The bulkhead k should be of mahogany lin., or cedar tin., and be well bedded against the timber at No. 10 station with marine glue or white lead. It should be tested and made water-tight before the deck is put on ; so also the centre-board case.
The coamings, for all but very rough work, may be of cedar, and so also the hatches w (w) and u.
The rudder should be of mahogany, and bound all round with a copper band. A bilge stringer of American elm Sin. by tin., or even larger, would add very little to the weight of the canoe, and would greatly strengthen it. Such a stringer might be fitted between m and (m), Fig. C, or on the side above (m), and should go from the bulkhead to the stem, and be screwed to the timbers, with chocks under it where it fastens to a bent timber if necessary.
The keel band should be light, and either of copper or galvanised iron ; the stem and stern to be of copper ; the deck and rudder yokes of copper. The arms of the rudder yoke should be on the after end, as even a fore-and-aft pull is with such yokes still turning the rudder ; the foot-yoke is of wood, and its rod should be a steel rod, covered with brass. The foot-yoke is flied to the rod, and the deck-yoke fits on to a square head, the upper part of which is wormed ; and a thumbscrew nut keeps the yoke on firmly. The deck should be bushed with brass where the yoke rod comes through. The yoke lines should be solid stout copper wire, with thimbles twisted in at each end, and lashed to the rudder yoke, and set up with a lanyard to the deck yoke and abreast of the "well." They should pass between brass deck studs, to keep them set in working position.
The design in its leading features differs considerably from existing canoes, and it may be well to give the chief reasons which dictated the design. First of all, the canoe is to be as small as will comfortably carry a 12-stone man and about 601b. of luggage in a draught of water of about six inches ; she must be of sufficient freeboard and beam to cross large open lakes in ordinary weather; she is not intended to carry ballast, but is intended to carry sail, therefore the floor must be kept flat. Freeboard is of far more importance, coupled with a flaring bow and quarters, in getting over rough water, than is any amount of rounding of deck—indeed, were it not for requisite strength, it would be preferable to take 2in. of rounding from the deck and put it into the freeboard;
but then in steps paddling, which demands a low freeboard when the beam is wide ; however, in the design the freeboard is as low as it comfortably and safely can be, and the deck is kept at a sufficient rounding for strength. It will doubtless be noticed that considerable flare is given to the sections at the bow and stern above water. In a racing canoe this would be an error. But for a travelling canoe the flaring bow forms a great help towards a dry passage in broken water.
The double-handed canoe (drawing B) is a craft which is becoming exceedingly popular, not only as the " married members' canoe," but as a travelling craft ; there is a good deal to be said in favour of a craft which will carry two men on a cruise, and yet be not too large for one to manage in the absence of the rest of the crew. In the first place the original cost is for one canoe, and though she is some 2ft. or 3ft. longer, and has a few more fittings, yet her cost should not be more than about Si. over that of a " single ;" secondly, her " keep" or " housing " by the year is for one canoe ; so also her cartage, railway, steamboat, and such portage charges, are for one canoe ; and many similar points might be invoked to show that her working expenses are not much over those of a " single," and very considerably under those of two canoes.
Two good hands could, in travelling, work the double-handed canoe nearly twice the distance in a day that two single-handed canoes could be worked in the same circumstances. At sailing in a reaching wind she would be faster than the short single, in lumpy water she would have more weight to carry her way on; in a calm or head wind both can pound away with the paddle, and work can be continued " watch and watch " if need be ; so that literally the double-handed canoe could be kept going on her course day and night with scarcely more hardship to the crew than is entailed in working a 5-ton yacht down Channel.