Trapping Boats of the Champlain Basin: Mystery Boat, 10/16 and 17

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Mystery Boat, 10/16 and 17

Ben, Christian, Douglas, and Renee visited a boat in Weybridge. A former owner of a Weybridge farm doesn't know anything about it, so it is very old - possibly over 100 years old? With some creativity, we managed to get the boat down (it appears to have been built into the barn). It is wider and slightly longer than the boats we saw at the farm in Panton. It has finer construction, but is in very rough shape. It had oarlocks (possibly not on the original construction), and front, middle, and back seats (once upon a time). It is a vernacular boat - built by someone to suit their needs. It had no tin as the other trapping boats did to protect them from the ice. Whether it was used for trapping or not, we took measurements of it. On Saturday, Ben and I worked with Douglas to make drawings of the boat from our measurements. If done correctly, the boat could be repli

cated exactly from the drawings. Due to some variations in method, a Japanese ruler, and the poor condition of the boat, it may be hard to make anything from our drawings. But, we learned our lessons, drew some lines anyway, and will probably return soon to re-measure the boat.

Ben and Douglas are in the loft of the barn, and Ben is holding the boat up with straps while Christian removes the support.

- Renee

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Clementine JangOctober 20, 2009 at 2:26 AM
This is really great Renee. I really admire this _ Clem
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Welcome

Follow Christian, Ben, and Renee as they research trapping boats with boatbuilder Douglas Brooks. During the fur trade and more recently, dairy farmers of the Champlain Valley trapped muskrats in home-made boats for supplemental income. No documentation of these boats exist, and they are rotting away in barns. We set out to hear the oral history of muskrat trapping, photograph and draw plans of existing boats, and eventually build a boat or two of our own. Ben hopes to make an interactive map with video documenting the boats we find, and Christian and Renee plan to write historical journalism pieces for credit at Middlebury College.

Douglas Brooks is a boat builder, writer and researcher who specializes in the construction of traditional American and Japanese boats. He is a graduate of Trinity College and the Middlebury Summer Language School (Japanese). He has done four apprenticeships with boat builders in Japan and built boats for museums and private client across the United States. He has published in magazines such as WoodenBoat and Classic Boat, and he is currently working on his second book. You can contact him and learn more about his work at his website: http://www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com/. Douglas lives in Vergennes, Vermont.

Ben Meader, bmeader@middlebury.edu
Ben is a senior Feb at Middlebury who likes boats and maps. This will be his bio until he changes it.

Christian Woodard is obsessed with kayaks, canoes and boats of all sorts. He wishes he were paddling right now, but is consoled by posting things on the internet instead. He is from Upstate New York (the flat part), and has enjoyed both working and playing with boats for the whole of his short life. He's a junior at Middlebury College studying nonfiction writing with the ES department.

Renee Igo, rigo@middlebury.edu
Renee is a junior at Middlebury who likes boats, hand tools, and ethnography. She is from Minnesota and has no intention of harming any bullfrogs for this project. She is an Environmental Studies major with a focus in nonfiction writing. She likes many outdoor pursuits, but especially trail work, canoeing, and ice skating.

Trapping Boats of the Champlain Basin

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Mystery Boat, 10/16 and 17

1 comment:

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