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scow †
[Am.E < Du. schouw]
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
n.
a crude, oblong, flat-bottomed boat of shallow draft, much used in colonial days on the St. Lawrence and the Lower Lakes and in later times on the lakes and rivers of the Northwest.
Quotations
1795
I saw some of the vessels which are built on this lake and rigged like scows, a large flat bottomed boat.
1807
A scow is a vessel with four sides, an oblong square, in length forty to fifty feet, in breadth thirty to forty, and from four to five feet deep, flat-bottomed.
1898
The cargo on a 100-foot scow consisted principally of whiskey and fair doves, and the number of women coming up was probably equal to that of the men.
1957
Our scow, based at Fort George and always manned there by an all-Indian crew, was 40 feet long with an eight foot beam. In the bow a rough wooden capstan provided a means of winding through the worst of the white water in the canyons. At the stern a sweep, as long as the scow itself, was the chief navigational aid.
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