Existing comment:
"The Experiment"
Lewis spent much of his time at Harpers Ferry working on a boat design which he believed to be quite clever. it was light enough to transport and could be easily carried by his crew when assembled. He was sure it could carry almost 8,000 pounds.
Although Lewis wrote a description of the dimensions of the boat, there are no known drawings of the craft. Artists have used his description to illustrate what the boat might have looked like.
Testing "The Experiment":
The boat frame was finally put to use two years after its design. On June 21, 1805, the crew began assembling the frame and preparing animal hides to cover it. Lewis needed the sap from pine trees to seal the outside of the canoe, but none could be found at their location. After several days, the canoe was covered and prepared with a substitute sealer of charcoal, beeswax, and buffalo tallow.
When put into the water "the experiment" floated "like a perfect cork," but then began to leak. Sadly disappointed, Lewis knew that they did not have the time to start over. The boat was buried along with "some papers and a few other trivial articles..."
"We call her The Experiment and expect she will answer our purpose."
-- Patrick Gass, July 8, 1805
"I therefore relinquished all further hope of my favorite boat and ordered her sunk in the water, that the skins might become soft in order to take her to pieces tomorrow and deposit the frame at this place as it could probably be of no further service to us. It was too late to introduce a remedy and I bid adieu to my boat and her expected services."
-- Captain Lewis, journal entry on July 9, 1805
"Clark ground and prepared their axes and adds [adz] this evening in order to prepare for an early departure in the morning. We have on this as well as on many former occasions found a small grindstone which I brought with me from Harper's ferry extreemly convenient to us."
-- From Lewis' journal entry on Tuesday, July 9, 1805
Sometimes the simplest of tools can be the most helpful. At about the same time that Lewis' experimental boat design sank, he noted how useful the grindstone from Harpers Ferry had been during the entire trip.
These iron pieces represent a cross section of the iron frame boat made by the craftsmen at the Harpers Ferry Armory. Fully assembled the boat was twenty-six inches deep, four feet ten inches wide, and thirty-six feet long. |