THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER 
SKIFF 
M ANY years ago, as a small boy I 
was traveling with my family and 
stopped for a few days at a now for¬ 
gotten hotel in the Thousand Islands 
of the St. Lawrence. On the porch of 
the hotel, shining in brigh varnish, 
finished in vari-colored woods and carry¬ 
ing two hat-wing sails like a canoe, was 
a beautiful creation of the boatbuilder's 
art. I locked her over carefully, and 
finding that she was to be “raffled off,’’ 
I spent all my pocket money and all that 
I could beg from generous parents, on 
tickets. Three days later I did not win 
the boat, but from that day to this, I 
have had a fondness for the St. Law¬ 
rence Skiff. 
Lately I have had several requests for 
information on these once famous boats, 
which indicates a healthy respect for 
a good craft, as the true St. Lawrence 
E are depending upon the friends 
and admirers of our old corre¬ 
spondent Nessmuk to make this de¬ 
partment worthy of his name. No man 
knew the woods better than Nessmuk 
or wrote of them with quainter charm. 
Many of his practical ideas on camp¬ 
ing and “going light” have been adopted 
by the United States Army; his canoe 
has been preserved in the Smithsonian 
Institution; and we hope that all good 
woodsmen will contribute to this de¬ 
partment their Hints and Kinks and 
Trail-tested Contrivances .-— [Editor.] 
veloped long before the motor was 
thought of. 
Like “Charity,” however, the term 
claiming to make the original—and all 
the boats were different. 
A visit to some old timers along the 
river, eliminated some, averaged up the 
others and resulted in the drawings re¬ 
produced here, which are probably as 
close to the real thing as anyone will 
ever get. One or two of the old cata¬ 
logs showed a bewhiskered individual 
standing jauntily on the gunwale of his 
skiff; and if this is the test, then the 
boat shown here is proved, because it 
can be done, though whiskers are out 
of style. 
I was surprised to find in my research 
that the skiffs of most (though not all) 
of the old builders, while sharp at both 
ends, were not really “double enders,” 
the after body being decidedly finer than 
the forebody. The line of the sheer and 
keel and the stem profile is the same for 
both ends, otherwise there is a real dif¬ 
ference in the modeling. (The left end 
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Skiff is about the best small boat ever 
developed for more or less open water. 
For livery and fishing purposes they 
are ideal, as they are easy to row, re¬ 
markably stiff, and one can move about 
in them with some degree of safety. 
They are good sailers, resembling a 
grown up canoe, and should work well 
with an outboard motor, though dc- 
“St. Lawrence River Skiff” (originally 
a trade name for one firm's idea of the 
craft developed on the river) has been 
applied to cover a multitude of sins in 
the boat-building line. Not so many 
years ago I had an order to build two 
“real old fashioned St. Lawrence Skiffs’ 
and research in many old catalogs 
showed about a dozen builders, each 
of the boat in the drawing is the bow ) 
Owing to this difference the boat obtains 
the best possible trim—down slightly b) 
the stern as shown in the drawing— 
without thought on the part of the casua 
user, whether loaded with one, two 
three, or four passengers. This make: 
her row easily, and the high full b<>v 
makes her dry and buoyant in a head sea 
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