298 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July, 1922 
BOATING AND BOAT- BUILDING 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAFTS, PUNTS 
AND OTHER CRAFT USED BY FISHERMEN AND GUNNERS— PART II 
By DWIGHT S. SIMPSON 
I N the last article we discussed the flo- 
tational possibilities of a log, its ad- 
vantages and disadvantages, and we 
saw how the more enlightened dis- 
posal of the same amount of wood 
worked a great improvement. 
Way back in history, some benighted 
heathen wanted to cross a river and find- 
ing no log or tree available except an 
old one hollow'ed out by rot or forest 
fire, he finally pushed off; no doubt with 
much misgiving, and before he reached 
the other side was overjoyed to find him- 
self possessing the finest and handiest 
boat that had ever come out, and I’ll bet 
he tied that log safely for future use. 
Logs hollowed by fire or rot must im- 
mediately have acquired a good market 
value, probably worth a good Sabre-tooth 
tiger skin, and'then some intelligent citi- 
zen hit upon a method of artificially hol- 
lowing a log with the aid of a guided fire 
and thus started the first shipyard. I 
don’t know how he first happened to 
sharpen or “scow” the ends ; maybe an 
old boat had bumped, split and worn off 
and its owner, finding that it seemed to 
work better and easier, wanted a new one 
built “just that way.” If you have ever 
owned a boat or a gun or rod you will 
know the feeling. At any rate “dug out” 
canoes became the earliest boats and are 
still in use in South and Central America 
and may occasionally be found in the 
back waters of our own country. 
The Chesapeake Bay “Bugeye” was 
originally built of logs, appropriately 
shaped, kneed and dowelled together. 
About eight years ago I saw one of these 
old-timers hauled out for repairs. She 
was seven logs in girth, the three bottom 
ones a good foot thick, the sides about 
eight inches. Authentic history carried 
her back about twenty-five years, but she 
was an old boat then. 
Neither of these developments econo- 
mized on materials — they merely got rid 
of them in the form of heat and chips. 
In most parts of our country logs are 
costly, so we’ll have to see what we can 
do by improving on the box idea already 
evolved. 
The first step, of course, is to make 
the box big enough to carry its load with 
a degree of safety and comfort, and that 
quickly brings up the question of what 
we want to use it for. Let us suppose 
we have a camp on the shore of a small 
stream or lake. We will naturally want 
to spend some time on the water, fishing 
or just puttering around. Maybe we have 
to cross the water to get supplies or 
visitors. We will probably seldom be 
alone, but will usually have one or two 
friends, and sometimes we will want to 
carry a trunk, so we want a comfortable 
boat for two or three people and one that 
we can move around in. 
An average weight of 160 lbs. means a 
load of 480 lbs. The simple type of boat 
we are going to build will weigh about 
150 lbs., so our total weight would be 
630 lbs. and using 64 lbs. per cubic foot 
of water we need ten cubic feet of boat 
below the water line. Ten feet in length 
makes a mighty handy boat, so we’ll start 
with that. Most small boats are much 
too large for their work, probably be- 
cause 16-foot lumber is the easiest thing 
to get and we are too lazy to cut it off. 
It has already been shown that the less 
depth of water required to float a boat. 
the same amount of wood in box form 
the more places are open to her passage. 
Therefore we’ll try four inches for depth 
of water or “draft” as it is called. These 
two dimensions fixed, leave only one pos- 
sible one (three feet) for width or beam, 
to give the required ten feet of displace- 
ment. There must, of course, be some 
boat above the water, to keep the tops of 
the waves from slopping in, and to pro- 
vide additional buoyancy so that the first 
wave we ship won’t sink us. Then again, 
our boat will not always be upright. 
Some one will step or sit on one side 
and she will tip. Of course the wider 
she is the less she will tip, but still we 
want to be ready for it, so we’ll say eight 
inches for the side out of water or “free- 
board.” 
Now, let us lay this out on the drawing 
board and see what it looks like. Here 
The box boat 
arc the usual three views of a working 
drawing and a perspective sketch for 
clearness. To the experienced eye it is 
all wrong, but as long as we confine our- 
selves to paper, a little experimenting 
will cost nothing. Incidentally I have 
seen many boats that look no better. 
If we take a board four inches wide 
and three feet long and put it edgewise 
in the water we find that it takes some 
push to move it sidewise. Now if we 
tilt it up, it goes a lot easier, or a lot 
faster for the same amount of nush. Ap- 
plying this knowledge to our boat leads 
us to tilt the ends or, what accomplishes 
the same thing, slant the bottom up to 
the waterline, beginning, say, eight inches 
from the end. We still will present a flat 
end to the water if there is a heavier 
load than intended and to help this with- 
out losing any more displacement we will 
extend the ends eight inches and continue 
the slant of the bottom, getting a side 
as shown in the illustration. 
Next, turning to the top or plan view, 
we see nothing but straight lines and a 
straight line, while easy to draw, is nei- 
ther a thing of beauty nor of strength. 
If the sides were bowed out a bit, they 
would keep their shape and resist the 
bumps better, and incidentally, look bet- 
ter; so we will spring them out a couple 
of inches and at the same time draw the 
ends in a bit to balance the displacement. 
Now for the end view, which in this 
case is the same shape as a section. Well, 
it will do ; plenty of boats are built that 
way, but it isn’t much harder to make it 
look better, and act better. A wave 
climbing up that perpendicular side will 
come to the top and fall in, whereas, if 
we flare the sides out a bit the wave will 
have acquired some outward tendency of 
motion and much of it will fall back in 
the lake where it belongs. This flaring 
automatically accomplishes two other de- 
sirable features. First, it cocks up t’ne 
ends, giving the boat what is called a 
sheer and making her drier and more 
buoyant, and puts a bit of rocker in the 
bottom which makes her easier to turn. 
Second, it makes her steadier, as will 
be shown in a later discussion. By 
adding a few seats, rowlocks, etc., we 
have the twelve-foot fishing boat as 
shown herewith. Similar, no doubt, to 
many you have seen, but better than 
most of them, because she is the right 
size for her job, and will be found much 
easier to handle. 
N OW we will proceed to build her. It 
depends upon your locality what 
lumber you will use. Cedar, fir, pine, 
cypress, are all good if the boards are 
of clear stock. Half-inch boards are 
thick enough and twelve feet is the 
proper length. We need two twelve-inch 
boards for the sides, but the rest can be 
four-inch to six-inch stuff. 
Lay out one side plank according to 
the sketch, tack it to the other and saw 
and shape them as one piece. The two 
end pieces are just alike and should be 
made of seven-eighth-inch stuff, oak or 
mahogany. The notch on top provides a 
means of sculling home if one oar breaks 
or gets lost. The ends of these pieces 
are strengthened as shown by oak cleats 
seven-eighths inch by one and one-half 
inch. These are to nail the side planks 
to, as the end grain makes poor holding 
ground for nails. 
We need a mould or form for the cen- 
ter of the boat. This can be made of 
old lumber, as it is only a temporary 
