Build a Bateau in Buffalo

From Chris Andrle at the Buffalo Maritime Center:

 

The Buffalo Maritime Center began building its first replica War of 1812 Bateau in the winter of 2009-2010. The design was based on plans obtained from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum which had previously built a replica at Fort Ticonderoga. That bateau was completed last year and, after sea trials in the Buffalo Inner Harbor, was sold to a group of boy scouts who shipped it to Montana where it was used to reenact a portion of the 1803 Louis and Clark expedition. That boat currently is housed in the Louis and Clark Museum in Great Falls, Montana.

Using patterns and experience gained from the construction of the first bateau, a second was built during the summer of 2010 by Erie County Workforce Development students under direction of Maritime Center staff at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Servicemen’s Park. That bateau is currently having some minor re-caulking done in the Maritime Center shop in preparation for its second season in the Buffalo Inner Harbor.

Using funds from the sale of the first bateau, the Center is also engaged in the construction of bateau number 3 which will be available for programs and reenactments throughout the War of 1812 bicentennial. Work is being done during regular shop hours 9:00-4:30pm Tuesday through Saturday and also on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Anyone interested in helping out is welcome to stop in or call for more information. From the Buffalo Maritime Center:

The bateau was a double-ended, flat-bottomed, shallow draft work boat uniquely suited to service on the lakes and rivers of North America. First introduced by the French in the 1600s on the St. Lawrence River and later adopted by the British, the bateau is considered the most important American work boat, “the pickup truck of the eighteenth century.” It has been said that the military bateau literally determined the course of history in the New World.

In addition to service in the War of 1812, bateaux were also used in the salt trade on the Niagara River. Porter, Barton & Co. ran them regularly from Fort Schlosser to Black Rock on the American side and the Canadians ran them from Chippewa to Fort Erie on the Canadian side. In Buffalo, they were used as lighters, transferring cargo from lake schooners anchored offshore. They were the only boats, other than bark canoes, that could cross the sandbar and enter Buffalo Creek prior to the creation of the harbor in 1820. These bateaux were also used in the lake during this time period. They traveled along the south shore of Lake Erie from Buffalo to Detroit using crude sails, oars and poles. They usually hugged the shore so that they could take shelter in the nearest creek in event of bad weather.

Bateaux would have been seen traveling up and down the Niagara River during most of the period of French and British control, but commercial use by Americans did not begin until after 1796 when the British ceded control of Western New York and transferred Fort Niagara. They continued in use up until the 1820s when they disappeared due to several factors. In some cases, they were replaced by the use of larger, more efficient Schenectady boats and Durham boats. The opening of harbors such as the one in Buffalo in 1820 allowed the use of still larger, decked schooners and sloops on the lakes and ended the lightering business. The opening of roads and turnpikes, and ultimately, the Erie Canal in 1825 ended their use on the route between Albany and the Niagara Frontier.