This has been asked so many times on this site that regulars are getting fed up, as you may have noticed from some 'answers' deleted because they were irrelevant. (That's probably how you found this site via a search engine.) And -- so far -- nobody has come up with the answer.
The man was Abe Milligen, sone of the famous inventor Robrt Milligen. He turned a boat into a wagon, complete with a sail, and used wind power for most of the trip west.
I think they are talking about the Conestoga Wagon since it was shaped like a boat and could float. It took forever but I found the name of the guy who invented it, James Logan