at each end, and manned by four or five men" (Battles of Trenton and Princeton, p. 129). Washington used them in his attack on Trenton on 26 December 1776.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stryker, William S. Battles of Trenton and Princeton. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1898. Reprint, Spartanburg, S.C: Reprint Company, 1967.