Any place in the united states today if we look out at any normal highway
even a parking lot we see it full of cars and pickup trucks motorcycles tractor trailer rigs
all kinds of vehicles they're crowded on the roadways. Imagine two or three hundred years
ago if you would have looked out onto a normal waterway a river a lake a bay and it was just
as crowded just as crowded with small vehicles and large vehicles. That's what
it was like two and three hundred years ago that many boats on the waterways.
Water travel was incredibly important to the 13 colonies all that part of the eastern part
of North America it was very difficult to travel by roads. Ground transport was just
it was kind of almost impossible they had very very primitive vehicles
wagons horses oxen. They had nothing but simple dirt and basically mud
roads. And the waterways were great it was like a a huge transportation network that was already
there it was built in when the colonists came to North America. There were these beautiful bays
the rivers inlets we had just all sorts of traffic even all these wonderful navigable
creeks that go up into the interior. In fact those those creeks and rivers and bays made it
hard for the ground transport. So today you know we we think about all these cars and
you know buses and the way people get around but in the our time period in the 18th century
boats were the way to go all these waterways were the super highway of getting anywhere.
There's a wonderful comparison there's a journal written in 1704 by a woman called Madam Knight and
she traveled from Boston to New Haven Connecticut and then to New York and she traveled by ground.
It took her five days to get from Boston to New Haven and she had trouble the entire way. She went
mostly alone she traveled by horseback the roads were terrible. She had to ford rivers she had to
find guides because regular people didn't know where you were going you couldn't find your way
easily. She didn't have a place to stay when she stopped she complained non-stop and again it took
her five days just to get to New Haven. Fifteen years later Benjamin Franklin is taking almost
that exact same trip he's going from Boston to New York a little bit further on down.
He travels by ship he goes around takes him three days no problem he had a relaxing trip had fun
the entire way. It's just this wonderful example and of course today well you'd go by road and take
you four hours maybe five hours if it was bad traffic it's just a really really interesting
comparison. Traveling by sea traveling by any of these waterways is actually incredibly
efficient takes very little energy to move yourself along by water.
Now we do use some wonderful water transport today mostly giant cargo goods right we get
huge container ships coming from overseas coming to our ports we also have grain barges
that move up and down the Mississippi and the Ohio river but we don't take advantage
of the wonderful water transport that we have here in North America we rely very very heavily
on our roads now because of course we're going all the way into the interior.
If we look out on the highway today we're going to see every kind of vehicle possible right from
motorcycles up to tractor trailer rigs and hey the same thing is happening in the 18th century
you'll see single man canoes dug out canoes being taken by people going from one place to another
maybe hauling goods even in a tiny canoe like that you're gonna have little boats like this
bateaus as they would call them in the time period uh as small as this and all the way up to 30 or 40
feet long. You'll have schooners you'll have brigs two masted brigs three masted ships going all the
way up into the rivers to deliver goods to cities further up the rivers. We have so many wonderful
inlets and rivers in North america it's amazing compared to other parts of the world we have a
plethora of waterways that we can use that are navigable all the way up into the interior
even the Wabash river uh is navigable way up into Indiana so it's kind of amazing
the rich transport that was available to everyone here in North America in the 18th century.
It's one of the reasons why it was such a rich area and could be settled way up into the interior
because roads are very difficult to make and can you imagine you know cutting roads through the
very very rugged interior with you know hills and mountains and it being timbered
the entire way with gigantic trees very difficult
to make roads and yet the rivers are right there you can use them and move even quite heavy
goods way up hundreds of miles into the interior of the continent.
As somebody who's sailed in small boats for more than 35 years I yearn for the day when small boat
sailing is more than just simple pleasure I think it's such an amazing way for getting transport
and we have such amazing resources so who knows maybe it's in our future. Thank you for coming
along today as as we take this little little boat trip into the past, thanks for watching.