INTRODUCTION
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To make my story more intelligible to readers not
acquainted with rafting
or steamboats, I will explain some of the terms and expressions used
frequently in our daily work:
To keep a raft-boat going on steadily required a double crew; that is,
two pilots, two engineers, two or four firemen according to the size of the
boat, two ash haulers and two watchmen or' Nigger-runners'. Half of these are
'on watch' (on duty) at a time and the other are 'off watch'.
On a few boats they stand straight six-hour watches changing at break-
fast time, dinner and supper time, and at midnight or 1 A.M., but on most
boats stand the 'dog watch' in which they divide the day in two and the
night into three watches changing after breakfast, dinner and supper as
usual but at 11 P.M. and 3 A.M. or at Midnight and 4 A.M.
To 'call the watch' means to wake up the other pilots, engineers and
firemen who are to go on duty. This is the pleasant part of the watchmen's
life. The mate on raft-boats and his crew on deck do not stand any regular
watch. They are called up when needed. They often get 'all night
in' but sometimes they strike what is called a ' Dutch watch' which means
'twenty-four hours and come on again’.
The men in the deck crew are entered in the portage Book as Seaman but
in practice are called Roosters, Rounders, Rousthans or The Men as 'Get the
Men out and tighten up the lines' a common order.
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The boats 'nose' is the extreme point of her hull forward, generally called
the 'bow'.
In John Hay's story of Jim Bludso and the 'Prairie Belle' he has Jim cry
out-' I'll bring her nose again the bank till the last galoot's ashore', and
every paper or book that has retold this story has used the word 'nozzle'
instead of 'nose', making it ridiculous.
A steamboat has many nozzles. One on the loose end of every section of
fire hose and one in the lower end of each chimney to confine the exhaust
from the engines.
A green man may speak of 'hiring out' to work on a boat, but one soon
learns to use the word' ship' instead. He signs a ' Shipping List' or
'Shipping Articles', a form of contract.
The question is often asked why we use the feminine pronoun in speaking
of
a boat. Why always say she? I've heard many reasons given:
Because it takes a smart man to manage her.
Because no two of them are alike.
Because they need a little touching up with paint now and then
to look right.
Because her title is not complete without a 'husband'. (Until
recent years every American vessel's Annual License had to have
someone named in it as 'Ships-husband or managing-owner.') Because she moves with such grace and quiet dignity.
Occasionally someone builds a freak so homely and awkward
looking that we all refer to it as 'it'. No one uses the feminine
in speaking of it.
We always say 'make it fast' instead of 'tie it up' and we say
'let go' or ' let her go' instead of 'untie it' and in speaking
of a person looking sickly or run down we say ' he looks like he's
all let go.'
We use quantities of rope, good manila rope that
comes in large …
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… coils but we don't have any ropes on the boat or rafts, they are
all 'lines' from the small quarter-inch stuff to the heavy inch
and three-quarter to check the lines.
In running rafts through bridges or a piece of narrow, crooked river
where we have to divide the raft and take one-half through at a time
the usual way is to move the boat over on the outside half or piece-
then let go all the coupling lines except one at each end of the raft,
back the towboat to kill the headway and get the stern near shore in a
favorable place. Then the mate sends the linesmen ashore in a skiff with
the end of the check line which they make fast to a tree and the mate takes
turns with the bight on the check works built on the piece near
the stern and when he gets a good strain on the check line, the two
couplings lines are let go, the boat stops backing and proceeds with her
piece while the mate lands his piece by judiciously rendering and then
holding his line on the check works till the piece swings in to shore
and stops.
Then the linesmen pick up the mate and his helper and overtake the
towboat.
When below the bridge or bad place the pilot lands his first piece;
goes back up and gets the second piece and when below the bridge
or bad place that he 'split' for, he backs the second piece in beside
the first one keeps on backing it to hold it up against the current
while the crew put back and tighten up the lines that hold the two
pieces together. This is 'coupling up' and when completed the pilot
backs the whole raft out in the river and lets it float while they move
the boat over to the middle and get her all 'hitched in' to proceed
down river.
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This whole operation at a bridge is called ' double tripping.
Another way to run bridges is to move the boat over on one piece,
let go the coupling lines and back on the boat's piece while the
other one floats ahead until it can be swung in just ahead and made
fast close up to the bow of the boat piece, making a 'double header'
only a half raft wide and two rafts long. By backing slow this long
timber mass can be placed in shape to slide through the draw span
of most bridges.
When below the bridge and clear of the shore the two pieces are
coupled up again while floating along and the boat moved back to her
place in the middle on the stern of the whole raft.
After bow-boats came into common use some pilots quite frequently
'split on the pier' at bridges like LaCrosse, Dubuque or Sabula where
each side of the long or pivot pier was opened and clear, and the shore span
has a sheer boom or stationary 'fence' to slide through on.
'Splitting on the pier' meant moving both the tow-boat and the bow-
boat over on the piece that was to run the span on the outside of the
long sharp-pointed draw-pier.
Holding on to the other piece with coupling lines till they got it in
shape, to let go so it would float and slide along the fence or sheer
boom the two boats one at each end of the other piece, could back it
out so it would slide along the outside of the long pier and with a little
shoving by the tow-boat it was soon placed beside the floating piece
and coupled up.
This was a very clever performance when properly done and was the
quickest method of all.
Saddle-bagging an island, bar or bridge-pier meant drifting or settling
down on to onto it sideways, to either…
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break in two or to wallop around
it horseshoe shape and hang there.
This was a very serious affair and the usual comment by the deck
crew was that 'He (the pilot) made an ape's tail of her.
Aside from that derived from experience and observation I gained
a lot of information about rafting from George Tromley and Stephen
Hanks who were engaged in the work from the start; from E.W. Durant,
James Hugunin, George Rutherford, J.M. Hawthorne and others who learned the
river while pulling an oar on floating rafts before steamboats were used
to tow them.
I learned most from Sam R. Van Sant who built the first real raft
boat. He was my employer for four years and my associate in business
for forty years thereafter. He was always well informed about the
rafting business outside of our own boats and their operations.
All these men I have mentioned were not only intelligent gentlemen
but careful in their statements and dependable for their good judgement
and their honesty. They never gave me what the slang users call 'a bum
steer'.
In the material I had saved up to use in this work were the lists of
raft-boats, their owners, their masters and home ports found in the
appendix. These were made out by Captain Van Sant and myself and
published in local papers. We were careful in preparing these lists and
know they are correct.
Lists of Pilots, engineers and mates were made out later from memory.
The list of pilots is complete for I had excellent help to make it so. I know
the other lists are not complete but we could do no better.
I have been greatly assisted by many kind friends …
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who have shown a
genuine interest in my task by hunting up and sending me photographs
to illustrate the work and information to guide or correct me. I want
also to acknowledge the courtesy of my Publisher, Mr. Arthur H. Clark,
for his valuable suggestions and changes made in the preparation of
this manuscript.
I want especially to acknowledge my indebtedness to my friend, Captain
Fred A. Bill of Saint Paul, Minnesota, who edited the Life and Adventures
Stephan b. Hanks, published in the Saturday Evening Post of Burlington, Iowa,
1921-1922, and who has made many original and interesting contributions to the Burlington Post and other papers that have encouraged
the study of what the preceding generation was doing on our great waterways.
The Burlington Post also published Recollections of the Old River by Captain J. M. Turner of Lansing, Iowa, from which I secured some of the most
interesting facts in the captain's long and successful life.
The Burlington Post in August, 1926, began publishing the Memories of
Captain Sam R. Van Sant, my old-time employer and long-time business
associate, who, is better known as Ex- governor of Minnesota for two terms.
The chapters are very interesting but it is impossible to get the
governor to furnish copy regularly. Although eighty-three past, he is so
active in G.A.R. work and politics that the Memories were laid aside
during
the presidential campaign.
My information about early logging on the river above Saint Anthony's
Falls
was derived from the Personal Narratives of Daniel Stanchfield published in
the Minnesota Historical Society's Collections, vol. ix, pages 324-362.
My authority about operations on the Saint Croix river …
21
is based on
a paper read at the Monthly meeting of the Executive council of the
Minnesota Historical Society, April 11, 1904, by Captain Edward
Durant of Stillwater- see Minnesota Historical Collections, vol. x, part
Ii, pages 644-675.
Authorities for early operations on the Chippewa, Black, and Wisconsin rivers are History of Lumber and Forest Industry of the Northwest, G.W. Hotchkiss, Publisher, Chicago, 1898,and an article on
Waterway and Lumber Interests of Western Wisconsin by John Milton Holley, A.B.
in 'Wisconsin Historical Society's Proceedings, 1906,' pages
211-212- through the kindness of Annie A. Nunns, Assistant Superintendent.
My authority for the output of logs through Beef Slough
Boom 1807-
1889 and for that of West Newton Slough, 1889-1896 is the American
Lumberman, James E. Defenbaugh, vol. i, 1907.
For the output from West Newton 1897 to 1904, I could only get
partial reports from the Surveyor- general of Logs and Lumber of
Minnesota and from other sources which enabled me to make the estimate
given. It is very close to the actual figures.
The reported output of the Saint Paul Boom 1888 to 1916 is complete
as given by the Surveyor- general of Logs and Lumber of Minnesota.
My authority for information about the organization and operations
of the
M.R.L. Co. or 'Pool' as it was usually called is The Mississippi River
Logging Company - an historical, sketch by Matthew G. Norton, 1912. Mr.
Norton of 'Laird' Norton & Co.' of Winona, Minn., was a prominent
member of the company.
The records of the rafting industry are nearly all
scattered and
lost. I cannot fully express my gratitude to those who have helped me gather
up and arrange …
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all we could and in order to preserve some reliable information about a
great, useful, profitable, and interesting activity that began in 1840
and ended in in 1915.
Steamer Morning Star of Davenport in 1911
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HISTORY