[Transcriber's Note: As this is a narrative, all spelling errors were retained as printed.] SOMETUB'S CRUISE ON THE C. & O. CANAL [Illustration] _The Narrative of a Motorboat Vacation in the Heart of Maryland_ [Illustration] BY JOHN P. COWAN 1916 _Copyright, 1916, by John P. Cowan_ [Illustration] _This Edition is Limited to 200 Copies of Which This is No._ [Illustration] [Illustration] THIS is a story of the initial cruise of "Sometub"--a narrative of the voyage of the newest type boat on America's oldest improved waterway. We exalted 30 cent gasoline and eased our conscience by following in the patriotic footsteps of George Washington. Amid nature's most magnificent scenery we linked the romance of yesterday with the humdrum of the workaday present. We established a new maxim, namely: To avoid the beaten path take the towpath! We enjoyed to the superlative degree the rare privilege of "Seeing America First," because we saw it as the first American saw it. J. P. C. Pittsburgh, Pa., December 7th, 1916. [Illustration: Sunlight Vista on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal] I. [Illustration] THE cruise of the "Sometub" began at Oakmont on the Allegheny river in Pennsylvania and ended in Rock Creek in the shadow of the national capitol in the District of Columbia. In a total distance of 347 miles the little craft traversed six navigable waterways. Of course, there was a portage of 150 miles, but this was accomplished without inconvenience and provided a seasonable period to re-provision the boat. Moreover, the 150-mile trip overland demonstrated the advantage of a portable cruiser--of which "Sometub" has the distinction of being the first in its class. "Sometub" narrowly escaped being christened "Kitchen Maid." It is literally a kitchen-made craft, that is, it was put together in the kitchen after its knockdown frame was received from a Michigan boatbuilder. When culinary activities in the aforesaid kitchen were partially suspended it afforded an ideal boatyard, but the fact that a kitchen would be put to such extraordinary use there was attracted thither a constant line of spectators, the majority of whom had as little nautical knowledge as the builders. Propped up on a stepladder the bony frame of the future boat looked like one of those uncanny paleontological specimens in the Carnegie museum, and drew from the visitors a flow of remarks entirely irrelevant to boatbuilding. Nearly everyone doubted that the thing would be made to float, but a few who were too polite to express their views went to the opposite extreme and indulged in a line of flattery that was more irritating than the skeptcism of the doubting Thomases.