A RAFT PILOT'S LOG 



one plank at the water line. An old comfort and an inch 

 board took care of this till we could list her over and fix 

 it right. 



By this time I felt sure I had bought a lucky boat and 

 I never had any reason to change my mind on this point. 



I finished up a small rafting contract that spring with 

 the "Silver Crescent" and then put her into the Carni- 

 val City Packet Company which I had organized that 

 spring, and on June 17, 1892, we began service between 

 Davenport and Burlington, Iowa, and took in $16.70 on 

 our first round trip of two days. 



A month later we had the highest water ever known 

 at Davenport. For a while the only place we could put 

 our stage on ground was just below the north end of the 

 Government bridge. 



The "Silver Crescent" was ten years old when the 

 Carnival City Packet Company bought her. We had 

 seventeen years hard service out of her, many of them 

 quite profitable, all of them successful, and got through 

 without a serious mishap and her cabin, engines and 

 many other parts were good as new when we used them 

 in building the "Blackhawk" in 1908. 



The "Frontenac" was the last large rafter built. 

 Samuel Peters of Wabasha built the hull which was 

 one hundred and forty feet long, thirty feet wide and 

 three and one-half feet deep, in 1895. The hull was 

 taken to Winona where the engines and boilers of the 

 "Juniata" were transferred to her. The cabin was also 

 built at Winona and the new boat came out in 1896 

 owned by Laird, Norton and Company of Winona and 

 in charge of Henry Slocumb. 



When through rafting she towed the big excursion 

 barge "Mississippi" until she hit the lower Winona 

 bridge and sank close to shore just below it. When 



