Pointer boats were designed by John Cockburn and built by John, his son and grandson, from the 1850s to 1969 [1] at their boatworks in Ottawa and later at Pembroke, Ontario, Canada. They were wooden, oared boats used for transportation along rivers such as the Ottawa River.
This historical boat was used in logging and had a very influential impact on the industry. The boat was the "workhorse" of the Canadian river system and was famous for being able to "float on a heavy dew". They assisted loggers to move Eastern White Pine timber down the wider sections of the Ottawa River. [1]
Pointer boats were unique. Not only were they as sturdy as the East Coast fishing dory, but they could carry eight men while floating in only five inches of water. Empty, a pointer with a dead weight of half a ton or more drew only one and a half inches of water. [2] Even though the boats ranged in length from 22–50 feet, to turn one end-for-end needed only one pull on an oar. [3] Because the boat was double-ended (identical bow and stern), workers could focus on the task at hand rather than on which way the boat was facing.
John Cockburn began his boat-building business in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, after being commissioned by John R. Booth to build a sturdy boat for logging. In 1859 he moved his business to Pembroke, Ontario. Up to then, the finished boats were being shipped the 145 miles to Pembroke by horse and sleigh. [3] The Cockburns fashioned their boats to last at least ten seasons in normal use. However, due to rough water and rocks some did not last a single season. [2] In peak years, the Cockburn family produced two hundred pointers. [3]
For more than one hundred years the Cockburns used the same materials and made relatively few changes to the design. The boats were planked in local red or white pine. White Cedar from Allumette Island in the upper Ottawa River had bent roots suitable for making into ribs. Red Pine or White Spruce was fashioned into oars while the paddles were made from Yellow Birch, or White Oak. Beside Cockburn's shop was a building in which wood was air-dried for twelve months before use. [1]
Construction began with a plywood template and laying out the bottom side planks. Then, the stern and bow posts were temporarily attached. The centre width of the boat was then blocked in. Binding ropes and stays were applied and tightened into the final shape of the boat. After this, each tongue and groove siding plank would carefully be selected at equal length and nailed in. The process of slackening, tightening the rope and adding siding planks was repeated until the boat was of proper size. Working from the center of the boat to the stern and bow, the cross frames and supporting ribs were installed. Finally, the V-bottom shape was precisely crafted to achieve a shallow draft. [3] The end product was then treated with a preservative made from boiled (linseed?) oil and jewelers rouge, which gave them a red Venetian appearance. [4]
John Cockburn's business spanned three generations to his son Albert, and then, to grandson Jack. Jack Cockburn continued to produce Pointer Boats in 1969 before he died in 1972. [1] Although the boats were designed for logging they have been used in other industries such as mining, power and construction industries for getting to remote terrain. [3] In recognition to the Cockburn family and the historical impact the Pointer Boat had on the logging industry, a 32-foot steel replica of the Pointer boat was built in Pembroke. [1] Today this replica is known as one of the "Large Canadian Roadside Attractions" [5]
Longships were a type of specialised Scandinavian warships that have a long history in Scandinavia, with their existence being archaeologically proven and documented from at least the fourth century BC. Originally invented and used by the Norsemen for commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age, many of the longship's characteristics were adopted by other cultures, like Anglo-Saxons, and continued to influence shipbuilding for centuries.
A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat, about 5 to 7 metres or 16 to 23 feet long. It is usually a lightweight boat with high sides, a flat bottom and sharp bows. It is easy to build because of its simple lines. For centuries, the dory has been used as a traditional fishing boat, both in coastal waters and in the open sea.
A wherry is a type of boat that was traditionally used for carrying cargo or passengers on rivers and canals in England, and is particularly associated with the River Thames and the River Cam. They were also used on the Broadland rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk.
Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia from the Viking Age throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexible boats, with symmetrical ends with true keel. They were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together. Some might have had a dragon's head or other circular object protruding from the bow and stern for design, although this is only inferred from historical sources. Viking ships were used both for military purposes and for long-distance trade, exploration and colonization.
Arnprior is a town in Renfrew County, in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located 65 km (40 mi) west of Downtown Ottawa, at the confluence of the Madawaska River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley. Arnprior has experienced significant growth in populations with the widening of the 417 Provincial Highway to four lanes. The town experienced an increase in population by 8.4% from 2011 to 2016, at which time its population was 8,795. The town is a namesake of Arnprior, Scotland, and is known for lumber, hydro power generation, aerospace, farming and its proximity to the National Capital Region.
The Ottawa Valley is the valley of the Ottawa River, along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais, Quebec, Canada. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield. Because of the surrounding shield, the valley is narrow at its western end and then becomes increasingly wide as it progresses eastward. The underlying geophysical structure is the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben. Approximately 1.3 million people reside in the valley, around 80% of whom reside in Ottawa. The total area of the Ottawa Valley is 2.4 million ha. The National Capital Region area has just over 1.4 million inhabitants in both provinces.
Petawawa is a town located in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. Situated in the Ottawa Valley, with a population of 18,160, Petawawa is the most populous municipality in Renfrew County.
The Mattawa River is a river in central Ontario, Canada. It flows east from Trout Lake east of North Bay and enters the Ottawa River at the town of Mattawa. Counting from the head of Trout Lake, it is 76 kilometres (47 mi) long. The river's name comes from the Algonquin word for "meeting of waterways".
The Gokstad ship is a 9th-century Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. It is displayed at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. It is the largest preserved Viking ship in Norway.
Mattawa is a town in northeastern Ontario, Canada at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers in Nipissing District. The first Europeans to pass through this area were Étienne Brûlé and Samuel de Champlain.
The Durham boat was a large wooden, flat-bottomed, double-ended freight boat used on interior waterways in North America beginning in the middle of the 18th century. They were replaced by larger, more efficient canal boats during the canal era beginning with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.
A bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes. The name derives from the French word, bateau, which is simply the word for boat and the plural, bateaux, follows the French, an unusual construction for an English plural. In the southern United States, the term is still used to refer to flat-bottomed boats, including those elsewhere called jon boats.
The York boat was a type of inland boat used by the Hudson's Bay Company to carry furs and trade goods along inland waterways in Rupert's Land, the watershed stretching from Hudson Bay to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It was named after York Factory, the headquarters of the HBC, and by some accounts was supposedly modeled after the Orkney yole. Two variations to the York Boat were scows and "Sturgeon Heads."
Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest means of transporting felled timber. Both methods may be referred to as timber floating. The tradition of timber rafting cultivated in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Spain was inscribed on UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022
Hasholme logboat is a late Iron Age boat discovered at Hasholme, an area of civil parish of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor in the East Riding of the English county of Yorkshire. It is now on display in the Hull and East Riding Museum, in Hull.
In early periods of North American industrial development, an ark was a temporary boat used for river transport in eastern North America before slack-water canals and railroads made them obsolete. Because they could be built using relatively crude hand tools, arks were built in American colonial and early republic times, primarily to carry cargo downriver on the spring freshets, and especially to carry milled lumber, charcoal and other forest products and bulk agricultural produce to a city or a port downriver. While logs were often tied into rafts, on long trips which could take weeks, the rafts would be accompanied by such arks as crew support quarters. Deep rivers allowed large log arks as described below instead of less controllable rafts. Since by 1800, most eastern towns and cities were short on heating fuels, even badly processed timber or planks could readily be sold at the destinations.
Pembroke is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario at the confluence of the Muskrat River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley. Pembroke is the location of the administrative headquarters of Renfrew County, though the city itself is politically independent. It is 145 kilometres (90 mi) northwest of Ottawa.
Traditionally, many different kinds of boats have been used as fishing boats to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Even today, many traditional fishing boats are still in use. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), at the end of 2004, the world fishing fleet consisted of about 4 million vessels, of which 2.7 million were undecked (open) boats. While nearly all decked vessels were mechanised, only one-third of the undecked fishing boats were powered, usually with outboard engines. The remaining 1.8 million boats were traditional craft of various types, operated by sail and oars.
The Ottawa River timber trade, also known as the Ottawa Valley timber trade or Ottawa River lumber trade, was the nineteenth century production of wood products by Canada on areas of the Ottawa River and the regions of the Ottawa Valley and western Quebec, destined for British and American markets. It was the major industry of the historical colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada and it created an entrepreneur known as a lumber baron. The trade in squared timber and later sawed lumber led to population growth and prosperity to communities in the Ottawa Valley, especially the city of Bytown. The product was chiefly red and white pine.The Ottawa River being conveniently located with access via the St. Lawrence River, was a valuable region due to its great pine forests surpassing any others nearby. The industry lasted until around 1900 as both markets and supplies decreased, it was then reoriented to the production of wood pulp which continued until the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Janggolan refers to two different type of perahu from Indonesia. One is from Madura, and the other from Bali. The Madurese janggolan is a type of indigenously constructed boat, meanwhile Balinese janggolan is an indigenous boat with western-styled hull construction.
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