I've always been fascinated by the history of stuff and wooden boats are no exception. I'm actually a bit jealous when I read all the neat stuff written by Brad, Roger, and others; it would seem you people out west have a much more "storied" history than us folks here in PA.

Besides, differences in the types of rivers and the availability of plywood, I would guess the biggest reason for us not having much of a wooden boat history is due to pollution. By the mid 1800's we had pretty much decimated all the major rivers around where I live. Even as a kid, many of the rivers that I fish now were extremley unproductive due to the effects of coal mining, logging, steel production, etc. So while our area is quite famous in terms of fishing and fly fishing (first split-cane bamboo rods, first streams to be fly fished, etc.) a lack of good fishing on the "big water" would probably kill anybody's motivation for building any kind of boat.

These effects are still felt today: I can count the drift boat owners on the rivers that I fish on one, maybe two hands. I know pretty much all of them and they're all guides and none of them are wooden boat people. You can imagine I get some pretty strange looks in my boat. Maybe you see why there's not much wooden boat history here.

Anyway, the other day I was fortuiotous enough to stumble across a little wooden boat history. I-78 was a parking lot, and I decided to take some previously-untravelled back roads to my work in Easton, PA. While passing through the sleepy little town of Durham, PA I came across a real cool wooden boat that (it turns out) has a little bit of Christmas history associated with it. I thought I'd share.

  Turns out, back in the day (say mid 1700's) Durham wasn't such a sleepy little town (population was about the same, just less sleepy). They had two claims to fame, which made it quite a happening place: 1) There was a munitions forge there called the Durham furnace - they made lots and lots of cannonballs 2) They also specialized in making a the big old caravel -planked wooden boats called, not suprisingly, the "Durham" boat after their creator and the towns founder. These were used on the Delaware river (about a stone's throw away).

On the one pictured above you can see the stations for 4 oarsmen (2 per side) and a rudder in the rear. This must have been quite a thing comming down the class I/II rapids of the middle Delaware river. What's even more impressive is that they would load the things up with the cannonballs made at the furnace and run them down the river to Philadelphia. Talk about doin' it for all the marbles - I imagine you had to pick your lines VERY carefully. Must have been a bear to manuver too.

Pictured below are some of the boat details: oar locks, ribs, rudder, etc.

The Christmas part of the story enters into the picture with a prety well known float trip. You see, one of the original owners of a few Durham boats was a pretty famous guy in his own right. Emanuel Leutze memoralized this famous float trip a number of years later in the painting shown below that you may recognize.

So Christmas Eve, 1776 this proud Durham boat owner named George Washington floats across he Delaware in order to teach the Hessians stationed in Trenton, NJ a thing or two about a thing or two. The rest, as they say, is history. So, what little wooden boat history we got here in eastern PA turns out to be fairly memorable.. 

Anyway, driving by the other day and seeing the boat all decked out for the holidays, made me feel down right Christmas-ey and I thought you all might get a kick out of it.

Best wishes to you all for a joyous holiday season - JG