DCHP-3

bateau

[< F bateau]
Hist.
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Spelling variants:
batto(e)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1n.

a boat such as a sloop or large rowboat.

Quotations

1760
In going up they are obliged to half unload their battoes. . . .
1785
When he goes to Quebec, it's generally in a bateau of his own, which he prefers to calashes.
1840
All Passengers [are] to pay their own Ferriage while crossing in Bateaus.
2n.

a flat-bottomed cargo and passenger boat about 30 feet long, tapered to bow and stern, drawing little water, and propelled by oars, poles, or a sail, originally designed for the treacherous river route between Upper and Lower Canada.

Quotations

1765
To Sundry Expences . . . Viz.: postage by Landhire or Batteaus.
1806
Bateaux, and canoes, convey to Upper Canada . . . the European commodities they want.
1963
Upper Canada village near Morrisburg, Ontario, offers . . . an exciting trip by bateau through "the first lock canal in all of North America."
3n.

a clumsy, flat-bottomed boat about 19 feet long between tapered ends, propelled by oars, crewed by six men, and capable of carrying about 4,000 pounds of cargo. This prototype for the York boat was widely used throughout the northwest until recent years.

Quotations

1781
They had coverings . . . to keep their Goods dry in their Battaux or Canoes.
1938
In . . . summer [I travelled] by birch-bark canoe, York boat and bateau. . . .
1963
Leaving King to bring up the heavy bateaux, Back and McLeod hurried on by canoe. . . .
4n.

an inland freight boat, descended from the bateau, in common use from the early 1820's but used for tripping as early as 1790, and finally withdrawn from service entirely about 1930. See picture at York boat.

Quotations

1859
The Hudson's Bay Company's batteau, with a valuable cargo, for Fort Yale, was crushed in the ice, below Six Tree Shoot, about ten days ago.
1898
Twelve large Battoes [York boats] were sent from Fort Garry to convey the troops up the River. Each boat had 8 men as a crew--6 oarsmen, one to steer with a long oar, and one at the bow with a long pole and hook with which to shove her clear of a rock ahead or with the hook to catch hold of anything.
1960
For these men it wasn't a pleasant Sunday drive over a black macadam ribbon, but a two-day trudge with heavy "batteaux."

Images

Caption unavailable