Editing Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (section)

===Boatmen and boat families===
The boatmen (usually with their families) were a rough independent lot, forming a class within themselves, and intermarrying within their own group. They frequently fought amongst each other for any reason, be it racial slurs (real or perceived), precedence at a lock, or for exercise. They fought with lockkeepers over company rules, or even with the company for changes in toll rates. During winter when the boats were tied up, they often lived in their own communities away from others.<ref name="Unrau p. 806">[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p. 806</ref> One boat captain observed that on the canal, women and children were as good as the men, and if it weren't for the children, the canal wouldn't run one day.<ref name="Unrau p. 818">[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p. 818</ref>

On April 2, 1831, Daniel Van Slyke reported:

<blockquote>it is with great difficulty we have been able to preserve order among the boatmen, who in striving to push forward for a preference in passing the several locks are sometimes dis-posed to injure each other's boats as a means of carrying their point. An unfortunate in-stance of this kind happened on Wednesday last at the locks on the 9th section. A strongly constructed boat ran her bow against a gondola loaded with flour, and so much injured her as to render it necessary to transship the load. But no damage was done to the cargo.<ref name="Unrau p. 806"/></blockquote>

One notorious incident occurred in May 1874 when George Reed of the ''Mayfield and Heison'' was fined $20 for mooring his boat illegally in the Cumberland Basin. He refused to pay the fine. At Lock 74, he forced his way past the lockkeepers who tried to prevent him from continuing, and he was given an additional fine of $50. He continued (without paying), forced his way through the locks at Harpers Ferry and Lock 5, until Georgetown, where he was served notice for $120 in fees plus $4.08 for the waybill. When he got back to Cumberland, his boat was confiscated until he paid the whole $124.08.<ref>[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p. 810</ref>

Recklessness among the boatmen was common. Many accidents were due to excessive speed. Aqueduct #3 (Catoctin) had a sharp bend at the upstream end, had been the site of a number of collisions from boatmen going too fast. In July 1855, a freight boat collided with a packet boat which sank. One of the most frequent problems was careless boatmen in their rush to lock through, hitting lock gates.<ref name="Unrau p. 811"/>

Many of the men, particularly boat captains, said they knew nothing else [except boating]. One woman said, "The children are brought up on the boat and don't know nothin' else, and that is the only reason they take up 'boating'. Boys work for their fathers until they are big enough to get a boat of their own, and it's always easy to get a boat."<ref>Springer, Ethel M. Canal Boat Children. U.S. Department of Labor, 1923. {{cite web|url=http://www.whilbr.org/assets/uploads/CanalBoatChildren.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-07-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605051643/http://www.whilbr.org/assets/uploads/CanalBoatChildren.pdf |archive-date=2014-06-05 }} p.5</ref>

====Hours and wages====
Fifteen hours a day was the minimum, 18 hours were the most frequently reported, according to the [[United States Department of Labor|U.S. Department of Labor]]. Boatman said, "It never rains, snows, or blows for a boatman, and a boatman never has no Sundays." and, "We don't know it's Sunday, till we see some folks along the way, dressed up and a-gin' to Sunday School."<ref name="Springer p. 6">Springer p. 6</ref>

Captains were paid per trip, receiving $70 to $80 per trip in the 1920s, and receiving less than $1,250 per year. Deck hands were paid $12 to $20 per trip, sometimes receiving clothes in lieu of wages or for part of their wages.<ref>Springer p. 8</ref>

The boating season ran from approximately March until December, with the canal drained during winter months to prevent damage from ice<ref>Springer p. 4</ref> and also for repairs.

====Women====
Women attended to household chores, steered boats, and gave birth on the boats, although if possible, a midwife would be secured if they were near a town. After birth, the journey would resume, with the man handling the chores including cooking. Often if the husband died, the widow would continue managing and operating the boat.<ref name="Unrau p. 819">[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p. 819</ref> Women often served as lock tenders also.<ref>[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p. 765</ref> One mother had 14 children, all born on boats, and never had a physician attending.<ref name="Springer p. 11">Springer p. 11</ref>

====Children====
[[Image:Children on C and O Canal Boat in Cumberland.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Children tethered to canal boat. This photo was probably taken in one of the Cumberland basins.]]
The U.S. Department of Labor stated that only the limitations of physical strength prevented the children from performing all operations connected with handling boats.<ref name="Springer p. 6"/> Otho Swain reported he saw a ten-year-old girl put a boat through a lock (i.e. snubbing the boat so it would stop), but that would have been a child who grew up on the canal.<ref>[[#Kytle|Kytle]] p. 133</ref>

Children generally did the mule driving, except perhaps at night when the captain might do so. In wet weather, the towpath was muddy and slippery and shoes wore out quickly. One man thought himself to be a good father because he provided his boys with rubber boots.<ref name="Springer p. 6"/>

One boatman said, "A boat is a poor place for little children, for all they can do is go in and out of the cabin." His son attended school 94 days out of a possible 178, and the father regretted it, but needed the family to help boat as he could not afford otherwise.<ref>Springer p. 7</ref>

====Medical care====
For boat families, there was very little medical care. One father stated, "We never need a doctor. We just stay sick until we get well." It was practically impossible to get a doctor in the mountains at the upper end of the canal or on the long levels.<ref name="Springer p. 11"/>

====Food====

Canned food was sometimes brought. Bean soup, made with beans, [[ham hock]]s, and an onion, was common. Other items included corn bread, eggs and bacon, ham, potatoes, and other vegetables. A reported canal custom was the first few rows of corn from farms along the canal could be used by the boatmen. Berries along the towpath were also picked. [[Molasses]] also was common. Bread and many groceries could be bought along the canal. Muskrats were sometimes eaten, as well as chickens and ducks either bought or even stolen along the way. Rabbits were snared. Crew members sometimes had a shotgun to shoot rabbits, groundhogs, or other game. Turtles were eaten as well as eels that the lock tenders caught in [[eel pot]]s in the rivers or the bypass [[flume]]s. Fish included sunfish, catfish, bigmouth bass, and black bass.<ref>[[#hahn-boatmen|Hahn, Boatmen]] p. 21-22</ref>

====Living quarters====
[[Image:Boat interior Diorama at Cumberland C and O Canal NPS museum.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Model interior of a C&O Canal freight boat]]Cabins were 10 feet by 12 feet, and housed two bunks, each 36 inches wide, supposedly for one person, but often occupied by two. While most cabin floors were bare, in one survey, 14 had linoleum covering. The cabins were divided between sleeping quarters and the "stateroom" by a diagonal wall. The feed box, 4 feet by 4 feet, in the center boat, often doubled as sleeping quarters with a blanket thrown over the feed. Occasionally the deck was used for sleeping<ref>Unrau p. 817</ref>

Cooking was done on a stove, burning corncobs (from the mule feed) or sometimes coal. Washing clothes and children was typically done at night by moonlight, after tying up the boat, along the side of the canal.<ref name="Unrau p. 819"/> Food and provisions for the trip (e.g. flour, sugar, coffee, salt pork, smoked meat, etc.) were bought in Cumberland on Wineow street, from stores such as Coulehan's, Dennis Murphy's, or John McGrinnis's.<ref name="Unrau p. 818"/> Some boatmen carried chickens or pigs on the boats. Fish caught in the canal also served as food, as well as turtles. Additional supplies could be bought along the way from lockkeepers and at towns.<ref name="Unrau p. 819"/>