BOA 



BOA 



artificers, either in caulking, breaming, or repairing the bot- 

 tom of a (hip. 



Sampan, a Chinefe boat without a kec!, aopearing alrr.oft 

 like a trough ; they are made of different dimeiifious, but are 

 mo'.Uy covered. I'here are paifengcr fampans, to cany 

 people backward and forward, between the town aijd (hips. 

 Thefe boats are as long as (loops, but broader, almoft hke a 

 baking trough, and have, at the end, one or more decks, 

 made of bamboo-Hicks ; the cover, or roof, is alio made of 

 bamboo-dicks, arched over in the (hape of a grater, and may- 

 be raifed or lov-'cred at pleafure ; the fides are mad; of boards, 

 with little holes, and fnutters inftead of windov.s ; the boards 

 are faftencd on both fides to pods, which have notches like 

 fteps on the infide, that the roof may be let down, and reil on 

 them ; on both ends of jhe deck are commonly two little 

 doors, at leafl there is one at the ftem. A hne, white, 

 fmooth carpet, fpread i^p as far as the boards, makes the 

 floor, v>'hich, in the middle, confifts of loofe boards ; but this 

 cai-pet is only made ufe of to deep on. As thefe boats differ 

 frcmthofe of Europeans in fhape, they are likeivife rowed in 

 a different manner ; for two rowers, poding themfelves at the 

 back end of the fampan, work it forwards very readily by 

 the motion of two oars, and can almod turn the vefTcl jud 

 as they pleafe ; the oars, which are covered with a little hol- 

 low quadrangular iron, are laid on iron fwivels, which are 

 fadened in the fide of the fampan. At the iron the oars are 

 pieced, which makes them look a httie bent. In common, 

 a rower fits before with a ihort oar, but this he is forced to 

 lay afide when he comes near the city, on account of the great 

 throng of lampans ; and this inconvenience has confirmed the 

 Chinefe in their old way of rowing. 



Sampans of burden are the largeft boats, by which all 

 porcelain, filk, and other commodities, are conveyed from 

 Canton to the European fhips. But thefe boats do not ferve 

 for the above-mentioned purpofes only, but are ufed, btfides, 

 as houfes for whole families, which are born, marry, and die 

 in them. They commonly have, beCdes, hogs, fome chickens 

 and dogs, and fome flower-pots, containing Guinea pepper, 

 or fome other plants, in thefe boats. 



Duck fampans, are boats in which they feed four or five 

 hundred ducks. They have on both fides a bridge, which 

 may be let down. In the day-time the ducks feed in the 

 river upon herbs and fifh ; at night their mader calls them 

 into his boat ; they immediately obey him, and come on board 

 as foon as he lets down his bridge. 



Fifulng fampans, are the fmalled of all, narrow, like fome 

 European fifhmg boats, and have either a very fn-.all deck of 

 flraw, or bamboo, or are even without that poor convenience. 

 Bad as thefe boats are, yet parents, and their naked children, 

 are feen to get their livelihood in them, both fummerand win- 

 ter,by fifhing, and picking up whathasbeen thrown overboard 

 from other veffels. For this purpofe they tie feveral hooks 

 to a cord, and throw them out in different places, almod in 

 the fame manner as fifhermen lay their eel-hooks. They 

 have better or worfc fortune, as it happens. There is no- 

 thing fo filthy but what thefe people will ufe as food ; and 

 the hogs, which having died are thrown overboard, when they 

 begin to putrefy, float in a few days, and often become the 

 occafion of quarrels, which end in battles. The reafon why 

 the Europeans fink the hogs, which die on board their fhips, 

 is, that the inhabitants of this place may not fall upon them ; 

 for it is faid that the Chinefe, when they go on board any 

 fhips, will give pepper to the hogs, which they think is poi- 

 fon to them., that they may get them again if they fhould die. 

 It is certain, that numbers of hogs die in poflefEon of the 

 Xuropeans whilft t^ey day in China. 



3 



Miinilarln's fampars are greater or lefs red-painted boats, 

 ornamented with dragons, and fuch like figures, or with 

 little flags. 



The Stage-boats, called in French, bateaux coches, and 

 more commonly cochci-d'eau, water coaches, are large 

 covered veffcls, which ferve, particularly on the river Seine, 

 for the conveniency of travellers, and for carrying all forts of 

 merchandizes. The names of them are the paffage-boat, or 

 water coach of Sens, of Auxerre, of Montereau, and of Fon- 

 tairihleau, or Valvin. 



Tilt-boat, one with a cover, to defend the paffengers from 

 rain, &c. 



TraS-boal, a boat employed in a canal in conveying 

 paffengers, &c. from one place to another. This mode of 

 traveUing, though not expeditious, is indeed very pleafant, 

 and certainly much cheaper than by any land carriage. From 

 Grangemouth to Port Dundas, a didance of nearly 30 miles, 

 the fare is only one (hilling, or eighteen pence. 



J'/al-hoat, a boat having a well in the bottom, to preferve 

 fifh alive. 



A Wherry is a light (harp boat, ufed in a river or harbour, 

 for carr)'ing paffengers from place to place. 



The boats, or wherries, allowed to ply on the Thames 

 about London, are eiXhtrJhuUers, wrought by a fingle per- 

 fon with two oars ; or oars, wrought by two or more per- 

 fons, with each an oar. 



The following are fome of the terms ufed in the manage- 

 ment of a boat. 



Bale the boat, is to throw out the water which remains in 

 her bottom, or the well-room. See Baile. 



Fend the boat, to fave her from beating againft the (hip's 

 fides. 



Man the boat, an order to thofe appointed to manage her 

 to go on board the boat immediately. 



Moor the boat, the order to faden a boat with two ropes, 

 fo as that the one fhall counteract the other. 



Trim the boat, the order to fit in the boat in fuch a manner 

 as that die ftiall float upright in the water, without leaning 

 to either lide. 



IFind the boat, the order to bring her head the other way. 



The boat's gang, includes thofe who are employed for 

 rowing in the boat ; fuch as the cockfwain and his gang, to 

 whom the charge of the boat immediately belongs. 



A bold-boat is that which will endure a rough fea well. 



To prefer-ue boats from foundering at fea ivhen Jljips founder. 

 Take any mad, yard, boom. Sec. that may be found floating 

 from the diip ; the longer the better ; make fad to each end of 

 the boom a rope about twice its length ; and bend one end of 

 another rope, about ten fathoms long, exactly in the middle 

 of the fpan, and the other end is to be made fad to the fore- 

 part of the boat, fo that fhe may drive dera on to the fea. 

 When this misfortune happens far from land, and the domi 

 ceafes, in moderate weather the drift boom may be towed 

 end on to the boat's ilern, that they may either row or fail 

 towards land. 



Mr. Hutchinfon, in his treatife on praftical feamanfhip, 

 gives an account of a boat being preferved by this method, 

 as follows. The Bafil, in herpaffage from the Well Indies, 

 took up ten men in a fmall boat, twelve feet long, which 

 was preferved from foundering after the veffel had foundered, 

 by having a rope fad to a log of wood, as they called it, and 

 tied to the boat's bow, which kept her to drive end on with 

 the head to the waves, and broke their violence fo much as to 

 preferve her from filhng with water, when one half of them 

 was obhgcd to he down in the bottom of the boat, to pre- 

 vent her being top-heavy. By particular inquiry of the 



maiiex- 



