Building the St. Helena II: Rebirth of a Nineteenth-Century Canal Boat

Appendix C: Transcript of Recorded Lecture Played on the St. Helena II

Appendix C Transcript of recorded lecture played on the St. Helena II on July 11, 1970 TheStarkCountyHistoricalSocietywelcomesyouaboardtheSt.Helena IIofCanalFulton.Inthenextforty-fiveminutes,wewouldliketotakeyou 2½ miles and 140 years back into history, when the Ohio canals opened the state to commerce, industry, and settlers. Your next forty-five minutes will be spent on this original portion of the Ohio-Erie Canal, which was begun on July 4, 1825. When completed, it stretched 309 miles from ClevelandonLakeErietoPortsmouthontheOhioRiver,passingthrough Peninsula, Akron, Canal Fulton, Massillon, Bolivar, Dover (then Canal Dover),Roscoe,Dresden,Newark,Lockbourne,Circleville,Chillicothe, andWaverly—tonamejustafewtowns.ItconnectedtothePennsylvania & Ohio Canal at Akron, which went to New Castle via Kent, Ravenna, Warren,andYoungstown;withtheSandy&BeaverCanalatBolivar,which wenttoMariettaviaZanesvilleandMcConnelsville;withtheWalhonding Canal at Roscoe leading to Brinkhaven; with the Hocking Valley Canal at Carroll, leading to Athens via Lancaster, Logan, Nelsonville; and to Columbus by feeder canal. It is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the task of building the Ohio canals. To traverse the state across the summit near Akron, a height of 390 feet above Lake Erie, 152 locks were required. Lock 4, which you are about to visit, is the fourth lock south of the summit. The canal route . 144 . Gantz text.indb 144 6/25/12 3:09 PM had to be carefully selected to provide a constant water supply, and the canal beds excavated to an average four-foot depth; twenty-six feet wide at the bottom, and forty feet wide at the surface. The approximate cost of building the canal was $4½ million. Canal boats used were generally of two types; passenger boats, called “packets,” and freight barges. Packets, patronized by the wealthy, could travelthe309-miledistancefromClevelandtoPortsmouthineightyhours, at a cost of about 4 cents per mile. They had a single cabin enclosure the lengthoftheboat,andaccommodatedaboutonehundredpeople.Freight bargeswerealsousedforlesswealthypassengers.Inaddition,theycarried fiftytoeightytonsofcargo,suchaslumber,stone,wheat,orcoal.Thefare andproposedspeedadvertisedtopassengerswas“acentandahalfamile, and a mile and a half an hour.” St. Helena II is authentically designed to represent a typical freight barge.Sheissixtyfeetonthekeelandthirteenfeetwide,weighingtwenty tons empty and drawing eighteen inches of water. Her framing timbers, keel,hull,anddeckingareallsolidwhiteoak.Heraftcabinoriginallywas used as the traveling home of the captain and his family. There you will find a cook stove, serving counter, generous bunk, and cupboard space. The stable cabin where you boarded was originally used for mules. There youcanseefeedbinsandagrainstoragecompartment.Theforwardcabin was intended for crew or passengers. It contains a bunk and potbelly stove. The decks where you are seated were originally cargo holds, and wereusuallypiledhighwithwheat,lumber,orstone.Thesquarewooden structures near the cabins are pump wells, used to bail out excess water from the bilge with a pump. Becauseofthecargo,thecrewandpassengershadtowalktheoverhead catwalks to enter the cabins. Overhead hatches, and ladders in the fore and aft cabins show how this was done. The capstan, located on top of the center cabin, is used to raise and lower the gangplank. This, as well appendix c 145 Gantz text.indb 145 6/25/12 3:09 PM as all fittings on the boat, was handmade by volunteers in a makeshift blacksmith shop. The captain’s position is on the tiller deck at the stern. The crew is on the fore-deck at the bow to spot danger and to help turn the boat with pike poles. Two mules on the towpath are hitched tandem to the 150foot tow rope, which is attached to a fitting on the forward cabin called a deadeye.Themuledriveronshorecontrolsthemules.Muleswerechosen becauseoftheirhighenduranceandlowmaintenance.Twotothreewere used, depending on the weight of the cargo. Speed was limited to four milesperhourtopreventerosionofthebanks.Navigationrulesrequired that packets had precedence over cargo boats. Also, when boats met, the downstream boat stopped and let its tow rope sink to the bottom, giving the upstream boat the right of way. Boats generally cost from $2,000 to $4,000 each, including mules ($50,000 to $100,000 in 2010 dollars). St. Helena II was built over a 3½-year period. Starting in the winter of 1967, oak trees were felled to provide timbers, and the keel was laid in 1967 on the bank across from the Park dock. By spring of 1968, the framing was completed and hull planking was begun. The 1½ -inch thick oak hull planks were boiled, bent, and spiked to the frames. During the winter of 1968–1969, planking was completed under a plastic shelter, and the seams were caulked with oakum and cotton. July 1969 saw the hull lifted and rolled into the canal for splashdown. Work on the decks and cabins continued through the winter of...