Sometub's cruise on the C. & O. canal : $b The narrative of a motorboat vacation in the heart of Maryland — John Shaqi
Sometub's cruise on the C. & O. canal : $b The narrative of a motorboat vacation in the heart of MarylandCowan, John Pryor
History
Sometub's cruise on the C. & O. canal : $b The narrative of a motorboat vacation in the heart of Maryland
Cowan, John Pryor
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (Md. and Washington, D.C.); Potomac River Valley -- Description and travel
"Well, that's some tub!" The oft repeated phrase trickled away
somewhere into the damaged wall paper of the kitchen or into the big
paint spot that ruined the linoleum, and when the time came to name
the boat the words came back sufficiently anglicized and properly
compounded--"Sometub." And it stuck!
"Sometub" has been laughed at by hundreds of persons who will never
know how it received its name. It looks less tub-like than the majority
of motorboats. The Brooks Manufacturing Company up in Saginaw, from
whom I bought the knockdown frame, doubtless would object to the
innuendo suggesting tubbiness because they boast of it as one of their
latest and most graceful models--a semi-V bottom shape which is
especially noted both for speed and seaworthiness. And it is all they
claim for it, and more, too!
"Sometub" is 15 feet long by 43 inches on the beam. We took liberties
with the Brooks plan by constructing a bulkhead which enclosed five
feet of the bow. This left a 10-foot cockpit, over which was erected a
portable canopy top. Curtains that hung on the sides of the canopy made
a snug cabin 10 × 3½ feet. For motive power we use an Evinrude motor.
By the way, it is one of those coffee mill affairs that you screw on
the stern of a skiff or rowboat. "Sometub" was designed for this very
sort of equipment and the theory worked out beautifully--until the
motor went wrong. And there lies the key to all the villainy that will
be divulged in this plain tale of the cruise of "Sometub" from Oakmont
to Washington.
On account of the 150-mile portage from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md.,
it is advisable to allow seven days from the time of your departure
on the Allegheny until your expected sailing from the other terminal
of the portage. In these seven days you will make the run down to the
Pittsburgh Baltimore & Ohio freight station at Water street, pack your
engine and duffle, bail out the boat, cart it to the Cumberland local
freight car, see it stowed away and spend four days hoping that it
will arrive in Cumberland before you and your cargo. Of course, your
hopes will be blasted, but to hope is human. Anyhow, you might as well
realize at the outset that cross-country cruising is to be an intensely
human experience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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