Boat

any small water craft, especially such as are propelled by oars. The first boat was no doubt a floating log. Two logs tied together form a raft. Among primitive people the canoe hollowed from a single log by burning with hot stones is the leading type. The natives of Borneo, of the Amazon region, of the forest region of Africa, and of many other regions were found using canoes of this kind. Some of them are forty or fifty feet in length, and carry a score or two of men. The American dugout is a canoe of this sort made with tools. The coracle of the Briton was a wicker basket covered with a skin to exclude water. The Eskimo kayak is formed of sealskins stretched on a frame of bones or bits of wood. It is covered with a sealskin deck, with a hole in the center in which the hunter sits. He draws the deck about his waist, like the mouth of a bag and thus renders his craft watertight. The Rob Roy in which McGregor cruised on the chief rivers of Europe was a boat constructed on this model. The most artistic native canoe is made by the North American Indians. It consists of strips of light, tough wood covered by sheets of birch bark sewed together with sinews or roots and calked with resin. The birch bark canoe is so light that a man can bear on his back a boat capable of carrying several persons. This is the type of boat described in Longfellow's Hiawatha. It is still in use in the Indian reservations. It is the type of boat used by the Jesuits and the employes of the great fur companies.

The common rowboat or skiff is made of many patterns. Boards are bent and fastened on a frame. If the edges of the boards meet edge to edge, forming a smooth surface, the boat is said to be carvel-built. When the lower edge of one board overlaps the upper edge of the board below it, the boat is clinker-built. A clinker-built boat is more easily made and is less apt to leak.

The names applied to the various kinds of boats are almost too numerous even to mention. Of the boats kept on shipboard for use going ashore, landing passengers, bringing off supplies, etc., the launch, longboat, jollyboat, cutter, gig, dingy, pinnace, and yawl may be mentioned. The whaleboat and the dory are used by fishermen. The lifeboat and the catamaran are designed for the surf. The punt, lighter, scow, barge, flatboat, bateau, ark, and houseboat are flat-bottomed affairs propelled by poles set against the bottom, or allowed to drift with the current, or else towed along. The gondola is the boat of Venice. The hoisting of sails introduced a multiplicity of names, still further increased by the use of gasoline and steam.

For the various crafts used in warfare the reader is referred to NAVY. See also STEAMBOAT; BATTLESHIP; STEAMSHIP; BIRCH; PORTAGE; CATAMARAN; HOUSEBOAT; FERRY; LIFEBOAT; YACHT; SUBMARINE; DREADNOUGHT.