Mr. Crandal told how the crew of a boat worked, and how the boats were built. There were grain or freight pits forward and aft. Also forward and aft were bunks, four behind and two or three forward. The four bunks aft were for the two drivers and the two stern men who steered the boat. The trick was six hours on and six hours off, a day and night. The stern men stood against the tiller or lounged against it for six long hours, and then turned in for a rest of six hours. The driver was with his mules or horses on the tow path for six hours. Then driver and horses would enter the boat. The horses occupied a barn amidships.

As you may know, my old home where I lived all my young life, was near the canal, where the Tipton street school house now stands, and I had all the opportunities imaginable to know the canal boats, from the better class of white painted craft to the old dingy open stone boats."

Have you had any description of the makeup of a canal boat? You may have known how they looked outside, but have you any knowledge of the inner arrangement?

Immediately under the floor in the stern of the boat where the steersman stood, was a small cabin, lined at both ends with bunks where the boatmen slept. This was entered from the combined cook and dining cabin, which was reached from the deck by a very narrow straight steep ladder-like stairway. These cabins stretched crosswise of the boat, which might have been around fifteen feet wide. Next to the cook cabin, on the other side, was one of the "midships" where the lading of the boat was stored - grain, lumber etc. Then came the stable in the middle of the boat, up and down the gang bridge the animals had to scamper- they always went on the jump. Next came another "midships" like the first, and last of all, in the pointed bow, down though another hatchway and steep narrow stairway was the Captains cabin. This was fitted up with bunks at one end and a locker at the other, carpet, curtains and a little furniture made it quite cozy.
Huntington Herald, Sat. July 7, 1928 Letter to J. Bippus from M. Hawley

You cannot imagine how tedious this way of traveling is. You creep along like a snail in perfect silence. There are two horses to our boat now, but we go slower, I think. Our present driver is a little red-headed man, not larger than a twelve-year-old Kentucky boy. He never curses, but he smokes a pipe all the time. I can smell the dirty thing just as strongly as if I were walking by his side. He wears no coat and has but one suspender, a dingy blue, over his red shirt, slanting across his back. He appears to be well acquainted with every person that comes along, and always has something smart to say. He is dreadfully bow-legged, and he steps farther with one foot than the other.
Stories of Indiana. Thompson. p 221 "Extract from a private letter written 1851.

The most disagreeable part of this kind of traveling is, next after the sleeping, the eating. You know how I like good things to eat. Well, just imagine the dining room on one of our river packets, and then turn to my canal boat "salle a manger." To get to it from the cabin, I have to climb up a ladder through a hole in the top of the boat, then go down through another hole into a suffocating box. The table is horrid, so is the cooking. Pork and bread, bread and pork, then some greasy fish, mackerel, and bitter coffee lukewarm, three times each day. I am raving hungry all the time, and nothing fit to eat. It makes me violently angry to see Tom gorge like a pig, and pretend that stewed beans and catfish are delicious.
Stories of Indiana. Thompson. p 221 "Extract from a private letter written 1851.

The Captain occupied a bunk forward, and so did the bowsman to take the boat through the locks. He snubbed the boat with a rope as she entered the lock to prevent her butting her nose against the forward end of the lock, damaging it. The Captain often acted as bowsman.
Huntington Press, Sun. Oct. 16, 1921. AA Crandal recounts his time on the canal.

The cost of passage on a line boat which provided neither sleeping accommodations nor food for its patrons was small, often but fifty cents a day.
The History of Travel in America. Seymour Dunbar. 1915.

Fare on the line boats was about 1 1/2 cents a mile, as against 3 of 4 cents on the packets.
Old Towpaths. Alvin F, Harlow 1926 D. Appleton Co.

A cent and a half a mile, mile and a half an hour....! I say nothing about 'the good old times': but if anyone would recall the good old line boats, I object.
Recollections of a busy life. Horace Greeley. 1869

The slower freight boat, called line boat, carried its mules on board, the driver steering them by the tail on and off over a gangway stored on the roof between times. Generally towed by only one or two, the freighter ambled along at about two miles an hour with a cargo up to eighty tons or more. Freight boats often carried a few passengers at a low fare, usually migrating settlers who bedded-down on deck and found their food at towns and farms.

Cargo carriers had prosaic names, like John Green, W.H. Hill, S.J. Johnson, and their skippers were indifferent to the spit and polish of a taut ship.

An owner and his family who lived aboard the year around gave a freighter he appearance of comfortable domesticity, washing flapping on the line, potted plants adorning the roof of the after cabin, several children scampering about, a dog or two, pigs grunting in a pen among a clutter of bales and casks. Workaday craft had no dash, but they attracted idle people on the wharf.
Indiana Canals. Paul Fatout. Purdue University Press 1972

A single horse pulls our vessel, and the loutish boy who manages him has hair that is as white as tow. It looks as though he had never combed it. He chews tobacco and swears at his horse; but yet he seems good natured, and he sings between oaths some very doleful hymns, alternating with love songs of a lively cast. Sometimes the horse pokes along; sometimes the boy makes it trot for a short while.
Stories of Indiana. Thompson. p 218 "Extract from a private letter written 1851.

The boats were drawn by two horses hitched to a heavy rope probably two hundred feet long. This line was not fastened to the front of the boat as you would surmise, but well back at the center, thus giving full control of the boat to the steersman as to the course he wished to travel. The horses always traveled very slowly and were changed at regular intervals. The extra team being carried along in apartments on the boat for this purpose. The boats traveled at five miles an hour, so if a boat laden with wheat or other freight left the warehouse at Roanoke, it reached its destination at Toledo in from eight to ten days, this being the nearest market.
Roanoke History Dr. S. Koontz. Roanoke Review, 1921

Line boats were often crowded with immigrants coming West, who with their plunder and children, more or less stoically endured the crowded conditions and slow progress.
The Old Northwest 1815-1840. Buley. p. 507

A line boat somewhat resembled in its function a modern second-class railroad car or railroad train. That is to say, it moved more slowly and was not equipped with such attention to the comfort of its occupants as were those boats designed for the other sort of patronage. Usually, though not invariably, a line boat supplied its passengers with neither bedding nor food, and it advanced at about two or two and a half miles an hour.
The history of Travel in America. Seymour Dunbar. 1915.

The canal service provided three varieties of boats. First the line or freight boats that were intended to carry freight and families with their cargoes of household goods and proved a very pleasant mode of travel as the passengers could occupy the deck during the day and when night came could retire to the cabin and go to their hammock suspended from the ceiling by means of strong hooks and slumber through the night as there was not a jar to disturb ones tranquillity, if however, they could exclude the languages of the driver while urging his horses to increase speed. This unfortunately was not always selected from the choicest divine authority!
Roanoke History Dr. S. Koontz. Roanoke Review, 1921

We had reached a little town where the boat had some business, putting off many barrels and sacks, and taking on more." I was glad to get up and hurry on my clothes and climb out on top of the boat. I saw some queer-looking people. Men, women, and children came down to the little plank wharf to stand around and gaze. Such clothes! the women looked strangely vacant and ignorant; but some of the young ones were dressed in a way that made them show off. Red calico was most conspicuous. They all wore pink sub bonnets. The children had apparently never combed their heads or washed their noses.
Stories of Indiana. Thompson. p 220 "Extract from a private letter written 1851.

As you may know, my old home where I lived all my young life, was near the canal, where the Tipton street school house now stands, and I had all the opportunities imaginable to know the canal boats, from the better class of white painted craft to the old dingy open stone boats."

Have you had any description of the makeup of a canal boat? You may have known how they looked outside, but have you any knowledge of the inner arrangement?
Immediately under the floor in the stern of the boat where the steersman stood, was a small cabin, lined at both ends with bunks where the boatmen slept. This was entered from the combined cook and dining cabin, which was reached from the deck by a very narrow straight steep ladder-like stairway. These cabins stretched crosswise of the boat, which might have been around fifteen feet wide. Next to the cook cabin, on the other side, was one of the "midships" where the lading of the boat was stored - grain, lumber etc. Then came the stable in the middle of the boat, up and down the gang bridge the animals had to scamper- they always went on the jump. Next came another "midships" like the first, and last of all, in the pointed bow, down though another hatchway and steep narrow stairway was the Captains cabin. This was fitted up with bunks at one end and a locker at the other, carpet, curtains and a little furniture made it quite cozy.
Huntington Herald, Sat. July 7, 1928 Letter to J. Bippus from M. Hawley

You cannot imagine how tedious this way of traveling is. You creep along like a snail in perfect silence. There are two horses to our boat now, but we go slower, I think. Our present driver is a little red-headed man, not larger than a twelve-year-old Kentucky boy. He never curses, but he smokes a pipe all the time. I can smell the dirty thing just as strongly as if I were walking by his side. He wears no coat and has but one suspender, a dingy blue, over his red shirt, slanting across his back. He appears to be well acquainted with every person that comes along, and always has something smart to say. He is dreadfully bow-legged, and he steps farther with one foot than the other.
Stories of Indiana. Thompson. p 221 "Extract from a private letter written 1851.

The most disagreeable part of this kind of traveling is, next after the sleeping, the eating. You know how I like good things to eat. Well, just imagine the dining room on one of our river packets, and then turn to my canal boat "salle a manger." To get to it from the cabin, I have to climb up a ladder through a hole in the top of the boat, then go down through another hole into a suffocating box. The table is horrid, so is the cooking. Pork and bread, bread and pork, then some greasy fish, mackerel, and bitter coffee lukewarm, three times each day. I am raving hungry all the time, and nothing fit to eat. It makes me violently angry to see Tom gorge like a pig, and pretend that stewed beans and catfish are delicious.
Stories of Indiana. Thompson. p 221 "Extract from a private letter written 1851.