of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 81-82
THE CLINTON "NIGGER." "By 1870 the business of towing rafts by steamboat had become well established but considerable trouble attended all their efforts to properly handle and guide the rafts until Chauncey Lamb, of Clinton, Iowa, invented the famous 'Clinton Nigger,' since then in use on every boat in the rafting business. By its use the boat's position can be easily and quickly changed so as to shove forward or back up in different directions as the change in wind or course of the river may require. The boat's head is made fast to the stern of the raft as near the middle as possible, and the stern is held in position by two gang lines of large ropes made fast on the stern corners of the raft and rove around the drums of the 'Clinton Nigger' placed aft of the boat's center and amidships. 'Running the Nigger' pulls in one gang line and passes out the other, changing the direction of the boat accordingly. A boat hitched in this way can handle a much heavier tow than if hitched in stiff depending entirely on the rudders for steering and handling. During the early part of 1895 the steamer Saturn, 120 feet long, twenty-four feet wide, with engine fifteen inches in diameter, four and a half feet stroke, made a very successful trip to St. Louis with a raft of lumber 1,584 feet long and 272 feet wide, containing over 7,000,000 feet of lumber besides shingles, laths and pickets enough to load a good sized steamer. About the same time the steamer E. Rutledge brought to Rock Island a raft of logs 1,450 feet long and 285 feet wide, containing over 2,000,000 feet log measure. Either of these rafts would cover ten acres, but were brought successfully through some very narrow, crooked places.
"Floating rafts are a thing of the past and many of the famous old floating pilots have long since crossed to the other shore. They were a strong, hardy, self-reliant lot of men, accustomed to exposure, hard work, long watches and the handling of the rough, boisterous men who composed their crew. When wind-bound or tied up near some small town where liquors were to be had, these raftsmen of the olden time were much inclined to paint things a very brilliant color, and where local authorities failed to control them they generally hunted up the pilot to take charge of his men and save the town.
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