Re: MtMan-List: Rubber goods

["John L. Allen" <jlallen@snet.net>]

More on the collapsible boat of Lewis and Clark:

As my original message stated, the iron frame boat was intended to be
covered with skins or bark. Rubber was never--as far as I know--even
suggested.

The boat was NOT carried across the mountains. It was abandoned during the
portage around Great Falls (of the Missouri). After covering the iron frame
with skins on July 9, 1805 (above the Great Falls), to produce the
collapsible boat, Lewis tried to make her river-worthy. The buffalo hides,
however, shrunk and the iron boat foundered. Knowing that it was too late in
the season to get and prepare more buffalo hides, the decision was made to
abandon the iron frame.To quote from the Journals, Lewis's entry for
Tuesday, July 9th, 1805: I therefore relinquished all further hope of my
favorite boat and ordered her to be sunk in the water, that the skins might
become soft in order the better to take her in peices [sic] tomorrow and
deposited the iron fraim [sic] at this place as it could probably be of no
further service to us.

This was end of the iron boat experiment. Ken Karsminski of the Museum of
the Rockies in Bozeman, MT, has made a concerted search for the iron frame
in the Great Falls area without success. My guess is that the Indians found
it and broke it up for the iron to use in war-axes, etc.

But the iron or collapsible boat did most certainly not cross the Rockies
with the Expedition.

Keep your powder dry.

John.

Dr. John L. Allen
21 Thomas Drive
Storrs, CT 06268
860/487-1346
jlallen@snet.net


-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Quilter <pat_quilter@qscaudio.com>
To: 'hist_text@lists.xmission.com' <hist_text@lists.xmission.com>
Date: Monday, November 09, 1998 1:41 PM
Subject: RE: MtMan-List: Rubber goods


>Regarding the collapsible boat of Lewis and Clark:
>As I recall, the frame was lugged over the mountains to the first western
>flowing stream, where the Corps attempted to complete the plan of covering
>it with skins (not rubber). This was one of several "high tech" devices
>produced to support the expedition, such as the well known lead canisters
>with powder, the air rifle, and the 1803 pattern Harper's Ferry rifles.
This
>one, however, failed, despite the best efforts of Lewis, as recounted in
>"Undaunted Courage". They used glover's needles to sew the skins, which
>produced slight slits which opened up under strain, and they couldn't get
>adequate pitch or a substitute for sealing. After some weeks of effort,
>Lewis had to abandon the project and cached the frame. Meanwhile, Clark had
>moved men downstream until they found cottonwoods big enough to make
>dugouts, which carried them down river to the Pacific.
>Pat Quilter
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: John L. Allen [mailto:jlallen@snet.net]
>Sent: Thursday, November 05, 1998 8:59 AM
>To: hist_text@lists.xmission.com
>Subject: MtMan-List: Rubber goods
>
>
>Ho the list,
>
>A question was raised a few days ago about whether or not Lewis and Clark
>had a rubber boat. This question came out of the thread relating to rubber
>ponchos, etc.
>
>Lewis and Clark did not have a rubber boat. They carried an iron frame
(made
>in Pittsburgh) for a "portable boat" up the Missouri as far as Great Falls
>where they abandoned (or cached) it. This iron frame was intended to be
>covered with hides and/or bark. Although we have no good description of it,
>it was probably something like an Irish curragh--or even like a Mandan
>bullboat.
>
>John C. Fremont, in 1842-44, used rubber boats on his first two expeditions
>into the West. He refers to them as "India rubber" boats and mentions them
>in his journals as being used on both the North Platte and the Great Salt
>Lake. His rubber boat worked well on the Platte in 1842. The next year, on
>Salt Lake, he noted that the rubber boat didn't work as well since it
wasn't
>"as well stitched together" as the one used on his first expedition. This
>suggests a boat made from several pieces of material sewn in some fashion.
>These rubber boats were 20 feet long and 5 feet wide and could carry a
>wagon. They were apparently inflatable (he mentions several places "filling
>our India rubber boat with air"). Best source for Fremont is Donald Jackson
>and Mary Spence (eds.), THE EXPEDITIONS OF JOHN CHARLES FREMONT, 3 vols.
>Univ. of Illinois Press.
>
>If Fremont, in 1842-44, was using an inflatable rubber boat, then obviously
>the technology was in place to make serviceable ponchos, etc. out of rubber
>or rubber-coated cloth during at least the tail end of the Rocky Mountain
>fur trade era.
>
>Keep your powder dry.
>
>John
>
>Dr. John L. Allen
>21 Thomas Drive
>Storrs, CT 06268
>860/487-1346
>jlallen@snet.net <mailto:jlallen@snet.net>
>
>
>
>