Fig. 9.—Irish Curragh.
Another description of boat made of canvas is the Irish Curragh ([Fig. 9]), used principally in the south-west of Ireland. Some of these boats are of considerable size—I have seen one twenty-six feet by four feet beam—and are used in the heaviest weather and the roughest seas, and from their extreme lightness are wonderfully good sea boats, the peculiar construction of the bow, which rises very much, lifting the boat over the seas. They have a strong frame made of ribs with stringers spaced only about three inches apart. The stringers run the whole length of the boat, which is something of the shape of half a barrel greatly elongated. They are simply and easily constructed, and are covered with common canvas. Several coatings of a preparation of tar are given to the canvas, converting it into a species of tarpaulin, and as the interior framework is very close it is impossible to stand or press in any way on the canvas skin, which is thus kept from injury from that source. The curragh is propelled by paddles used as sculls, and a large one has six men, each pulling two paddles. They have no rowlocks, but an iron pin stands up from the gunwale, and a chock is fixed to the paddle with a hole to fit the iron pin. In this way the paddles can be left without being unshipped if necessary, and fall alongside the boat with no chance of being lost.
The [coracle] used for fishing in Ireland and in Wales is merely a framework, sometimes of wicker and sometimes of wood, somewhat in the shape of the half of a walnut-shell. They are generally covered with leather, and are extremely light.
Since writing the above I have seen a paper which, to those who can afford the price, is the very thing to employ in building a canoe or small boat. I allude to the Willesden paper, invented by the late Dr. Scoffern. This paper is thoroughly water-proof, and is manufactured in all thicknesses. The best for the purpose is about one-eighth of an inch thick. It runs in sufficient length to build an ordinary canoe in one piece, and the width, being fifty-three inches, is amply sufficient. The price is five shillings per yard run, which, for a canoe say fifteen feet long, would be twenty-five shillings, and would be the principal part of the cost. This paper will not only make a strong and safe boat, but also a very handsome and fast one, as, being in one piece, there is no joining or unevenness, but one perfectly smooth surface, offering little resistance to the water. For the purpose of building models it would be hard to find a better substitute for wood, and in most cases it would be found far cheaper.
Fig. 10.—Canadian Batteau.
The Canadian batteau ([Fig. 10]) is a class of boat that is very easily constructed in paper, canvas, or wood, and you will see from the plan how it is made. It differs from the preceding canoe in that it is flat-bottomed, the American paper canoe approaching it most nearly in shape, though in the batteau the flat bottom is wider, and the sides are also flat, flaring out a good deal.
Fig. 11.—Double Canoe of the South Seas.