Timber rafting

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Rafting to Vancouver, British Columbia Canada (August 2006). Log driving in Vancouver.jpg
Rafting to Vancouver, British Columbia Canada (August 2006).
Raftsmen in Northern Finland in the 1930s Tukinuittoa.jpg
Raftsmen in Northern Finland in the 1930s
Timber rafting on the Willamette River (May 1973). FISHERMEN ON A COMMERCIAL LOG RAFT ON THE WILLAMETTE RIVER - NARA - 548018.jpg
Timber rafting on the Willamette River (May 1973).

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 [1]

Contents

Historical rafting

Timber raft by Frances Anne Hopkins, 1868. FAHopkins Lumber Raft.jpg
Timber raft by Frances Anne Hopkins, 1868.

Unlike log driving, which was a dangerous task of floating separate logs, floaters or raftsmen could enjoy relative comfort of navigation, with cabins built on rafts, steering by means of oars and possibility to make stops. On the other hand, rafting requires wider waterflows.

Timber rafts were also used as a means of transportation of people and goods, both raw materials (ore, fur, game) and man-made.

Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 5.8.2) records how the Romans imported Corsican timber by way of a huge raft propelled by as many as fifty masts and sails. [2]

This practice used to be common in many parts of the world, especially North America and on all main rivers of Germany. Timber rafting allowed for connecting large continental forests, as in south western Germany, via Main, Neckar, Danube and Rhine with the coastal cities and states. Early modern forestry and remote trading were closely connected. Large pines in the black forest were called "Holländer," as they were traded to the Netherlands. Large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m wide and consisted of several thousand logs. The crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries, ovens and livestock stables. [3] Timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe. The advent of the railroad, steam boat vessels and improvements in trucking and road networks gradually reduced the use of timber rafts. It is still of importance in Finland. In Spain, this method of transport was used in the Ebro, Tajo, Júcar, Turia and Segura rivers, mainly and to a lesser extent in the Guadalquivir. There is documentary evidence of these uses as early as the sixteenth century, and its use was extended until the middle of the 20th century. In Russia, the use of elaborate timber rafts called belyana continued into the 1930s.

Construction

Cookery on J.R. Booth's raft, circa 1880. The raftsmen cooked, ate and slept on these rafts as they floated down the river. Timber raft 1880.jpg
Cookery on J.R. Booth's raft, circa 1880. The raftsmen cooked, ate and slept on these rafts as they floated down the river.
Timber rafting, Saint-Maurice River, Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada, 1994 Riviere Saint Maurice 1994 001.jpg
Timber rafting, Saint-Maurice River, Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada, 1994

Timber rafts could be of enormous proportions, sometimes up to 600 metres (2,000 ft) long, 50 metres (160 ft) wide, and stacked 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) high. Such rafts would contain thousands of logs. For the comfort of the raftsmen - which could number up to 500 - logs were also used to build cabins and galleys. Control of the raft was done by oars and later on by tugboats.

Raft construction differs depending on the watercourse. Rocky and windy rivers saw rafts of simple, yet sometimes smart, construction. For example, the front parts of the logs were joined together by wooden bars, while the rear parts were loosely roped together. The resulting slack allowed for easy adaptation for narrow and windy waterbeds. Wide and quiet rivers, like the Mississippi River, allowed huge rafts to travel in caravans and even be chained into strings.

These type of constructed log rafts used for timber rafting over long distances by waterways to markets of large populations appeared on the Atlantic coast about 1883. They were there sometimes referred to as Joggins-Leary log ships because they were financed by businessman James T. Leary and originated at Joggins, Nova Scotia. [4] [5] They seem also to have been employed on the Rhine River as early as September 14, 1888. [6] Their use on the Pacific coast was first contemplated by the capitalists James Mervyn Donahue of the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad and John D. Spreckels of the San Diego and Arizona Railway when they formed the Pacific west coast Joggins Raft Company on September 21, 1889. [7]

In the southeastern United States

Logs rafted for towing in Alaska (October 2009). Logs rafted for towing in Alaska.jpg
Logs rafted for towing in Alaska (October 2009).
Tug boat pushing a log raft near Vancouver Canada (May 2012) Tug boat pushing log raft near Vancouver.jpg
Tug boat pushing a log raft near Vancouver Canada (May 2012)

Rafting was a principal method of transporting timber in the southeastern United States but, except on the Mississippi River, rafts were necessarily smaller than those described above. On Georgia’s Altamaha River, for example, the maximum width was about forty feet (12 m), that being the widest that could pass between the pilings of railroad bridges. Maximum length was about 250 feet (76 m), that being the longest that could navigate The Narrows, several miles of the river that were not only very narrow but also very crooked. Each raft had two oars forty to fifty feet long, one in the bow, the other at the stern. The oars were for steering, not propelling, the raft. The minimum raft crew was two men, the pilot who usually manned the stern oar, and his bow hand. Rafts usually had a lean-to shack for shelter and a mound of dirt for a hearth to warm by and cook on. The timber rafts on the Altamaha delivered logs to the port of Brunswick, Georgia, where they were loaded onto timber schooners and transported to international markets like Liverpool, Rio de Janeiro, and Havana. [8] Rivermen assigned colorful names to the various features and hazards along their route down the Atamaha. Among the many "riverman monikers" was Old Hell Bight , where the river marks the border between Long County to the north and Wayne County to the south, and is a particularly troublesome bend, with associated dangerous currents, where a pilot and crew might lose "their wages, their timber, and occasionally their lives" [9] [10] [11]

Most rafts were sharp-chute, that is, V-bowed, rather than square-bowed. Raftsmen had learned that with a V-bow a raft was more likely to hold together and glance off if it drifted out of control and hit the river bank. As one old-time raftsman put it: “With a square bow you were compelled to hold the raft in or near the middle of the river: if it butted the hill it would come to pieces. The sharp-chute could be put together so it would not come apart. And it saved a lot of hard work. Raftsmen didn’t mind letting it go to the hill. They’d say: ‘Let’er shoot out.’”

Rafts were assembled in sections. Each section was made up of round or squared timbers, all of the same length except for the outside, or “boom logs,” which extended aft a few feet to enclose the following section. Thus the sections were coupled together. A fairly typical raft would be one of three, four or five sections, each section having timbers twenty to thirty feet in length.

Most rafts were made up of squared timbers, either hewn square by hand or sawn square by upcountry sawmills. Some timbers were carefully, smoothly hewn, and there was a demand for them, especially in England, after steam sawmilling became common. On the Altamaha, for many years during the rafting era, most rafts were made up of “scab” timber, that is, logs roughly squared by broad ax for tighter assembly and for gang sawmills which could cut flat-face timber only.

Although, on the Altamaha, there was rafting to some extent before the Civil War and after World War I, the Altamaha’s rafting era is generally considered to have been the years between those wars. During those years, Darien, a town at the mouth of the river with a population of perhaps a couple of thousand, was a major international timber port. Reports of exports from Darien were included in the New York Lumber Trade Journal along with reports of exports from such large ports as New Orleans, Mobile, Jacksonville, Savannah, Charleston, and Norfolk.

In Canada, down the current of Quebec's rivers

Lumber Raft on S. Lawrence river, oil 1867, Cornelius Krieghoff (1815-1872) 'Lumber Raft on the St. Lawrence ', oil painting by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1867.jpg
Lumber Raft on S. Lawrence river, oil 1867, Cornelius Krieghoff (1815-1872)

The timber was transported by floating, down the current of the rivers, which required the work of cages and log drivers (Cajeux - Draveurs). The first types of trees cut were — Pin blanc L. — Pinus strobus. — White pine (eastern white pine)., shipped to Great Britain.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Log flume</span> Type of flume used to float logs to a sawmill

A log flume is a watertight flume constructed to transport lumber and logs down mountainous terrain using flowing water. Flumes replaced horse- or oxen-drawn carriages on dangerous mountain trails in the late 19th century. Logging operations preferred flumes whenever a reliable source of water was available. Flumes were cheaper to build and operate than logging railroads. They could span long distances across chasms with more lightweight trestles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raft</span> Flat structure for support or transportation over water

A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrels, or inflated air chambers, and are typically not propelled by an engine. Rafts are an ancient mode of transport; naturally-occurring rafts such as entwined vegetation and pieces of wood have been used to traverse water since the dawn of humanity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altamaha River</span> River in Georgia, the United States of America

The Altamaha River is a major river in the U.S. state of Georgia. It flows generally eastward for 137 miles (220 km) from its origin at the confluence of the Oconee River and Ocmulgee River towards the Atlantic Ocean, where it empties into the ocean near Brunswick, Georgia. No dams are directly on the Altamaha, though some are on the Oconee and the Ocmulgee. Including its tributaries, the Altamaha River's drainage basin is about 14,000 square miles (36,000 km2) in size, qualifying it among the larger river basins of the US Atlantic coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontoon bridge</span> Type of bridge

A pontoon bridge, also known as a floating bridge, uses floats or shallow-draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maximum load that they can carry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murg (Northern Black Forest)</span> River and tributary in Germany

The Murg is an 80.2-kilometre-long river and a right tributary of the Rhine in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It flows through the Northern Black Forest into the Upper Rhine Plain, crossing the counties of Freudenstadt and Rastatt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Log driving</span> Letting tree trunks float downriver

Log driving is a means of moving logs from a forest to sawmills and pulp mills downstream using the current of a river. It was the main transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe and North America.

Bateau Colonial flat-bottomed cargo boat

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Log boom</span> Barrier across a river to contain floating logs

A log boom is a barrier placed in a river, designed to collect and or contain floating logs timbered from nearby forests. The term is also used as a place where logs were collected into booms, as at the mouth of a river. With several firms driving on the same stream, it was necessary to direct the logs to their owner's respective booms, with each log identified by its own patented timber mark. One of the most well known logbooms was in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. The development and completion of that specific log boom in 1851 made Williamsport the "Lumber Capital of the World".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disposable ship</span> Ship or sea vessel intended for use on a single voyage

A disposable ship, also called raft ship, timber ship, or timber drogher is a ship or sea vessel that is intended for use on a single voyage. At the final destination, the vessel is broken up for sale or reuse of materials. Until the end of the 19th century, such ships were common on major rivers such as the Danube and the Rhine in Central Europe and the Mississippi in North America. There were also saltwater vessels that were primarily built for one-time sailing to break up. Some of the largest wooden ships in history were of this type.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ark (river boat)</span>

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The Susquehanna Boom was a system of cribs and chained logs in the West Branch Susquehanna River, designed to catch and hold floating timber until it could be processed at one of the nearly 60 sawmills along the river between Lycoming and Loyalsock Creeks in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The Susquehanna Boom was originally built under the supervision of James H. Perkins, and operated from 1851 to 1909, when it shut down for lack of timber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pointer boat</span> Logging boat

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional fishing boat</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottawa River timber trade</span> Historic timber industry in the Ottawa Valley of Ontario, Canada

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.

L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company began as a small sawmill owned by William Griffin in Moss Point, Mississippi. L.N. Danzler bought it in the 1870s and, with two sons, incorporated the business in 1888. Originally, the main business was the manufacture of lumber from southern yellow pine, but in 1949, the company switched to tree farming of southern pines and sold timber by selective cutting to yield a variety of wood products. The family-owned business prospered for 75 years but was sold to International Paper Company in 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1886 St. Croix River log jam</span> American logging incident

On June 13, 1886, a log jam developed in the St. Croix River, close to Taylors Falls, Minnesota, and St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. The river was used to transport large quantities of logs from the forests upstream to the sawmills, and log jams disrupted this business. The 1886 jam was described at the time by a local journalist as "the jammedest jam" he had encountered, and was very difficult to clear, with hundreds of men working for six weeks to clear it, eventually using steamboats and dynamite. The jam was also a major tourist attraction, with thousands of spectators every day. After the jam was broken up in July, cleanup work to remove the logs on the river banks continued until September.

References

  1. "UNESCO - Timber rafting".
  2. Casson, Lionel (1995): "Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World", Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN   978-0-8018-5130-8, p. 4, fn. 2
  3. Beschreibung eines großen Rheinfloßes
  4. "A Big Raft Comes By Sea", New York Times, August 25, 1883
  5. "The Joggins Log Raft". Waterbury Evening Democrat. Waterbury, Connecticut. August 13, 1888. p. 1 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  6. "Notes and Comments". The Newcastle Weekly Courant. Newcastle, England. September 14, 1888. p. 2 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  7. "To Handle Big Lumber Rafts". The New York Times. New York, New York. September 22, 1888. p. 5 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  8. Mark V. Wetherington (1 September 2001). The New South Comes to Wiregrass Georgia, 1860-1910 - Timber Is King. Univ. of Tennessee Press. pp. 113–114. ISBN   978-1-57233-168-6.
  9. Delma E. Presley (June 4, 2013). "Rafting Folklore". New Georgia Encyclopedia . Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  10. John H. Goff (1 December 2007). Placenames of Georgia. University of Georgia Press. pp. 403–404. ISBN   978-0-8203-3129-4.
  11. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Old Hell Lake
  12. Elizabeth A. Moffatt, Marie-Claude Corbeil (2007). "The Painting Materials and Techniques of Cornelius Krieghoff (1815-1867)" (PDF). Department of Canadian Heritage and the Art Gallery of Ontario. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-12-21. Autumn and winter landscapes, portrayals of Aboriginal people and depictions of life in rural Quebec
  13. "200 years of exploits Cageux et draveurs". On the road to the historic motion of the National Assembly of Quebec: 200 years of exploits: cageux et draveurs (in French). Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. 2021. p. 380. Retrieved 2023-12-21. At the time of the great voyages of exploration, the First Peoples provided assistance essential for Europeans to survive and settle in these lands

Further reading

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Timber floating at Wikimedia Commons