Packet boats were small boats designed for domestic mail, passenger and freight transportation in Europe and its colonies, including North American rivers and canals. They were extensively used for much of the 18th century and in the 19th century, and featured regularly scheduled service.

When ships were put into such service in the 18th century across the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 between Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and the colonies, services were called the packet trade

Packet trade

Packet trade generally refers to any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by ship. The ships are called "packet boats" as their original function was to carry mail.-United States:...

.

History

Packet craft were used so extensively in European coastal mail services since the 17th century, such as the Dutch service to Batavia in 1670s, that by the second decade they are even found to be a subject of Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...

's story Sail in packet-boat to Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

. In England the King maintained a weekly packet service with the continent and Ireland using 15 packet vessels. Their importance was evident in the Rose Hill Packet

Rose Hill Packet

The Rose Hill Packet named after the little packet boats, was a marine craft built in Australia, launched in Sydney Cove in September and commissioned on the 5 October 1789, intended for running the first Parramatta River trade ferry, passenger, cargo, and mail service between the Cove and the...

 becoming the first craft built in the colony of New South Wales in 1789. In North America, when the Erie Canal

Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...

 opened in New York state in 1825 along the Mohawk River

Mohawk River

The Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...

, demand quickly rose for travelers to be accommodated.

Over the two centuries of the sailing packet craft development, they came in various rig configurations which included: schooners, sloops, cutters, brigs, brigantines, luggers, feluccas, galleys, xebecs, barques and their ultimate development in the clipper ships. Earlier they were also known as dispatch boats, but the service was also provided by privateers during time of war, and on occasion chartered private yachts. News of "record passages" was eagerly awaited by the public, and the craft's captain and crew were often celebrated in the press. Behind this search for sailing faster than the wind

Sailing faster than the wind

Devices that are powered by sails can sail faster than the wind. Such devices cannot do this when sailing dead downwind using simple square sails that are set perpendicular to the wind, but they can achieve speeds greater than wind speed by setting sails at an angle to the wind and by using the...

 however lay the foundations for a development in naval architecture and its science which would serve until the appearance of the steam vessels.

The American canal packet boats were typically narrow (about 14 feet) to accommodate canals, but might be 70–90 feet long. In the cabin space they could carry up to 60 passengers. Unlike sailing European and American that sought to attain greater speed under sail, the canal packet boats were drawn through the Erie Canal by teams of two or three horses or mules. Compared to overland travel, the boats cut journey time in half and were much more comfortable. Travelers could get from New York City to Buffalo in ten days, with a combination of sailing and packet boats. Some passengers took the boats to see both the Erie Canal and the natural landscapes. Significantly, thousands of others used packet boats to emigrate to Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 and other parts of the Midwest. These boats were also instrumental in the settling of and travel within Upstate New York

Upstate New York

Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...

 through the branch canals such as the Chenango Canal

Chenango Canal

The Chenango Canal was a towpath canal that was built and operated in the mid-19th century in Upstate New York in the United States. It was 97 miles long and for much of its course followed the Chenango River, from Binghamton on the south end to Utica on the north end...

.
Packet boats were also popular along the James River and Kanawha Canal

James River and Kanawha Canal

The James River and Kanawha Canal was a canal in Virginia, which was built to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast....

 in Virginia, allowing travel beyond the falls upriver.

In 1863, during the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, the packet boat Marshall carried the body of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson

Stonewall Jackson

ຄຽשת״ׇׂׂׂׂ֣|birth_place= Clarksburg, Virginia |death_place=Guinea Station, Virginia|placeofburial=Stonewall Jackson Memorial CemeteryLexington, Virginia|placeofburial_label= Place of burial|image=...

 from Lynchburg

Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...

 to his home in Lexington, Virginia

Lexington, Virginia

Lexington is an independent city within the confines of Rockbridge County in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 7,042 in 2010. Lexington is about 55 minutes east of the West Virginia border and is about 50 miles north of Roanoke, Virginia. It was first settled in 1777.It is home to...

for burial.

Photographs and Pictures

• Packetboat on PA Canal http://www.muncyhistoricalsociety.org/images/packetboat.jpg
• Packet boat on canal, drawing, at http://www.chenango.history.museum/civilwarpic.jpg
• Woodcut print at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nychenan/ann-p224.gif
• 19th century canalboat at http://www.drenthe.nl/publish/pages/11276/canalboat.jpg
• 19th century drawing of canalboat, towpath, at http://dnr.state.il.us/orep/cultural/canalboat/images/print.jpg
• 1875 photo of Olive, canal freighter, at http://web.ncf.ca/es568/steamerolivebuilt1875.jpg
• Canal boatyard, boatbuilding, at http://www.akronhistory.org/images/SCAN0458canal.JPG
• Numerous typical canal scenes at http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.akronhistory.org/images/SCAN0458canal.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.akronhistory.org/canals.htm&usg=__2_uYe6jIxRkGcfhIrOY3aV6ZqZQ=&h=712&w=1000&sz=122&hl=en&start=40&tbnid=RTY0S8GOks4jPM:&tbnh=106&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq%3D19th%2Bcentury%2Bcanal%2Bboat%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGIT_en%26sa%3DN%26start%3D36
• Canalboat woodcut http://www.canalmuseum.org/images/canalboat-tr-380.gif
• Driver and team http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EOPl_jEi67o/SEQu_LHY8sI/AAAAAAAAA3Q/ubKA3AHKUw8/s400/Saturn+with+horse.jpg