Paddle (boat)

“ So many turns of the paddle are necessary before the bows answer. Perhaps the current meanwhile is sweeping you sideways, or a whirlpool jumps up under the boat, or you strike a back-eddy, or something strange happens to complicate the impetus and direction of the boat, and, lo! she does not answer to your stroke. You have to lift the huge paddle and strain every muscle again to repeat your stroke and bring her round. In the end she always comes round, but if a rock, or a bridge, or a rapid is close upon you, this loss of time is a serious matter! ”

“ Marco took the paddle from Forester's hand. He had never seen one before. He said that they always used oars, not paddles, in New York harbor. A paddle is shaped very differently from an oar. It is much shorter and lighter,--though the blade is broader. A paddle is worked, too, differently from an oar. An oar acts as a lever against the side of the boat,--the middle of it resting in a small notch called a row-lock, or between two wooden pins. But a paddle is held in the hands entirely. ”

“ The paddle is 7 feet long, flat-bladed, with a breadth of 6 inches in each palm, which is copper-banded, and made of the best spruce fir, the weight being little over 2 lbs. The spoon-shaped blade is better for speed, and a longer paddle is suitable for a racing-boat, but for a travelling canoe, where long paddling, occasional sailing, and frequent “shoving,” require the instrument to combine lightness, straight edge, handiness, and strength, it is found that a short paddle is best for the varied work of a protracted voyage. ”

“ Swing the paddle back, keeping it close to the canoe, and give a little twist to the upper wrist to set the paddle at the proper angle shown in the photos. The exact angle depends upon the trim of the boat, the wind, etc., and must be such that the canoe does not swerve at any part of the stroke, but travels straight ahead. The lower arm acts mainly as a fulcrum and does not move back and forth more than a foot. The power comes from the upper arm and shoulder, and the body bends forward as the weight is thrown on the paddle. ”

“ In the forepart a stout stick some ten feet long stands up as a mast and supports a small sail, and amid-ships a short rail, supported on two uprights, enabled the two men who form the crew to hold on when much knocked about by the waves. A single paddle seems to serve as a rudder, but it is not easy to understand how such a rude substitute for a boat is able to work out to sea against the breeze which commonly sets towards the shore. ”

“ You should sit near the middle when alone, for, if too far toward the stern, the prow lifts up, and a puff of wind is sufficient to tip over the boat. If an upset occurs, don’t forget to keep a firm grasp upon your paddle, and don’t swim away from the overturned canoe. One of the craft seldom overturns completely, because you are pretty sure to plunge overboard so suddenly that the boat hasn’t time to take in much water. It is easy to climb in again, provided you know how to do it. Lay your paddle across the gunwale, your left hand grasping the paddle and middle brace ”

“ The advantage of oars as best used, over paddles, as commonly used, is that the oar is turned edgewise on entering and leaving the water, thus avoiding the waste of power. An ordinary paddle wastes power on leaving the water by lifting a weight of water, and tending to force down the boat, increasing the friction on the shaft; to meet this difficulty paddles are made to feather mechanically, similarly to the oars, but this involves more costly machinery in a position exposed to much wear. ”

“ Tom sat in the bow of his boat, Hunting Dog was next to him, then came the chief, and Harry sat in the stern. A paddle is a much easier implement to manage for a beginner than is an oar, and it was not long before they found that they could propel the boats at a fair rate. ”

“ But it is no matter how narrow the boat is if he has a paddle, for he holds it perpendicularly over the side."
"So paddles are better," said Marco, "for one kind of boat, and oars for another."
"Yes," replied Forester, "and paddles are better for one kind of navigation, and oars for another. Oars require greater breadth of water to work in. In a narrow, crooked stream flowing among logs and rocks, oars would not answer at all. But with a paddle a man can worm a boat through anywhere." ”

“ This exercise is very amusing at the age of twenty, but the fun grows feeble as time goes on. My boat was not made to be rowed, but to be paddled, either with the short single-bladed paddle which is used by the fishermen of the Dordogne, and which they call a 'shovel,' or by the one that is dipped on both sides of the canoe alternately. There being rapids about every half-mile on the Vézère, and the current in places being very strong, I realized that no paddler would be able to get up the stream without help, and so I induced my landlord to accompany me and to bring a pole. ”

“ Nevertheless, paddle-boats have their advantages. They need less water to work in, are started more easily, and stopped sooner. Further, it is said they are less liable to cause sea-sickness, as they do not roll so much. ”

“ Seventeen days of paddling a fifty-foot boat made of great planks and laden with five tons [Pg 109] of goods, hauling it over portages, is not exactly a picnic, and the men certainly earned their forty-eight cents a day. And so they thumped and scraped their much-worn paddles along the gunwales of that old boat, worn smooth with constant paddling, and they sang their everlasting paddle song with more cheerfulness than they had done for days.
Finally Captain Peter spoke something to the bowman while he swung his steering paddle over, and our craft put in shore. ”

“ There should be conical cups of vulcanised India rubber to catch the dribbling water, and, if possible, some plan (not yet devised) for preventing or arresting the drops from the paddle ends, which fall on the [294] deck when you paddle slowly, and when there is not enough centrifugal force to throw this water away from the boat.
The painter ought to be of the best flexible rope, not tarred, well able to bear 200 lb. weight; more than 20 feet of rope is a constant encumbrance. ”

“ In the course of time they found that a long paddle worked by men standing up was more effective than a short paddle worked by anyone sitting down, as well as being much more useful for work in shallow water where the paddles being cut long are available as poles for pushing the boat along. ”

“ He had previously complimented me on my paddling, saying that I paddled “just like anybody,” giving me an Indian name which meant “great paddler.” When off this stream he said to me, who sat in the bows, “Me teach you paddle.” So, turning toward the shore, he got out, came forward, and placed my hands as he wished. He placed one of them quite outside the boat, and the other parallel with the first, grasping the paddle near the end, not over the flat extremity, and told me to slide it back and forth on the side of the canoe. ”

“ In the larger canoes one sees the first step towards a fixed rudder and tiller, a modified form of paddle being fixed securely to one side of the stern, in such a way that the blade can be turned so as either to have its edges fore and aft, or its sides presented at a greater or less angle to the water, according to the direction in which it is desired to steer the boat. ”

“ I threw them the auger, and explained that I was ready to start, and should wait for no one; and, cutting two bamboos, I arranged a mast and yard, upon which I fitted a large Scotch plaid for a sail. We shoved off the boat; fortunately we had two or three spare paddles, therefore the rudder paddle was not missed. I took the helm, and instructed my men to think of nothing but pulling hard. Away we went as straight as an arrow, to the intense delight of my people. There was very little wind, but a light air filled the plaid and eased us gently forward. ”

“ In the first place, they have no mast, cordage, tackle, rigging, or other such boat-like gear; nor have they anything in their shape at all calculated to remind one of a boat’s head, stem, sides, or keel. Except that they are in the water, and display a couple of paddle-boxes, they might be intended, for anything that appears to the contrary, to perform some unknown service, high and dry, upon a mountain top. There is no visible deck, even: nothing but a long, black, ugly roof covered with burnt-out feathery sparks ”

“ The Success consists of two sections, to be disconnected for passing the locks, with paddle-wheel machinery at the bow. Her wheel, inside of the paddles, is a drum or cylinder, filled with cork, to be buoyant, and the hull has an easy, scow bow, for the water to pass under the boat. Practically, the large drum makes her a horizontal, cylindrical-bowed boat, and she mechanically throws the water therefrom against the scow-shaped bow, and so that the cylinder displacement with the mechanical currents, and the scow-bow displacement, combine to make her very slow. ”

“ Captain Lyon mentions that in one of these boats, measuring twenty-five feet in length by eight in width and three in depth, more than twenty human beings were conveyed. There are two very clumsy paddles by which the boat is slowly propelled, and it is steered by another paddle in the stern. The post of steerer is usually occupied by an old man, who is unable any more to manage the kia, but is still capable of guiding the oomiak, and of flinging a knife, a harpoon, a seal hook, or anything that may come to hand, at the women, if they neglect their paddling. ”

“ The lower hand thus serves as a fulcrum for the other.
A small boat may be propelled by a single rower, who, sitting at the stern, uses the paddle on one side only, and keeps the boat straight by turning the paddle as he finishes his stroke. In a boat of medium size one man seated at the stern devotes himself to steering with his paddle, although here and there among the coast-people a fixed rudder is used. In a war boat of the largest size, the two men occupying the bow-bench and the four men on the two stern-most benches are responsible for the steering ”

“ The cloth that projects beyond the gunwale may be used for the deck, or it may be cut off after bringing it over and tacking upon the inside of the gunwale, leaving the canoe open like a birch-bark.
To Paddle a Canoe
No one can expect to learn to paddle a canoe from a book, however explicit the directions may be. There is only one way to learn to swim and that is by going into the water and trying it, and the only proper way to learn to paddle a canoe is to paddle one until you catch the knack. ”

“ This singular fishing-boat only conveys one man, who manages it with the greatest adroitness imaginable; the right hand being employed in using the paddle, the left in conducting the net, and the teeth in holding the line. ”

“ That which retains the paddle-wheel in favor to-day, and renders it a necessity in spite of argument or prejudice, is the fact that the screw requires that the draft of the ship shall not be less than its own diameter, whereas in the largest paddle boats a dip of wheel of six feet is generally sufficient. Hence it is that nearly all fast steamers plying on rivers or shallow estuaries, and channel steamers running to ports where there is little water when the tide is low, are of necessity paddle-wheel. ”

“ The backboard, Fig. 5, is seventeen inches long, the strips being two and one-fourth inches wide, and the same distance apart; it swings on the coaming at the back of the well.
Two coats of paint should be put on, and the paddle varnished.
A deck of half-inch pine, laid from No. 9 to No. 10, under the canvas, allows the canoeist to sit on deck sometimes in paddling.
In entering the boat, step in the centre (facing the bow) , and, with a hand on each gunwale, drop into the seat. ”

“ The actual paddling is not difficult to learn, that is, the paddling required from an ordinary member of the crew. But the man in the bow and, still more, the man in the stern need the highest kind of skilful daring to take them safely through. Paddling by oneself also requires a special touch, only to be learnt by long practice. Even in dead water it takes some time before a novice can send the canoe straight ahead when paddling on one side only. As the paddle goes aft the bow naturally tends to turn towards the other side. ”

“ Not a word is spoken, not a paddle blade allowed to click against the bone gun'els of the skiff. Double-bladed paddles are frequently used, so shift of paddle is made from side to side of the canoe without a change of hands. The skin shallops take to the water as noiselessly as the glide of a duck. Yonder, where the boulders lie mile on mile awash in the surf, kelp rafts—forests of seaweed—lift and fall with the rhythmical wash of the tide. Hither the otter hunters steer, silent as shadows. The circle widens, deploys, forms a cordon round the outermost rim of the kelp fields. ”

“ To plunge the bare arms to the elbow into the river as you go, and let the cool water curl up to the biceps; to feel the soft breeze on bare head and neck; to be far from the busy crowds in the cities, with all the senses awake to new and fascinating objects—the swirl of rapid water, the brown and yellow stones on the bottom of the river, the large, free movements of clouds, the strange flowers on the bank; to grip the paddle with an agreeable sense of power in shoulder and hand; to brace the feet strongly against the foot-rest and feel the canoe spring with the elastic force of the stroke ”