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The Component Parts of Boats

Rowing boats consist of the bows (1); the stem, or entrance (2); the stern (8), where are the rudder and the lines for steering; the rowlocks (3), for giving purchase to the oars; and the thwarts, or seats (4). At the bottom are the foot-boards (5), which are easily removed, in order to bail out any water which may leak into the boat. Besides these parts there is a board placed across the boat for the feet of the rower, called a stretcher. The whole boat is composed of one or more planks, called streaks, nailed upon a light oak framework, called the timbers, or ribs; and the upper streak, upon which the rowlocks are placed, is called the wale-streak. Boats with two rowlocks opposite each other are called sculling boats, and are propelled by a pair of light oars called sculls, the art being called "sculling." When a boat is fitted with a pair of rowlocks not opposite each other, it is called a pair-oared boat. If with two in the middle opposite each other, and two others, one before and the other behind, but not opposite each other, it is called a randan. When a boat has four rowlocks, none of which are opposite one another, it is called a four-oared boat, and so on up to ten oars, which is the utmost limit in common use for any kind of boat but the pleasure barge, which sometimes has twenty-four oars, as in the City barges of London. The rowlocks nearest the bow is called the bow rowlock, or No. 1; the next No. 2, and so on; and the oars used in them receive the same number, the one nearest the stern being called the "stroke oar." The rowlocks in river and sea boats are somewhat different in shape though identical in principle, both consisting of a square space of about the breadth of a man's hand, and both lying on the wale-streak; but in river boats being generally bounded before and behind by a flat piece of oak or ash called, respectively, the thowl-pin and stopper; whilst in sea boats they are merely common round wooden pins dropped into holes made in the wale-streak, but still receiving the same names. The thowl-pin is for the purpose of pulling the oar against, whilst the stopper prevents the oar from slipping forwards when the rower is pushing it in that direction after the stroke.