Ark (river boat)
The boats used during the early years on the Lehigh consisted of square boxes, or arks, from sixteen to eighteen feet wide, and about twenty-five feet long. At first two of these were joined together by means of hinges, to permit of the undulations produced in passing the dams and sluices. As the men became more expert in their work and as the channel was straightened and improved, the number of sections was increased till, finally, their whole length reached one hundred and eighty feet. They were steered with long oars, like a raft. Boats of this description were used on the Lehigh to the end of the year 1831. During that year more than forty thousand tons of coal passed down the river, which required the building of so many boats that, had they all been joined in one length, they would have extended over a distance of more than thirteen miles. — Fred Brenckman, Official Historian of Pennsylvania, History of Carbon County (1884) Upon arrival, the cargo was sold, the ark was dismantled and its lumber was also sold, and the ark pilots returned home on foot or horseback.
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