SINGLE SHELLS AND UMBRELLA CANOES
How Old Shells Can Be Turned into Boys' Boats. The Cause of Upsets. Landing from and Embarking in a 
Shell. What an Umbrella Canoe Is and How It Is Made.

WHERE there are oarsmen and boat clubs there you will find beautiful shell boats of paper or cedar, shaped like
darning needles, so slight in structure that a child can knock a hole in them, and yet very seaworthy boats for those 
who understand how to handle them. The expensive material and skilled labor necessary to build a racing shell puts 
the price of one so high that few boys can afford to buy one; but where new shells are to be found there are also 
old ones, and when they are too old to sell they are thrown away. Many an old shell rots on the meadows near the 
boat-houses or rests among the rafters forgotten and unused, which with a little work would make a boat capable 
of furnishing no end of fun to a boy.

Checks or Cracks
can be pasted over with common manila wrapping paper by first covering the crack with a coat of paint, or, better
still, of varnish, then fitting the paper smoothly over the spot and varnishing the paper. Give the paper several
coats of varnish, allowing it to dry after each application, and the paper will become impervious to water.

The deck of a shell is made of thin muslin or paper, treated with a liberal coat of varnish, and can be patched with 
similar material. There are always plenty of slightly damaged oars which have been discarded by the oarsmen. The 
use of a saw and jack-knife in the hands of a smart boy can transform these wrecks into serviceable oars for his 
patched up old shell, and if the work is neatly done, the boy will be the proud owner of a real shell boat, and the 
envy of his comrades.

The Cause of Upsets.
A single shell that is very cranky with a man in it is comparatively steady when a small boy occupies the seat. Put on
your bathing clothes when you wish to try a shell, so that you may be ready for the inevitable upset. Every one 
knows, when he looks at one of these long, narrow boats, that as long as the oars are held extended on the water it
cannot upset. But, in spite of that knowledge, every one, when he first gets into a shell, endeavors to balance 
himself by lifting the oars, and, of course, goes over in a jiffy.

The Delights of a Shell.
It is an error to suppose that the frail-looking, needlelike boat is only fit for racing purposes. For a day on the water, 
in calm weather, there is perhaps nothing more enjoyable than a single shell. The exertion required to send it on its 
way is so slight, and the speed so great, that many miles can be covered with small fatigue. Upon referring to the 
log-book of the Nereus Club, where the distances are all taken from the United States chart, the author finds that 
twenty and thirty miles are not uncommon records for single-shell rows.

During the fifteen or sixteen seasons that the author has devoted his spare time to the sport he has often planned 
a heavy cruising shell, but owing to the expense of having such a boat built he has used the ordinary racing boat, 
and found it remarkably well adapted for such purposes. Often he has been caught miles away from home in a 
blow, and only once does he remember of being compelled to seek assistance.

He was on a lee shore and the waves were so high that after once being swamped he was unable to launch his 
boat again, for it would fill before he could embark. So a heavy rowboat and a coachman were borrowed from a
gentleman living on the bay, and while the author rowed, the coachman towed the little craft back to the creek
where the Nereus Club-house is situated.

In the creek, however, the water was calmer, and rather than stand the jeers of his comrades, the writer embarked
in his shell and rowed up to the boat-house float. He was very wet and his boat was full of water, but to the inquiry 
of "Rough out in the bay?" he confined himself to the simple answer "Yes." Then dumping the water from his shell
and placing it upon the rack, he put on his dry clothes and walked home, none the worse for the accident.

After ordinary skill and confidence are acquired it is really astonishing what feats can be accomplished in a frail
racing boat. It is not difficult to ...

Stand Upright in a Shell,
if you first take one of your long stockings and tie the handles of your oars together where they cross each other in 
front of you. The ends will work slightly and the blades will keep their positions on the water, acting as two long 
balances. Now slide your seat as far forward as it will go, slip your feet from the straps and grasp the straps with 
your hand, moving the feet back to a comfortable position. When all ready raise yourself by pulling on the 
foot-strap, and with ordinary care you can stand upright in the needle-shaped boat, an apparently impossible thing
to do when you look at the narrow craft.

How to Land Where there is no Float.
When for any reason you wish to land where there is no float, row into shallow water and put one foot overboard
until it touches bottom. Then follow with the other foot, rise and you are standing astride of your boat.

How to Embark Where there is no Float.
Wade out and slide the shell between your extended legs until the seat is underneath you. Sit down, and, with the 
feet still in the water, grasp your oars. With these in your hands it is an easy task to balance the boat until you can 
lift your feet into it.

Ozias Dodge's Umbrella Canoe.
Mr. Dodge is a Yale man, an artist, and an enthusiastic canoeist. The prow of his little craft has ploughed its way
through the waters of many picturesque streams in this country and Europe, by the river-side, under the walls of
ruined castles, where the iron-clad warriors once built their camp-fires, and near pretty villages, where people
dress as if they were at a fancy-dress ball.

When a young man like Mr. Dodge says that he has built a folding canoe that is not hard to construct, is 
inexpensive and practical, there can be little doubt that such a boat is not only what is claimed for it by its inventor, 
but that it is a novelty in its line, and such is undoubtedly the case with the umbrella canoe.

How the Canoe was Built.
The artist first secured a white-ash plank (A, Fig. 206), free from knots and blemishes of all kinds. The plank was
one inch thick and about twelve feet long. At the mill he had this sawed into eight strips, one inch wide, one inch
thick, and twelve feet long (B and C, Figs. 207 and 208). Then he planed off the square edges of each stick until
they were all octagonal in form, and looked like so many great lead-pencils (D, Fig. 209).

Mr. Dodge claims that, after you have reduced the ash poles to this octagonal form, it is an easy matter to whittle
them with your pocket-knife or a draw-knife, and by taking off all the angles of the sticks make them cylindrical in 
form (E, Fig. 210) ; then smooth them off nicely with sand-paper, so that each pole has a smooth surface and is 
three-quarters of an inch in diameter.

After the poles were reduced to this state he whittled all the ends to the form of a truncated cone that is, like a
sharpened lead-pencil with the lead broken off (F, Fig. 211) a blunt point. He next went to a tinsmith and had two
sheet-iron cups made, large enough to cover the eight pole ends (G and G', Figs. 212 and 213). Each cup was six
inches deep. After trying the cups or thimbles on the poles to see that they would fit, he made two moulds of oak. 
First he cut two pieces of oak plank two feet six inches long by one foot six inches (H, Fig. 214), which he trimmed 
into the form shown by J, Fig. 215, making a notch to fit each of the round ribs, and to spread them as the ribs of 
an umbrella are spread. He made two other similar moulds for the bow and stern, each of which, of course, is 
smaller than the middle one. After spreading the ribs with the moulds, and bringing the ends together in the tin 
cups, he made holes in the bottom of the cups where the ends of the ribs came, and fastened the ribs to the cups
with brass screws, fitted with leather washers, and run through the holes in the tin and screwed into the ends of the 
poles or ribs.

A square hole was then cut through each mould (K, Fig. 216), and the poles put in place, gathered together at the
ends, and held in place by the tin thimbles. The square holes in the moulds allow several small, light floor planks
to form a dry floor to the canoe.

The canvas costs about forty-five cents a yard, and five yards are all you need. The deck can be made of drilling,
which comes about twenty-eight inches wide, and costs about twenty cents a yard. Five yards of this will be plenty. 
Fit your canvas over the frame, stretch it tightly, and tack it securely to the two top ribs only. Fasten the deck on in 
the same manner.

When Mr. Dodge had the canoe covered and decked, with a square hole amidships to sit in, he put two good coats 
of paint on the canvas, allowed it to dry, and his boat was ready for use (Fig. 218). He quaintly says that "it looked 
like a starved dog, with all its ribs showing through the skin," just as the ribs of an umbrella show on top through the
silk covering. But this does not in any way impede the progress of the boat through the water.

Where the moulds are the case is different, for the lines of the moulds cross the line of progress at right angles, 
and must necessarily somewhat retard the boat. But even this is not perceptible. The worst feature about the
moulds is that the canvas is very apt to be damaged there by contact with the shore, float, or whatever object it 
rubs against. With ordinary care the umbrella canoe ...

Will Last for Years,
and is a good boat for paddling on inland streams and small bodies of water; and when you are through with it for 
the night all that is necessary is to remove the stretchers by springing the poles from the notches in the spreaders,
roll up the canvas around the poles, put it on your shoulder, and carry it home or to camp, as shown in Fig. 219.

To put your canoe together again put in the moulds, fit the poles in their places, and the umbrella is raised, or, 
rather, the canoe is, if we can use such an expression in regard to a boat.

End of Excerpt.
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