Shifts and expedients of camp life, travel & exploration

by William Barry Lord; Thomas Baines

Drive as many rough stakes into the ground as the number of sheets in your intended boat requires. Let these near the centre be three and a half or four feet high, and these at the ends slightly lower. Stretch a chalk line fore and aft, and see that all their centres are in true alignment and 1ft. 10in. apart. The line should be fastened to two posts in the same line as, but beyond these required for, the boat. Let it come low enough just to touch the central posts, then measure downwards from the line the amount necessary to be cut off those towards the ends, so as to give the proper sheer. Next, commencing from the centre, face off with a saw, or otherwise, as much of each post as is needful to let each frame lie truly against it, noticing that as the bottom of each is farther from the next than the top or part near the gunwale, it is more convenient to face that side of the post which looks towards the centre; then, with any rough slabs or planks, form two moulds the exact size and form of your midship section, just as bricklayers would do if they were building an arch. Nail these to their proper supports, and on them bend the strips, 2in. broad by 1/4in. thick, you intend for ribs, letting only one edge rest on the mould, while the other projects so far that you may have clear space to bore through the centre the holes for your screw-bolts. Do the same with all the others towards the two ends, confining them with a temporary ribband where the gunwale is afterwards to be; or, still better, leaving their ends 6in. too long, so that this ribband may not interfere with the completion of the boat. Have a chalk line stretched near the ground, along either side, parallel with the centre one above, so that any deviation from the proper form can be measured and corrected. Then lay on the sheets, insert the bolts, and screw them up, adding a keel or centre batten, bilge streaks, and gunwales, externally, and bottom boards to prevent the occupant treading on the copper, and stringers for the thwarts inside. The projecting ends of the ribs can be left where required for rowlocks, or cut off where they are not.

The same process, with attention to the different dimensions, will make you a copper boat, consisting of nine sheets, 2ft. by 4ft.; and this will be 16ft. long, 3ft. 3in. wide, and 10in. deep; but if the gunwales were made of plank, 4½in. wide, or half the width of a deal, the skiff would be quite deep enough to carry three or four persons in moderately smooth water.

If you wish to build the same boat of wood, ⅜in. planks (not more than 4in. wide) will be stout enough. The lines radiating from the centre in the sectional drawing are given for the purpose of showing the progressive diminution of the planks in width, from the central section towards each end. These should be tested by cutting strips of card and tacking them, like planks, on the block that serves as your model.

This would be a very handy form for a dingy for the traveller’s personal use, as it might be taken to pieces, and the sheets laid flat, occupying a space of 2ft. by 4in. in extent, and less than 1in. in depth, or they might be rolled up in three bundles, of which each must weigh less than 24lb., as the weight of the whole nine sheets of copper before being cut would be only 72lb. The screw-bolts would weigh probably more than the sheeting, but they could be divided into packets of any convenient weight for carriage by native porters or otherwise; and we should think that half a day would be quite sufficient to put the whole together when wanted, or take it apart when done with. The boat would pull or paddle, and would sail well enough off the wind, but would not compete with a keeled boat close hauled; if the iron sheets were used, she would, of course, be larger and heavier, and the material would be less portable.

In the boat built for Mr. E. D. Young, for use on the Shire river and Lake Nyassa, thin sheets of steel were at first proposed, but as these could not be readily obtained, the best iron was used, and the edges of these being turned upward and inward, formed the ribs of the boat, each sheet being connected by bolts passing through this inward edge to the next sheets before and behind it. This form of construction combines all the elements of lightness, simplicity, and strength; but we do not recommend it to a traveller who has to work up his own material, because none but a skilled workman could turn inward a broad segment of a sheet of metal, the outer surface of which has to present a curve. If anyone doubts this, let him try it by folding half an inch of the edge of a sheet of paper to a right angle with the other part, he will then find it impossible for him to impart a curvature to the sheet without tearing the upturned edge if he bends it outward, or wrinkling it if he gives the contrary curve. If he wished to adopt this form of joining the parts, his plan would be to cut up his sheets of copper into planks 4ft. long, and 8in. broad, then gauging a line all round 2in. within the edge, cut out the squares at the four corners and turn up the borders all round, he would thus have out of one sheet of copper 4ft. by 2in., three planks 4in. wide, and 3ft. 8in. in length, a waste of material that hardly any circumstance could justify.

Metal boats.

In 1858 we made a model of a metal boat, about thirty feet long, by six feet beam, to carry a crew of sixteen men, each of whom, when it was taken to pieces, should not find his share of the load to exceed 50lb. each of the thwarts; and the bow and stern sheets were continued downward so as to form a water-tight box, the lower outline of which coincided with the section of the boat, so as to supply the place of ribs and convert her into a lifeboat. Indeed, we would advise that in all metal boats some such portions should assume the form of lockers or of reservoirs of air, so that, should the boat be swamped or become leaky, she might not sink even when filled with water.

Our model was approved by Captain Washington, R.N., the Secretary at that time of the Lifeboat Institution, and the builder to whom we submitted it estimated the weight of the sheet copper and bolts of the same to be employed in the hull at 260lb. and the cost at 60l., while the internal fittings, somewhat less in weight, would cost 40l. This expense Dr. Livingstone considered to be too great; but, when we reached the Zambesi, it was a matter of frequent regret that we had not some form of boat portable enough to be carried over rough country to rivers we wished to explore.