FOREST AND STREAM 
203 
BOSTON BOAT CLUBS. 
T HE following list of clubs and officers will show how 
much interest that city takes in rowing and that there 
is material sufficient to retain laurels won, perhaps to 
achieve many more victories:— 
THE UNION BOAT CLUB, 
organized May 26th, 1851, is, with the exception of the At- 
alanta Boat Club of Hew York, the oldest and largest boat¬ 
ing association in the United States, the number of active 
members being one hundred and thirty-one, and thirty-two 
honorary. Its officers are—President, Henry B. Rice; Vice- 
President, Edward NT. Fenno; Secretary, Edward B. 
Robins; Treasurer, William M. Rice; Captain, Robert S. 
Russell; Lieutenant, Charles H. Williams; Directors, Al¬ 
bert G. Baxter, Daniel Sargent and George Roberts. 
THE WEST END BOAT CLUB 
has in addition to its floating boat houses at Craigie’s 
Bridge, club rooms at the corner of Livingston and Charles 
streets, furnished in the most elaborate manner. This club 
numbers one hundred and thirty-three members, of which 
fifteen only are honorary, and has about sixty boats of all 
descriptions. It was organized in 1866 and is officered as 
followsPresident, J. J. McCarthy; Vice-President, C. 
V. Bunten; Secretary, E. J. De Coursey; Treasurer, John 
C. Smith; Captain, Thomas C. Butler; Lieutenants, J. H. 
Butler, and Frank Hosmer. 
THE SHAWMUT BOAT CLUB, 
founded January 30th, 1870, has on list twenty-five active 
and fifty honorary members, and is the possessor of nine 
club boats, besides giving room in its boat house at Dover 
Street Bridge-to a number of private boats. At a recent 
meeting; the following officers were eiected:—Captain, John 
F. Murphy; President, JobnM. Flynn; Secretary, Thomas 
J. Lynch; Treasurer, Thomas J. Flynn; Directors, E. J. 
Noonan, James Sullivan and M. Mahony. 
THE BOSTON BOAT CLUB, 
organized in January of the present year, have as yet no 
boat house, but will erect one at Cambridge Bridge as soon 
as permission is granted. They have six boats, all new 
and of various descriptions. They propose to send repre¬ 
sentatives to Saratoga, Philadelphia and Troy. The fol¬ 
lowing is a list of the officers:—President, John Doherty; 
Secretary, P. Regan; Treasurer, James Fitzgerald; Captain, 
George Faulkner; Directors, C. V. Bunten, Andrew Con¬ 
nor, and James W. Frazer. 
THE HOWARD ASSOCIATES, 
founded in January, 1868, as an Athletic Club and number¬ 
ing thirty members, have done creditable work with the 
oar. They own no boats but hire them as required. The 
officers arePresident, P. Carlton; Vice-President, Daniel 
Davidson; Secretary, J. J. English; Treasurer, P. Gill; 
Directors, Edward F. McAvoy, G. McLean, T. McCarty. 
THE LAFAYETTE BOAT CLUB, 
strictly speaking, is social and athletic, organized in the 
summer of 1870. They bear the name boat club, however, 
and each year have a regatta. 
THE CITY POINT ROWING ASSOCIATION, 
organized in January last, has on its roll twenty active 
members and has elected the following officers:—President, 
F. F. Bibber; Vice-President, Edgar Eveling; Secretary, 
E. T, Atwood; Treasurer, F. F. Bibber; Captain, T. J. 
Higgins; Lieutenant, T. Scanlon. Arrangements are being 
made for the erection of a suitable house near the foot of 
Sixth street. 
THE STAR LIGHT BOAT CLUB 
has its rooms in the Dorchester district. The club was 
formed in 1873 and its present officers are:—President, J. 
Mclntire; Vice-President, W. Hennessy; Secretary, J. 
Howard; Treasurer, F. Lennon; Captain, J. Rockwood; 
Directors, C. Rockwood; M. Mahan, T. Shean, E. Devine. 
THE JAMAICA BOAT. CLUB 
dates from August 2, 1869, and numbers forty-five active 
members. In the boat house, which is at the foot of Pond 
street, on the west side of Jamaica Pond, are nearly twenty 
boats. The officers are:—President, A. G. Gorham; Sec¬ 
retary, E. L. Lincoln; Treasurer, F. B. Reynolds; Direct¬ 
ors, Joseph Curtis, W. P. A. Brewer, H. G. Balch. 
THE ELIOT BOATl’CLUB, 
organized last August, is located next door to the Jamaicas, 
and will take part in their regatta. This Club has a good 
boat house and numbers ten active members. The follow¬ 
ing officers have been elected:—President, J. W. Mackin¬ 
tosh; Secretary, H. D. Kious; Treasurer, G. C. Hagar; 
Captain, H. Wainwright. 
THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY BOAT CLUB; 
of Cambridge, is the first on the list, and has probably done 
more than any other to build and keep up the interest in 
amateur rowing, not only in the neighborhood of Boston, 
but throughout the entire country. The record of this 
club is so well known that it would be useless to reprint it 
here. As early as 1855 class clubs were in vogue at Har¬ 
vard, but it was not until 1869 that the present organization 
was effected. In the boat house of this club are between 
fifty and sixty boats all in good condition and on the books 
are the names of one hundred and ninety-six members. 
The following is a list of the officers—President, Wendell 
Goodwin; Vice-President, Frank S. Watson; Secretary, 
Walter J. Otis; Treasurer, George F. Roberts; Assistant 
Treasurer, Henry S. Van Duzer; Captain of the university 
crew, Wendell Goodwin. 
THE CRYSTAL LAKE BOAT CLUB, 
of Melrose, was formed February 5, 1872, by the consoli¬ 
dation of the Ripple and Enid boat clubs. The number of 
members is forty-three, five of whom are honorary. The 
club purpose erecting a suitable boat house on a tract of 
land bordering on Crystal Lake. The officers are as fol¬ 
lows:—President, Hobart Clark; Vice-President, George E. 
Munroe; Secretary, George M. Ray; Treasurer, Charles B. 
Hill; Commodore, Sidney IL Buttrick; Vice-Commodore, 
William D. Serrat; Directors, Charles C. Barry, William 
R. Lavender, Charles B. Hill; Trustees, Charles C. Barry, 
J. Warren Sanders, Walter I. Nickerson. 
THE THETIS BOAT CLUB, 
of Medford, was organized March 1, 1870, and has twenty- 
one active and nine honorary members. Their boat house, 
on the Mystic River, is a handsome building containing, in 
addition to their thirteen boats, billiard tables for the use of 
the members. The following is a list of officers:—Presi¬ 
dent Warren J. Manning; Vice-President, George M. 
Coburn; Secretary, Samuel Lapham, Jr.; Treasurer, Geo. 
F. Manning; Directors, Edmund Bridge, F. A. Morse, 
Henry Bradlee. 
THE WINNISIMMET BOAT CLUB, 
of Chelsea, was founded in 1862 and re-organized March 
31, 1866. There are forty-six members at present. The 
club boat house -contains twenty-nine boats of all kinds. 
The officers are:—President, E. S. Harris; Secretary, W. 
R. Baynal, Jr.; Treasurer, E. A. Fellows; Captain, F. W. 
Snow; Lieutenant, Geo. Ballsdon, Jr. 
THE BROOKLINE ROWING CLUB, 
dates from April 6, 1870, and has a membership of fifty. 
The boat house is a floating one and contains twenty boats 
exclusive of two Rob Roy canoes. This club has for its 
officers:—President, Henry M. Martin; Secretary and Treas- 
urei, Frank Dupee; Directors, S. P. Train, W. S. Cutler, 
S. G. Train; Regatta Committee, Frank Dupee, S. P. Train, 
E. P. Kennard. 
THE DON QUIXOTE BOAT CLUB, 
of East Somerville, was organized in the spring of 1872, 
and numbers twenty-one active members. They merely 
row for pleasure and take no part in any of the racing. 
The officers are:—President, Thomas I. Delano, Jr.; Sec¬ 
retary, Fred. G. Tuttle; Treasurer, A. A. Smith; Captain, 
II. A. Cole. 
For Forest and Stream. 
CANOE CRUISING. 
NUMBER TWO. 
T HE canoe “ Passenger Bird,” a drawing of which ac¬ 
companies this article, was built for me in 1871 by 
Mr. William Biffen, of Hammersmith, who has invented a 
portable boat from which the design of the canoe is partly 
taken. She resembles the Ringleader type of canoe, with 
greater beam and not quite so much depth ; her model is a 
good one, and . she has proved a good sea boat in rough 
waters. She is remarkably stiff, and we can fish or shoot 
from her without any danger of an upset. Her peculiarity 
is that she can be separated into three pieces, the stem and 
£tern sections being fitted to the centre compartment by 
screws, one at each gunwale and one over the keelson ; the 
stern can be unscrewed and the two ends packed into the 
cockpit as shown in the drawing. By this means the 
length of the boat can be reduced from seventeen feet six 
inches to ten feet, which makes her more convenient for 
carriage by rail or wagon, and diminishes the danger of her 
being strained or broken. There is no danger of the boat 
leaking at the joints when she is properly built. The 
“ Passenger Bird ” has travelled some thousands of miles 
by steamship and rail, has been taken to pieces and put 
together a great many times, and there are no signs of the 
joints becoming loose or shaky now. 
. A shorter canoe might be built on the same principle 
which would pack into a smaller compass, and could be 
transported as easily as an ordinary box. 
She is built of Spanish cedar with oak garboards, and 
now weighs, without gear, about one hundred pounds, 
having gained considerable in weight since she was built,as 
most wooden boats will do ; nevertheless by the help of a 
strap passed through the copper ear shown on each side of 
gunwale amidships, I can portage her after the Indian 
fashion of carrying a birch bark canoe without much diffi¬ 
culty for some distance. Her chief defect is that she is too 
heavy, I think unnecessarily so, and that a canoe of her 
dimensions could be built on the same principle that would 
not weigh more than eighty pounds without gear, after 
use. She would also be improved by having more “camber” 
and a rounder deck. The stem and stern compartments 
are, of course, quite water tight, as bulkheads are fitted 
between the joints. She is rigged with a lateen sail for 
running before the wind chiefly; this is too much for her 
except in strong breezes. 
To capitulate then: The sort of canoe I would recom¬ 
mend for cruising purposes is the “ Ringleader ” type, and 
would be one of the following description: The dimensions 
are given approximately to suit a man up to about one 
hundred and eighty pounds in weight, and to carry besides 
about forty or fifty pounds of “gear” (provisions, light 
tent d’abris, clothes, etc.) Length, seventeen feet; width, 
twenty-six or twenty-eight inches; depth, from keelson to 
line drawn between the gunwales amidships, ten inches, 
rising at stem and stern so as to give about three inches 
sheer. She should have about one and one-fourth inches 
“camber,” by this term I mean the rise of the keel fore 
and aft above a level line (I believe this is the usual defini¬ 
tion of the term “camber” amongst boat builders). The 
model is an important consideration, and a great deal must be 
left to the builder as a general rule; fine entrance, flat floor, 
full after body, good shoulders, the top sides tumbling 
home a little. The deck ought to be well rounded, cover¬ 
ing in the whole boat, with the exception of the cockpit 
where the paddler sits, which is provided with a movable 
hatch. She should have an inch of keel, and light bilge 
pieces will, I think, be found an improvement. The 
greatest beam should be at or a little abaft the midship 
section, and water-tight compartments may be placed at 
each end. The arrangement of the cockpit should be as 
simple as possible. That of the “Nautilus” shown in 
Forest and Stream of March 26th is a very good one. 
The plan of a water-proof apron adopted by “ Rob Roy ” 
has its drawbacks, the chief of which are that the legs and 
knees of the canoeist are generally damp, and it is not stiff 
enough to keep out a sea breaking over the boat. I beg to 
submit a design for a hatch which I think would be found 
a good one. The cockpit to be of an elongated oval shape, 
length about three feet eight inches, width sixteen or 
eighteen inches, coaming about three-fourths of an inch 
above the level of the deck, the fore part ofthe cockpit to 
be decked over for eight inches, where the stretcher and 
the paddler’s feet are, the after part decked over for about 
a foot, where the locker for provisions may be placed, be¬ 
tween these the movable hatch, two feet long, with a broad 
band of india rubber passing from one side to the other 
round the fore part of the coaming to keep it in its place; 
the hatch could thus easily be shipped forward, and would 
not hamper the canoeist in the event of an upset. 
A light lateen sail as shown in the drawing of the 
“Passenger Bird” will be found a good, handy sail for 
running or reaching; a standing lug is also a good sail for a 
canoe, and might be preferred to the other. 
The paddle should be about eight feet in length with 
oval blades for cruising. If desired the paddle can be 
made in two pieces, joined by a copper ferule, so that one 
blade can be set at right angles to the other, producing a 
“ feathering paddle.” 
The material of which the canoe is to be built may be of 
some light wood, as described in Forest and Stream for 
March 19tli. 
A canoe of the above description ought not to weigh 
more than eighty-five pounds with sail and paddle. She 
should be well varnished inside and out with shellac and 
copal varnish. 
Since I have been at Halifax I have read a description of 
the “paper boats” built by Messrs. Walters and Balch, of 
Troy, New York, which has so strongly impressed me with 
their advantages that were I ordering another canoe I 
should get one built of paper by Messrs. Walters and Co. 
and give it a fair trial. I speak with great deference on 
the subject however, as I have never seen one of these 
boats. If they are at all like the description given of them 
they possess many advantages over wooden ones—strength, 
lightness, capability of being easily repaired, all of which 
are important considerations in the construction of a canoe. 
2. Stern extremity. 
3. Bow extremity. 
4. 5, 7, 8, Opening in deck where screws are arranged. 
6 . Tube for mast. 
In this cut the canoe “ Passenger Bird ” is shown taken 
to pieces and arranged for packing. The hatch is left off 
that the manner in which the end compartments are stowed 
may be seen. 
As all the measurements have been given, the scale in the 
case of drawing No. 2 has been enlarged for the purpose of 
showing more detail. 
Halifax, Nova Scotia, April, 1874. 
C. M. D. 
THE CANOE QUESTION. 
New York, April 28, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
G. M. D., in your issue of March 23 ; takes exception to the Nautilus 
type of canoe. First, because they are too heavy, and secondly, because 
they draw too much water. Weight is certainly a most important con¬ 
sideration, but I think he must be misinformed in this respect, or else 
have seen only exceptionably heavy canoes. In the New York Canoe 
Cliio are several Baden-Powell canoes of the ordinary size; length 14 ft * 
beam, 28 in., which on leaving their builder’s hand weighed, including 
flooring boards, bulkhead, hatches, rudder and paddle, only 56 pounds^ 
Personally I think this is too light, for I do not believe, when so con¬ 
structed, that they will take the strain of sleeping in them without leak 
ing eventually. My own canoe weighs in the neighborhood of seventv 
pounds, and has been perfectly satisfactory as a canoe, paddling easily 
and sailing remarkably fast. Nor have I found the gear necessarily at¬ 
taching to the three sails half so cumbersome as I should imagine the 
want of it would have been when blessed with fair and leading winds 
If C. M. D. desires to explore many narrow and shoal creeks, and make 
frequent portages, no doubt a better boat might be found than the Nau 
tiius type; but for ordinary cruising in lakes, rivers and canals I like 
them very much indeed. As to draft of water, the Nautilus canie does 
not, as a rule, draw more water than the Rob Roys, I have seen (one of 
