THE NOTED RAFT-BOAT "SILVER WAVE" 99 



low water would not permit rafting logs in Beef 

 Slough. To fill in the time and partly cover the ex- 

 pense, we ran several short excursions. On one of these, 

 an evening trip, with our boat full of merry dancers, 

 she "ran through herself." That is, she broke the wrist 

 pin on the port crank, and this let the piston head, rod 

 and pitman go forward with such force that the main 

 cylinder on that side was cracked and ruined. This 

 crash and the escaping steam caused quite a scare for 

 a few minutes; but we kept them reasonably quiet and 

 in a very short time Mr. Whitmore disengaged the 

 broken engine, shut the steam oflf from it and was able 

 to keep the boat going after a fashion on one engine and 

 took us back to LeClaire, a little late but all right. 



We had to remove the old engine and get a new 

 cylinder cast by Williams, White and Company of 

 Moline. 



Before the new cylinder was ready. Captain Van 

 Sant received word that the Chippewa river was rising, 

 that rafting would be resumed in Beef Slough and to 

 proceed at once to take care of Musser and Company's 

 logs. 



When the new cylinder came we worked two days 

 and the intervening night getting it "shipped up." We 

 hardly stopped to eat, and never mentioned sleep till we 

 had her going up the river again. After this job Mr. 

 Whitmore wanted me on his watch and arranged it so 

 I stood watch with him the rest of that season and all 

 the next. He took interest in showing me how to do 

 things. I helped him at the forge and anvil, got to be 

 his favorite striker, and was proud of it. We made all 

 the stirrups for the wheel, and kept all the mate's raft 

 tools in good shape, and during the summer he made 



