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Large loads, 1850

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About
Canal Boats

Media Items

Media Items
Media Items
ItemID
wcco254
IDEntry
6471
Creator
Herald of Freedom
Rights
Public domain
Date
1850-03-27
Collection Location
Washington County Free Library
Coverage
Maryland, 1830-1940
Body

Large loads

Two of the largest loads received by Canal Boats at Georgetown, were brought upon the "Jacob Snively" and the "H. Allen", the former loaded with 981 barrels and the latter with 850.

Notes

The contents of the barrels is unknown, but it is possible that they contained cement from the Shepherdstown Cement mill. From Cement Mills along the Potomac River by Kemp and Hahn (1994): "Assuming the weight of a Shepherdstown barrel of cement, including the barrel, to be 315 pounds, the cargo of the boat would have been about 126.5 long tons. The cargo of a coal carrying boat was normally about 115 tons, although in early December 1895 the cement company received a load of coal of 125 tons. Thus a load of 900 barrels of cement seems to be representative of a fully loaded boat."

In 1842 a Jacob Snively bought a warehouse and tract connected near Hancock. (See Lawyers Reports Annotated, 1908, Google Books).