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FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX.
A BOAT VOYAGE OF 2600 MILES DOWN THE OHIO
AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS, AND ALONG
THE GULF OF MEXICO.
BY
NATHANIEL H. BISHOP
AUTHOR OF "A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA," AND "VOYAGE
OF THE PAPER CANOE."
TO THE
OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES
OF THE
LIGHT HOUSE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES
This Book is Dedicated
BY ONE WHO HAS LEARNED TO RESPECT THEIR
HONEST, INTELLIGENT AND EFFICIENT LABORS
IN SERVING THEIR GOVERNMENT, THEIR
COUNTRYMEN, AND MANKIND
GENERALLY.
INTRODUCTION.
EIGHTEEN months ago the author gave to the public his "VOYAGE OF THE
PAPER CANOE:--A GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNEY OF 2500 MILES FROM QUEBEC TO THE
GULF OF MEXICO, DURING THE YEARS 1874-5."
The kind reception by the American press of the author's first journey
to the great southern sea, and its republication in Great Britain and
in France within so short a time of its appearance in the United
States, have encouraged him to give the public a companion volume,--
"FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX,"--which is a relation of the experiences
of a second cruise to the Gulf of Mexico, but by a different route
from that followed in the "VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE." This time the
author procured one of the smallest and most comfortable of boats--a
purely American model, developed by the bay-men of the New Jersey
coast of the United States, and recently introduced to the gunning
fraternity as the BARNEGAT SNEAK-BOX. This curious and stanch little
craft, though only twelve feet in length, proved a most comfortable
and serviceable home while the author rowed in it more than 2600 miles
down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and along the coast of the Gulf
of Mexico, until he reached the goal of his voyage--the mouth of the
wild Suwanee River--which was the terminus of his "VOYAGE OF THE PAPER
CANOE."
The maps which illustrate the contours of the coast of the Gulf of
Mexico, like those in the other volume, are the most reliable ever
given to the public, having been drawn and engraved, by contract for
the work, by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Bureau.
LAKE GEORGE, WARREN CO.,
NEW YORK STATE,
SEPTEMBER 1st, 1879.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
THE BOAT FOR THE VOYAGE.
CANOES FOR SHALLOW STREAMS AND FREQUENT PORTAGES.-- SNEAK-BOXES FOR
DEEP WATERCOURSES.-- HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE BARNEGAT SNEAK-
BOX.-- A WALK DOWN EEL STREET TO MANAHAWKEN MARSHES.-- HONEST GEORGE,
THE BOAT-BUILDER.-- THE BUILDING OF THE SNEAK-BOX "CENTENNIAL
REPUBLIC."-- ITS TRANSPORTATION TO THE OHIO RIVER.
CHAPTER II.
SOURCES OF THE OHIO RIVER.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MONONGAHELA AND ALLEGHANY RIVERS.-- THE OHIO
RIVER.-- EXPLORATION OF CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.-- NAMES GIVEN BY ANCIENT
CARTOGRAPHERS TO THE OHIO.-- ROUTES OF THE ABORIGINES FROM THE GREAT
LAKES TO THE OHIO RIVER.
CHAPTER III.
FROM PITTSBURGH TO BLENNERHASSET'S ISLAND.
THE START FOR THE GULF.-- CAUGHT IN THE ICE-RAFT.-- CAMPING ON THE
OHIO.-- THE GRAVE CREEK MOUND.-- AN INDIAN SEPULCHRE.--
BLENNERHASSET'S ISLAND.-- AARON BURR'S CONSPIRACY.-- A RUINED FAMILY.
CHAPTER IV.
FROM BLENNERHASSET'S ISLAND TO CINCINNATI.
RIVER CAMPS.-- THE SHANTY-BOATS AND RIVER MIGRANTS.-- VARIOUS
EXPERIENCES.-- ARRIVAL AT CINCINNATI.-- THE SNEAK-BOX FROZEN UP IN
PLEASANT RUN.-- A TAILOR'S FAMILY.-- A NIGHT UNDER A GERMAN COVERLET.
CHAPTER V.
FROM CINCINNATI TO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
CINCINNATI.-- MUSIC AND PORK IN PORKOPOLIS.-- THE BIG BONE LICK OF
FOSSIL ELEPHANTS.-- COLONEL CROGHAN'S VISIT TO THE LICK.-- PORTAGE
AROUND THE "FALLS," AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.-- STUCK IN THE MUD.-- THE
FIRST STEAMBOAT OF THE WEST.-- VICTOR HUGO ON THE SITUATION.-- A
FREEBOOTER'S DEN.-- WHOOPING AND SAND-HILL CRANES.-- THE SNEAK-BOX
ENTERS THE MISSISSIPPI.
CHAPTER VI.
DESCENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
LEAVE CAIRO, ILLINOIS.-- THE LONGEST RIVER IN THE WORLD.-- BOOK
GEOGRAPHY AND BOAT GEOGRAPHY.-- CHICKASAW BLUFF.-- MEETING WITH THE
PARAKEETS.-- FORT DONALDSON.-- EARTHQUAKES AND LAKES.-- WEIRD BEAUTY
OF REELFOOT LAKE.-- JOE ECKEL'S BAR.-- SHANTY-BOAT COOKING.-- FORT
PILLOW.-- MEMPHIS.-- A NEGRO JUSTICE.-- "DE COMMON LAW OB
MISSISSIPPI."
CHAPTER VII.
DESCENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI TO NEW ORLEANS.
A FLATBOAT BOUND FOR TEXAS.-- A FLAT-MAN ON RIVER PHYSICS.-- ADRIFT
AND ASLEEP.-- SEEKING THE EARTH'S LITTLE MOON.-- VICKSBURGH.--
JEFFERSON DAVIS'S COTTON PLANTATION, AND ITS NEGRO OWNER.-- DYING IN
HIS BOAT.-- HOW TO CIVILIZE CHINESE.-- A SWIM OF ONE HUNDRED AND
TWENTY MILES ON THE MISSISSIPPI.-- TWENTY-FOUR HOURS IN THE WATER.--
ARRIVAL IN THE CRESCENT CITY.
CHAPTER VIII.
NEW ORLEANS.
BIENVILLE AND THE CITY OF THE PAST.-- FRENCH AND SPANISH RULE IN THE
NEW WORLD.-- LOUISIANA CEDED TO THE UNITED STATES.-- CAPTAIN EADS AND
HIS JETTIES.-- TRANSPORTATION OF CEREALS TO EUROPE.-- CHARLES MORGAN.-
- CREOLE TYPES OF CITIZENS.-- LEVEES AND CRAWFISH.-- DRAINAGE OF THE
CITY INTO LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN.
CHAPTER IX.
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO.
LEAVE NEW ORLEANS.-- THE ROUGHS AT WORK.-- DETAINED AT NEW BASIN.--
SADDLES INTRODUCES HIMSELF.-- CAMPING AT LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN.-- THE
LIGHT-HOUSE OF POINT AUX HERBES.-- THE RIGOLETS.-- MARSHES AND
MOSQUITOES.-- IMPORTANT USE OF THE MOSQUITO AND BLOW-FLY.-- ST.
JOSEPH'S LIGHT.-- AN EXCITING PULL TO BAY ST. LOUIS.-- A LIGHT-KEEPER
LOST IN THE SEA.-- BATTLE OF THE SHARKS.-- BILOXI.-- THE WATER-CRESS
GARDEN.-- LITTLE JENNIE.
CHAPTER X.
FROM BILOXI TO CAPE SAN BLAS.
POINTS ON THE GULF COAST.-- MOBILE BAY.-- THE HERMIT OF DAUPHINE
ISLAND.-- BON SECOURS BAY.-- A CRACKER'S DAUGHTER.-- THE PORTAGE TO
THE PERDIDO.-- THE PORTAGE FROM THE PERDIDO TO BIG LAGOON.-- PENSACOLA
BAY.-- SANTA ROSA ISLAND.-- A NEW LONDON FISHERMAN.-- CATCHING THE
POMPANO.-- A NEGRO PREACHER AND WHITE SINNERS.-- A DAY AND A NIGHT
WITH A MURDERER.-- ST. ANDREW'S SOUND.-- ARRIVAL AT CAPE SAN BLAS.
CHAPTER XI.
FROM CAPE SAN BLAS TO ST. MARKS.
A PORTAGE ACROSS CAPE SAN BLAS.-- THE COW-HUNTERS.-- A VISIT TO THE
LIGHT-HOUSE.-- ONCE MORE ON THE SEA.-- PORTAGE INTO ST. VINCENT'S
SOUND.-- APALACHICOLA.-- ST. GEORGE'S SOUND AND OCKLOCKONY RIVER.--
ARRIVAL AT ST. MARKS.-- THE NEGRO POSTMASTER.-- A PHILANTHROPIST AND
HIS NEIGHBORS.-- A CONTINUOUS AND PROTECTED WATER-WAY FROM THE
MISSISSIPPI TO THE ATLANTIC COAST.
CHAPTER XII.
FROM ST. MARKS TO THE SUWANEE RIVER.
ALONG THE COAST.-- SADDLES BREAKS DOWN.-- A REFUGE WITH THE
FISHERMEN.-- CAMP IN THE PALM FOREST.-- PARTING WITH SADDLES.-- OUR
NEIGHBOR THE ALLIGATOR.-- DISCOVERY OF THE TRUE CROCODILE IN AMERICA.-
- THE DEVIL'S WOOD-PILE.-- DEADMAN'S BAY.-- BOWLEGS POINT.-- THE COAST
SURVEY CAMP.-- A DAY ABOARD THE "READY."-- THE SUWANEE RIVER.-- THE
END.
ILLUSTRATIONS
DRAWN BY F. T. MERRILL. ENGRAVED BY JOHN ANDREW & SON.
SHANTY-BOATS--THE CHAMPION FLOATERS OF THE
WEST....... FRONTISPIECE.
DIAGRAM OF PARTS OF BOAT...14
INDIAN IN CANOE...28
THE START--HEAD OF THE OHIO RIVER ...31
COAL-STOVE. . .39
INDIAN MOUND AT MOUNDSVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA...54
A NIGHT UNDER A GERMAN COVERLET...78
POPULAR IDEA OF THE NESTING OF CRANES...111
STERN-WHEEL WESTERN TOW-BOAT PUSHING FLATBOATS...114
MEETING WITH THE PARAKEETS...125
DYING IN HIS BOAT...177
BOYTON DESCENDING THE MISSISSIPPI...187
NEW ORLEANS ROUGHS AMUSING THEMSELVES...214
ARRIVAL AT THE GULF OF MEXICO--CAMP MOSQUITO...239
THE PORTAGE ACROSS CROOKED ISLAND...269
SADDLES BREAKS DOWN...292
PARTING WITH SADDLES...302
LAST NIGHT ON THE GULF OF MEXICO...322
LIST OF MAPS
DRAWN AND ENGRAVED BY THE UNITED STATES COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY
BUREAU
TO ILLUSTRATE N. H. BISHOP'S BOAT VOYAGES.
1. GENERAL MAP OF ROUTES FOLLOWED BY THE AUTHOR DURING HIS TWO VOYAGES
MADE TO THE GULF OF MEXICO, IN THE YEARS 1874-6.....OPPOSITE PAGE 1
GUIDE MAPS OF ROUTE FOLLOWED
IN DUCK-BOAT "CENTENNIAL REPUBLIC," ALONG THE GULF OF MEXICO, IN 1876
2. FROM NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, TO MOBILE BAY, ALABAMA. . . .OPPOSITE
209
3. FROM MOBILE BAY, ALABAMA, TO CAPE SAN BLAS, FLORIDA. . . .OPPOSITE
247
4. FROM CAPE SAN BLAS, FLORIDA, TO CEDAR KEYS, FLORIDA. . . .OPPOSITE
273
MAP SHOWING RIVER AND PORTAGE ROUTES
ACROSS FLORIDA FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO TO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.
5. ROUTE FOLLOWED BY THE AUTHOR IN PAPER CANOE "MARIA THERESA," IN
1875. . . . OPPOSITE 319
[MAP OF ROUTES FOLLOWED BY N. H. BISHOP IN PAPER CANOE "MARIA THERESA"
AND DUCK-BOAT "CENTENNIAL REPUBLIC" 1874-1876]
Four Months in a Sneak-Box
CHAPTER I.
THE BOAT FOR THE VOYAGE
CANOES FOR SHALLOW STREAMS AND FREQUENT PORTAGES.-- SNEAK-BOXES FOR
DEEP WATERCOURSES.-- HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE BARNEGAT SNEAK-
BOX.-- A WALK DOWN EEL STREET TO MANAHAWKEN MARSHES.-- HONEST GEORGE,
THE BOAT-BUILDER.-- THE BUILDING OF THE SNEAK-BOX "CENTENNIAL
REPUBLIC."-- ITS TRANSPORTATION TO THE OHIO RIVER.
THE READER who patiently followed the author in his long "VOYAGE OF
THE PAPER CANOE," from the high latitude of the Gulf of St. Lawrence
to the warmer regions of the Gulf of Mexico, may desire to know the
reasons which impelled the canoeist to exchange his light, graceful,
and swift paper craft for the comical-looking but more commodious and
comfortable Barnegat sneak-box, or duck-boat. Having navigated more
than eight thousand miles in sail-boats, row-boats, and canoes, upon
the fresh and salt watercourses of the North American continent
(usually without a companion), a hard-earned experience has taught me
that while the light, frail canoe is indispensable for exploring
shallow streams, for shooting rapids, and for making long portages
from one watercourse to another, the deeper and more continuous water-
ways may be more comfortably traversed in a stronger and heavier boat,
which offers many of the advantages of a portable home.
To find such a boat--one that possessed many desirable points in a
small hull--had been with me a study of years. I commenced to search
for it in my boyhood--twenty-five years ago; and though I have
carefully examined numerous small boats while travelling in seven
foreign countries, and have studied the models of miniature craft in
museums, and at exhibitions of marine architecture, I failed to
discover the object of my desire, until, on the sea-shore of New
Jersey, I saw for the first time what is known among gunners as the
Barnegat sneak-box.
Having owned, and thoroughly tested in the waters of Barnegat and
Little Egg Harbor bays, five of these boats, I became convinced that
their claims for the good-will of the boating fraternity had not been
over-estimated; so when I planned my second voyage from northern
America to the Gulf of Mexico, and selected the great water-courses of
the west and south (the Ohio and Mississippi rivers) as the route to
be explored and studied, I chose the Barnegat sneak-box as the most
comfortable model combined with other advantages for a voyager's use.
The sneak-box offered ample stowage capacity, while canoes built to
hold one person were not large enough to carry the amount of baggage
necessary for the voyage; for I was to avoid hotels and towns, to live
in my boat day and night, to carry an ample stock of provisions, and
to travel in as comfortable a manner as possible. In fact, I adopted a
very home-like boat, which, though only twelve feet long, four feet
wide, and thirteen inches deep, was strong, stiff, dry, and safe; a
craft that could be sailed or rowed, as wind, weather, or inclination
might dictate,--the weight of which hardly exceeded two hundred
pounds,--and could be conveniently transported from one stream to
another in an ordinary wagon.
A Nautilus, or any improved type of canoe, would have been lighter and
more easily transported, and could have been paddled at a higher speed
with the same effort expended in rowing the heavier sneak-box; but the
canoe did not offer the peculiar advantages of comfort and freedom of
bodily motion possessed by its unique fellow-craft. Experienced
canoeists agree that a canoe of fourteen feet in length, which weighs
only seventy pounds, if built of wood, bark, canvas, or paper, when
out of the water and resting upon the ground, or even when bedded on
some soft material, like grass or rushes, cannot support the sleeping
weight of the canoeist for many successive nights without becoming
strained.
Light indeed must be the weight and slender and elastic the form of
the man who can sleep many nights comfortably in a seventy-pound canoe
without injuring it. Cedar canoes, after being subjected to such use
for some time, generally become leaky; so, to avoid this disaster, the
canoeist, when threatened with wet weather, is forced to the
disagreeable task of troubling some private householder for a shelter,
or run the risk of injuring his boat by packing himself away in its
narrow, coffin-like quarters and dreaming that he is a sardine, while
his restless weight is every moment straining his delicate canoe, and
visions of future leaks arise to disturb his tranquillity.
The one great advantage possessed by a canoe is its lightness.
Canoeists dwell upon the importance of the LIGHT WEIGHT of their
canoes, and the ease with which they can be carried. If the canoeist
is to sleep in his delicate craft while making a long journey, she
must be made much heavier than the perfected models now in use in this
country, many of which are under seventy-five pounds' weight. This
additional weight is at once fatal to speed, and becomes burdensome
when the canoeist is forced to carry his canoe upon his OWN shoulders
over a portage. A sneak-box built to carry one person weighs about
three times as much as a well-built cedar canoe.
This remarkable little boat has a history which does not reach very
far back into the present century. With the assistance of Mr. William
Errickson of Barnegat, and Dr. William P. Haywood of West Creek, Ocean
County, New Jersey, I have been able to rescue from oblivion and bring
to the light of day a correct history of the Barnegat sneak-box.
Captain Hazelton Seaman, of West Creek village, New Jersey, a boat-
builder and an expert shooter of wild-fowl, about the year 1836,
conceived the idea of constructing for his own use a low-decked boat,
or gunning-punt, in which, when its deck was covered with sedge, he
could secrete himself from the wild-fowl while gunning in Barnegat and
Little Egg Harbor bays.
It was important that the boat should be sufficiently light to enable
a single sportsman to pull her from the water on to the low points of
the bay shores. During the winter months, when the great marshes were
at times incrusted with snow, and the shallow creeks covered with
ice,--obstacles which must be crossed to reach the open waters of the
sound,--it would be necessary to use her as a sled, to effect which
end a pair of light oaken strips were screwed to the bottom of the
sneak-box, when she could be easily pushed by the gunner, and the
transportation of the oars, sail, blankets, guns, ammunition, and
provisions (all of which stowed under the hatch and locked up as
snugly as if in a strong chest) became a very simple matter. While
secreted in his boat, on the watch for fowl, with his craft hidden by
a covering of grass or sedge, the gunner could approach within
shooting-distance of a flock of unsuspicious ducks; and this being
done in a sneaking manner (though Mr. Seaman named the result of his
first effort the "Devil's Coffin" the bay-men gave her the sobriquet
of "SNEAK-BOX"; and this name she has retained to the present day.
Since Captain Seaman built his "Devil's Coffin," forty years ago, the
model has been improved by various builders, until it is believed that
it has almost attained perfection. The boat has no sheer, and sets low
in the water. This lack of sheer is supplied by a light canvas apron
which is tacked to the deck, and presents, when stretched upward by a
stick two feet in length, a convex surface to a head sea. The water
which breaks upon the deck, forward of the cockpit, is turned off at
the sides of the boat in almost the same manner as a snow-plough
clears a railroad track of snow. The apron also protects the head and
shoulders of the rower from cold head winds.
The first sneak-box built by Captain Seaman had a piece of canvas
stretched upon an oaken hoop, so fastened to the deck that when a head
sea struck the bow, the hoop and canvas were forced upward so as to
throw the water off its sides, thus effectually preventing its ingress
into the hold of the craft. The improved apron originated with Mr.
John Crammer, Jr., a short time after Captain Seaman built the first
sneak-box. The second sneak-box was constructed by Mr. Crammer; and
afterwards Mr. Samuel Perine, an old and much respected bay-man, of
Barnegat, built the third one. The last two men have finished their
voyage of life, but "Uncle Haze,"--as he is familiarly called by his
many admirers,--the originator of the tiny craft which may well be
called multum in parvo, and which carried me, its single occupant,
safely and comfortably twenty-six hundred miles, from Pittsburgh to
Cedar Keys, still lives at West Creek, builds yachts as well as he
does sneak-boxes, and puts to the blush younger gunners by the energy
displayed and success attained in the vigorous pursuit of wildfowl
shooting in the bays which fringe the coast of Ocean County, New
Jersey.
A few years since, this ingenious man invented an improvement on the
marine life-saving car, which has been adopted by the United States
government; and during the year 1875 he constructed a new ducking-punt
with a low paddle-wheel at its stern, for the purpose of more easily
and secretly approaching flocks of wild-fowl.
The peculiar advantages of the sneak-box were known to but few of the
hunting and shooting fraternity, and, with the exception of an
occasional visitor, were used only by the oystermen, fishermen, and
wild-fowl shooters of Barnegat and Little Egg Harbor bays, until the
New Jersey Southern Railroad and its connecting branches penetrated to
the eastern shores of New Jersey, when educated amateur sportsmen from
the cities quickly recognized in the little gunning-punt all they had
long desired to combine in one small boat.
Mr. Charles Hallock, in his paper the "Forest and Stream," of April
23, 1874, gave drawings and a description of the sneak-box, and fairly
presented its claims to public favor.
The sneak-box is not a monopoly of any particular builder, but it
requires peculiar talent to build one,--the kind of talent which
enables one man to cut out a perfect axe-handle, while the master-
carpenter finds it difficult to accomplish the same thing. The best
yacht-builders in Ocean County generally fail in modelling a sneak-
box, while many second-rate mechanics along the shore, who could not
possibly construct a yacht that would sail well, can make a perfect
sneak-box, or gunning-skiff. All this may be accounted for by
recognizing the fact that the water-lines of the sneak-box are
peculiar, and differ materially from those of row-boats, sailboats,
and yachts. Having a spoon-shaped bottom and bow, the sneak-box moves
rather over the water than through it, and this peculiarity, together
with its broad beam, gives the boat such stiffness that two persons
may stand upright in her while she is moving through the water, and
troll their lines while fishing, or discharge their guns, without
careening the boat; a valuable advantage not possessed by our best
cruising canoes.
The boat sails well on the wind, though hard to pull against a strong
head sea. A fin-shaped centre-board takes the place of a keel. It can
be quickly removed from the trunk, or centre-board well, and stored
under the deck. The flatness of her floor permits the sneak-box to run
in very shallow water while being rowed or when sailing before the
wind without the centre-board. Some of these boats, carrying a weight
of three hundred pounds, will float in four to six inches of water.
The favorite material for boat-building in the United States is white
cedar (Cupressus thyoides), which grows in dense forests in the swamps
along the coast of New Jersey, as well as in other parts of North
America. The wood is both white and brown, soft, fine-grained, and
very light and durable. No wood used in boat-building can compare with
the white cedar in resisting the changes from a wet to a dry state,
and vice versa. The tree grows tall and straight. The lower part of
the trunk with the diverging roots furnish knee timbers and carlines
for the sneak-box. The ribs or timbers, and the carlines, are usually
1 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches in dimension, and are placed about ten inches
apart. The frame above and below is covered with half-inch cedar
sheathing, which is not less than six inches in width. The boat is
strong enough to support a heavy man upon its deck, and when well
built will rank next to the seamless paper boats of Mr. Waters of
Troy, and the seamless wooden canoes of Messrs. Herald, Gordon &
Stephenson, of the province of Ontario, Canada, in freedom from
leakage.
During a cruise of twenty-six hundred miles not one drop of water
leaked through the seams of the Centennial Republic. Her under
planking was nicely joined, and the seams calked with cotton wicking,
and afterwards filled with white-lead paint and putty. The deck
planks, of seven inches width, were not joined, but were tongued and
grooved, the tongues and grooves being well covered with a thick coat
of white-lead paint.
The item of cost is another thing to be considered in regard to this
boat. The usual cost of a first-class canoe of seventy pounds' weight,
built after the model of the Rob Roy or Nautilus, with all its
belongings, is about one hundred and twenty-five dollars; and these
figures deter many a young man from enjoying the ennobling and
healthful exercise of canoeing. A first-class sneak-box, with spars,
sail, oars, anchor, &c., can be obtained for seventy-five dollars, and
if several were ordered by a club they could probably be bought for
sixty-five dollars each. The price of a sneak-box, as ordinarily built
in Ocean County, New Jersey, is about forty dollars. The Centennial
Republic cost about seventy-five dollars, and a city boat-builder
would not duplicate her for less than one hundred and twenty-five
dollars. The builders of the sneak-boxes have not yet acquired the art
of overcharging their customers; they do not expect to receive more
than one dollar and fifty cents or two dollars per day for their
labor; and some of them are even so unwise as to risk their reputation
by offering to furnish these boats for twenty-five dollars each. Such
a craft, after a little hard usage, would leak as badly as most cedar
canoes, and would be totally unfit for the trials of a long cruise.
[Diagram of Sneak-Box "Centennial Republic"]
The diagram given of the Centennial Republic will enable the reader of
aquatic proclivities to understand the general principles upon which
these boats are built. As they should be rated as third-class freight
on railroads, it is more economical for the amateur to purchase a
first-class boat at Barnegat, Manahawken, or West Creek, in Ocean
County, New Jersey, along the Tuckerton Railroad, than to have a
workman elsewhere, and one unacquainted with this peculiar model,
experiment upon its construction at the purchaser's cost, and perhaps
loss.
One bright morning, in the early part of the fall of 1875, I trudged
on foot down one of the level roads which lead from the village of
Manahawken through the swamps to the edge of the extensive salt
marshes that fringe the shores of the bay. This road bore the
euphonious name of Eel Street,--so named by the boys of the town. When
about half-way from its end, I turned off to the right, and followed a
wooded lane to the house of an honest surf-man, Captain George Bogart,
who had recently left his old home on the beach, beside the restless
waves of the Atlantic, and had resumed his avocation as a sneak-box
builder.
The house and its small fields of low, arable land were environed on
three sides by dense cedar and whortleberry swamps, but on the eastern
boundary of the farm the broad salt marshes opened to the view, and
beyond their limit were the salt waters of the bay, which were shut in
from the ocean by a long, narrow, sandy island, known to the fishermen
and wreckers as Long Beach,--the low, white sand-dunes of which were
lifted above the horizon, and seemed suspended in the air as by a
mirage. Across the wide, savanna-like plains came in gentle breezes
the tonic breath of the sea, while hundreds, aye, thousands of
mosquitoes settled quietly upon me, and quickly presented their bills.
In this sequestered nook, far from the bustle of the town, I found
"Honest George," so much occupied in the construction of a sneak-box,
under the shade of spreading willows, as to be wholly unconscious of
the presence of the myriads of phlebotomists which covered every
available inch of his person exposed to their attacks. The appropriate
surroundings of a surf-man's house were here, scattered on every side
in delightful confusion. There were piles of old rigging, iron bolts
and rings, tarred parcelling, and cabin-doors,--in fact, all the
spoils that a treacherous sea had thrown upon the beach; a sea so
disastrous to many, but so friendly to the Barnegat wrecker,--who, by
the way, is not so black a character as Mistress Rumor paints him. A
tar-like odor everywhere prevailed, and I wondered, while breathing
this wholesome air, why this surf-man of daring and renown had left
his proper place upon the beach near the life-saving station, where
his valuable experience, brave heart, and strong, brawny arms were
needed to rescue from the ocean's grasp the poor victims of misfortune
whose dead bodies are washed upon the hard strand of the Jersey shores
every year from the wrecks of the many vessels which pound out their
existence upon the dreaded coast of Barnegat? A question easily
answered,--political preferment. His place had been filled by a man
who had never pulled an oar in the surf, but had followed the
occupation of a tradesman.
Thus Honest George, rejected by "the service," had left the beach, and
crossing the wide bays to the main land, had taken up his abode under
the willows by the marshes, but not too far from his natural element,
for he could even now, while he hammered away on his sneak-boxes, hear
the ceaseless moaning of the sea.
A verbal contract was soon made, and George agreed to build me for
twenty-five dollars the best boat that had ever left his shop; he to
do all the work upon the hull and spars, while the future owner was to
supply all the materials at his own cost. The oars and sail were not
included in the contract, but were made by other parties. In November,
when I settled all the bills of construction, cost of materials, oar-
locks, oars, spars, sail, anchor, &c., the sum-total did not exceed
seventy-five dollars; and when the accounts of more than twenty boats
and canoes built for me had been looked over, I concluded that the
little craft, constructed by the surf-man, was, for the amount it cost
and the advantages it gave me, the best investment I had ever made in
things that float upon the water. Without a name painted upon her
hull, and, like the "Maria Theresa" paper canoe, without a flag to
decorate her, but with spars, sail, oars, rudder, anchor, cushions,
blankets, cooking-kit, and double-barrelled gun, with ammunition
securely locked under the hatch, the Centennial Republic, my future
travelling companion, was ready by the middle of November for the
descent of the western rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.
Captain George Bogart, attentive to the last to his pet craft,
affectionately sewed her up in a covering of burlap, to protect her
smooth surface from scratches during the transit over railroads. The
two light oaken strips, which had been screwed to the bottom of the
boat, kept the hull secure from injury by contact with nails, bolt-
heads, &c., while she was being carried in the freight-cars of the
Tuckerton, New Jersey, Southern and Pennsylvania railroads to
Philadelphia, where she was delivered to the freight agent of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, to be sent to Pittsburgh, at the head of the
Ohio River.
Here I must speak of a subject full of interest to all owners of
boats, hoping that when our large corporations have their attention
drawn to the fact they will make some provision for it. There appears
to be no fixed freighting tariff established for boats, and the
aquatic tourist is placed at the mercy of agents who too frequently,
in their zeal for the interests of their employers, heavily tax the
owner of the craft. The agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad in
Philadelphia was sorely puzzled to know what to charge for a BOAT. He
had loaded thousands of cars for Pittsburgh, but could find only one
precedent to guide him. "We took a boat once to Pittsburgh," he said,
"for twenty-five dollars, and yours should be charged the same." The
shipping-clerk of a mercantile house, who had overheard the
conversation, interrupted the agent with a loud laugh. "A charge of
twenty-five dollars freight on a little thing like that! WHY, MAN,
THAT SUM IS NEARLY HALF HER VALUE! How LARGE was the boat you shipped
last fall to Pittsburgh for twenty-five dollars?" "Oh, about twice the
size of this one," answered the agent; "but, size or no size, a boat's
a boat, and we handle so few of them that we have no special tariff on
them." "But," said the clerk, "you can easily and honestly establish a
tariff if you will treat a boat as you do all other freight of the
same class. Now, for instance, how do common boats rank, as first or
third class freight?" "Third class, I should think," slowly responded
the agent. "Ease your conscience, my friend," continued the clerk, "by
weighing the boat, and charging the usual tariff rate for third class
freight."
The boat, with its cargo still locked up inside, was put upon the
scales, and the total weight was three hundred and ten pounds, for
which a charge of seventy-two cents per one hundred pounds was made,
and the boat placed on some barrels in a car. Thus did the common-
sense and business-like arrangement of the friendly clerk secure for
me the freight charge of two dollars and twenty-three cents, instead
of twenty-five dollars, on a little boat for its carriage three
hundred and fifty-three miles to Pittsburgh, and saved me not only
from a pecuniary loss, but also from the uncomfortable feeling of
being imposed upon.
In these days of canoe and boat voyages, when portages by rail are a
necessary evil, a fixed tariff for such freight would save dollars and
tempers, and some action in the matter is anxiously looked for by all
interested parties.
I gave a parting look at my little craft snugly ensconced upon the top
of a pile of barrels, and smiled as I turned away, thinking how
precious she had already become to me, and philosophizing upon the
strange genus, man, who could so readily twine his affections about an
inanimate object. Upon consideration, it did not seem so strange a
thing, however, for did not this boat represent the work of brains and
hands for a generation past? Was it not the result of the study and
hard-earned experiences of many men for many years? Men whose humble
lives had been spent along the rough coast in daily struggles with the
storms of ocean and of life? Many of them now slept in obscure graves,
some in the deep sea, others under the tender, green turf; but here
was the concentration of their ideas, the ultimatum of their labors,
and I inwardly resolved, that, since to me was given the enjoyment, to
them should be the honor, and that it should be through no fault of
her captain if the Centennial Republic did not before many months
reach her far-distant point of destination, twenty-six hundred miles
away, on the white strands of the Gulf of Mexico.