A Respectable Fleet

Beginning on May 13, 1804, the Corps of Discovery traveled nearly eight thousand miles, mostly by water, using several kinds of boats. A keelboat built near Pittsburgh in 1803 was fifty-five feet long, nearly eight feet wide, drew nearly three feet of water, carried a thirty-two-foot mast, and could transport twelve to fourteen tons of freight and men. The white pirogue, thirty-nine feet long and manned by a detachment of six soldiers, was caged at the Great Falls, later recovered, and used for the return trip to St. Louis. A red pirogue, forty-one feet long, initially carried seven or eight French engagés hired as hunters and boatmen, but after being cached near the Marias River it was badly damaged and could not be used on the return trip to St. Louis. In February and early March 1805, soldiers under Sergeant Patrick Gass built six large dugout canoes from cottonwood trees cut five miles west of the original site of Fort Mandan to help carry the permanent party to the source of the Missouri River; these dugouts ranged from twenty-seven to thirty-three feet in length.

North Dakota · United States