June, 1922 
FOREST 
AND STREAM 
251 
BOATING AND BOAT-BUILDING 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAFTS, 
PUNTS AND OTHER CRAFT USED BY FISHERMEN AND GUNNERS 
T 
I HERE comes a time in every man’s 
life when it is incumbent upon 
him to build a boat. He may need 
it. Usually he doesn’t. He may 
want to demonstrate an idea or maybe 
he just feels the urge to build a boat. I 
have passed through all these phases, 
but I usually managed to get something 
afloat. Just what constitutes a boat de- 
pends on the immediate circumstances, 
the time available, the material at hand, 
and the personal skill of the builder. 
The first navigator undoubtedly went 
to sea on a tree or a log and probably 
against his will. I have often crossed 
a stream on a log in preference to swim- 
ming, but sometimes I had to 
do the swimming too. Under 
the circumstances, the log was 
a boat and more or less ade- 
quately served as such. A log, 
to the uninitiated, is quite a 
squirmy and bucky thing, and 
can be vastly improved as a 
boat by the addition of another 
log. If the two are tied to- 
gether side by side wdth a rope 
or even a vine, near each end, 
they will not roll, and the 
maker can safely transport his 
duffle across a sluggish stream. 
The rope should be wet before 
it is tied (it stretches when 
wet) and may be tightened by 
twisting with a stick. 
Every outdoorsman ought to 
know that a square knot is the 
one to use on this job or any 
other, but if he doesn’t the 
little sketch on the upper right- 
hand corner of the illustration 
will show the difference between the 
“square” and the “granny” knot usually 
tied. The, latter will slip when it should 
be tight and jam when you want to un- 
tie it. The former wdll hold until the 
rope breaks, and a good tug on either 
loose end will straighten it out so that it 
can be untied in a moment. 
A two-log raft can be made really ser- 
viceable with a little additional labor. 
Cut a deep notch on top and bottom near 
both ends of each log. Set small poles 
in the notches and lash them together, 
both outside and between the logs. 
The logs when fastened so can be set 
a couple of feet apart and a platform 
of poles laid across for a deck. This is 
stable enough to spend the day on with 
some comfort. I have used a craft of 
this type a whole season for occasional 
fishing on an inaccessible lake. In fact, 
I made my first cruise on one at the age 
of ten years. 
I was spending a vacation in the log- 
ging country of northern Minnesota and 
had a wild desire to drift down the little 
river that passed the camp and see some- 
thing of the world. There was another 
camp some twenty miles down the river. 
By DWIGHT S. SIMPSON 
as I remember it, and having no family 
present to protect me, a kind-hearted 
lumberjack proceeded to fit me out. Two 
huge logs were corralled, notched, poled 
and bound together with hay-wire, the 
ever-present and universal friend of the 
logging world. They were nearly three 
feet through and sixteen feet long. 
Some small green poles were nailed 
together at one end, covered with turf 
and several inches of dirt, and I cooked 
two meals on that fireplace. The logs 
were so large that no platform was 
thought necessary, and their rounded 
tops got very tiresome. 
The cook gave me a tin pail, some 
The romance of exploration 
pork, bacon and sandwiches with a paper 
of tea in a lunch sack, handed me a 
pick pole and shoved off. He went with 
me a ways and showed me how to keep 
off the sandbars and get around the cor- 
ners, and I was left to my own devices. 
The lunch sack, by the way, is a regu- 
lar and mighty convenient part of every 
lumberjack’s equipment. I have used it 
on many trips in all parts of the country 
since then, and invariably some member 
of the party has fallen in love with it 
and acquired it before the end of the 
trip. I have never seen its commercial 
equivalent, nor have I run across a de- 
scription of it in print. It was always 
made from a flour sack (I use khaki drill 
now) in the form of a bag six to eight 
inches wide and twelve to eighteen 
inches long, open at one end. To the 
two bottom corners were sewed the ends 
of a loop of the same material about four 
feet long (tape is my modern substitute). 
When empty it could be stuffed in a 
pocket. It could easily be washed clean, 
and would carry quite a load. \\'hen 
filled as far as necessary it always left 
plenty of room at the top. The end of 
the loop was then caught into a running 
noose, slipped over the top of the bag 
and pulled tight. The two parts of the 
loop then became shoulder-straps, and 
your lunch and in some cases entire 
worldly possessions could ride on your 
back at ease and out of the way. ( See 
sketch in lower right-hand corner of 
cut.) 
Incidentally, a cocoa tin with a “hay- 
wire” bail makes a fine little tea-pail, and 
I have used one on a boat within the 
year. 
I didn’t know, and the others had for- 
gotten, that there was a little lake to be 
crossed. It was only a mile, but I 
couldn’t reach the bottom and the pole 
made a poor paddle (it would 
have been better if it were flat- 
tened), and it took an hour or 
more to get into the stream 
again. However, 1 arrived 
safely before dark that night. 
IT pays to know something 
about the whys and where- 
fores of a boat, even if you 
are going to build only a raft. 
The one I used on my first trip 
was much too large for its job, 
and a little knowledge and fig- 
uring would have assured me 
a much easier time, especially 
in crossing the lake. Let’s 
look into it a bit. 
First of all, an object floats 
because it weighs less than the 
same volume of water. A cu- 
bic foot of fresh water weighs 
64 pounds, disregarding frac- 
tions and the theoretical varia- 
tions due to temperature, ba- 
pressure, etc. A cubic foot 
of dry cedar weighs 24 pounds. There- 
fore it will not only float, but will 
carry, forty pounds besides before it 
sinks. .Assuming that my raft was made 
of cedar, it had a total volume of 125 
cubic feet, weighed about 2.700 pounds 
and could have floated .^.000 pounds 
besides. .All for a 100-pound boy and 
less than 50 pounds of accessories. 
.Add to that the fact that the logs drew 
about sixteen inches, necessitating my 
going around many sandbars that might 
have otherwise been crossed. 
.A little figuring would have shown that 
I only needed a raft that could support 
about 200 pounds besides itself, thus re- 
quiring only five cubic feet for actual 
flotation. Further consideration would 
suggest that as I might at .some time 
have my whole weight on one log, it 
would have been as well to have had 
each log capable of floating the two 
hundred pounds. Then it would not be 
well to sink that log: at least half of it 
ought to be above water under any con- 
dition. This indicates that each log 
should have at least ten cubic feet of 
(Coulinued on page 276) 
rometnc 
