Porter acquired eight new shallow draft schooners, five large barges, a steam powered riverboat and a storeship schooner.

The boats were shallow draft, three and a half to five inches empty and twenty-eight inches loaded.

The schooner was about 33 feet long on the keel and of shallow draft.

The simplicity of these vessels and their shallow draft made them indispensable to pioneer communities that were otherwise virtually cut off from the outside world.

Their shallow draft made them unstable and their short hulls tended to bury the bow when operating in a head sea.