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pointer
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
1n. — Lumbering
a sturdy flat-bottomed boat about 20 ft. long, pointed fore and aft and having a shallow draft, specially designed for use in river drives.
Quotations
1901
Swiftly the pointer shot down the current, the swaying bodies and swinging oars in perfect rhythm with the song that rose and fell with melancholy but musical cadence.
1950
They would use "pointers," twenty-foot heavily built craft with steeply sloping sides, which seemed very tippy but actually were the most practical craft ever devised for Canadian logging.
1961
At the suggestion of J. R. Booth, who wanted a useful river craft, John Cockburn in 1883 designed the "pointer," a sharp-pointed boat that is still widely used in the lumbering business. Jack Cockburn, grandson of the designer, makes them today in Pembroke; he is the only commercial builder of "pointers" in Canada. Largest ones are 55 feet long, weigh up to 2,000 pounds and carry eight tons. They draw such a small draft that Cockburn says they "will float on a heavy dew."
1964
If you ask Emmett Chartrand about the driving boat or "pointer" he has a faraway look when he answers, "--used them, wore them out, broke them.
2n. — Esp. Fur Trade
an inland freight bateau of shallow draft. [See picture at york boat.]
Quotations
1936
In the interval we remained in the pointer, making periodic trips to the post by canoe for supplies and to salvage what we could.
1966
He got one twenty-four-foot, shallow-draft riverboat built, square-sterned for a four horsepower outboard, sweeping up and fining to a pointed bow. A "pointer."
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