Meriweather Lewis arrived in Pittsburgh on July 15, 1803, fully expecting to find the keelboat completed and ready for him to load and move down the river. He was disappointed to see that only the ribs and keel were completed, it was a long way from finished.

He wrote to Thomas Jefferson on July 22:

"The person who contracted to build my boat engaged to have it in readiness by the 20th inst.; in this, however, he has failed; he pleads his having been disappointed in procuring timber but says he now has supplied himself with the necessary materials, and that she shall be completed by the last of this month; however in this I am by no means sanguine, nor do I believe from the progress he makes that she will be ready before the 5th of August; I visit him every day and endeavor by every means in my power to hasten the completion of the work."

The completed boat was 55' long and 8' wide, with a 30' mast, and had a 3' draw. Unlike most commercial keelboats, which had a large cabin and hold, this keelboat was built on a military plan with a small cabin aft and long open cockpit lined with hinged lidded lockers. The men used the lids of these lockers to stand on when oaring or poling the boat, and should they be in a conflict with indians, the raised lids shielded them from the arrows and spears. The helmsman stood on the roof of the cabin and had a bowed canvas tent above him. Fully loaded, the boat could carry about 10 tons of cargo.



Lewis's journal for Aug. 31, 1803 reads:

"Left Pittsburgh this day at 11 o'clock with a party of 11 hands 7 of which are soldiers, a pilot and three young men on trial they have proposed to go with me throughout the voyage."

That first day was not auspicious. The summer had been parched and both the Monongahela and Ohio rivers were at record lows. The boat went aground 3 times that first day; each time she had to be unloaded and pulled across the bar, and then reloaded again. In all they made it only to the site of present day McKee's Rocks, a distance of less than 10 miles.