the.com/keelboat

means A sturdy, shallow river boat with a keel for steering and stability, built to be poled, rowed, or towed with cargo upriver against the current — the workhorse of inland waterways before steam took over.

from From 'keel,' a word that reaches back through Middle English to Old Norse 'kjölr,' meaning the backbone timber running along the bottom of a ship. The keelboat itself rose to fame on rivers like the Mississippi and Ohio in the 1700s and 1800s, hauling freight upstream by main force — men pushing long poles against the riverbed, walking the boat forward step by step — until steamboats made the whole backbreaking trade obsolete.