Canal Boats

During the spring of 1918 the Washington Evening Star and several citizens' groups in the Potomac Valley advocated government control of the canal as a means of increasing coal shipments to Washington and thereby relieving congestion on the railroads. The proposal was endorsed by an Inland Waterways Commission survey ordered by William Gibbs McAdoo, who had been appointed as director general of the railroads and coastwise and intercoastal shipping when they were temporarily nationalized on January 1, 1918.

The canal in western Washington County. The photograph was taken from the Washington County Free Library bookmobile on its trips around the county.

A crowd of people stand on the deck of the Canal Towage boat 67, tied up along the canal.

Wharfs were designed to facilitate the loading and unloading of canal boats and grew up along the line of the canal wherever the need emerged to transship cargo from land to boat or visa versa. Typically the wharfs would be on the berm of the canal, and consisted of a stone wall and other facilities for the storage and transfer of cargoes.

... Business is quite brisk upon the Canal; our merchants are anxious to get off every thing in the shape of produce, as soon as they can, in anticipation of "Jack Frost," whose annual visitation may be calculated upon ere long. We understand that the completion of the Canal to Cumberland is now reduced to a certainty; and, that that desirable event will certainly be brought about some time between this and the opening of the spring trade.

In addition to the canal freight boats, a variety of other craft plied the waters of the canal. Among them were excursion and recreational boats, various kinds of work boats used for canal maintenance, and sometimes even rafts. This small launch—the Viking from Washington, DC—may have been a private recreational boat or a boat used by the company operating the canal for its paymaster and administrative officials.

The man standing is Tom Mouse, according to Hooper Wolfe. Mouse was a Level Walker and repaired the tow path between Dam 5 and Big Pool. A Tom Mouse (Maus) was also listed as lockkeeper at Lock 45 and 46 (Hahn).

A laden canal boat makes its way downstream while a man is at the tiller steering and children play on the deck above the cabin.

The canal would run freight from around mid-March to mid-December and often captains would employ the help of their children, both boys and girls. Children’s chores would include driving mules, steering, cleaning the stable and the cabin and whatever else they were capable of doing around the boat.

This picture is of a light (empty) boat heading back up the canal in order to bring another load down to Georgetown. The person steering the boat is probably either the wife or daughter of the boat captain. Steering the boat was generally the job of the wife or children of the boat captain since it was a relatively easy job to do. Women were generally able to lean against the tiller and sew or wash at the same time.