Warington Baden-Powell: Canoe Travelling, 1871. Preface.

Canoe Travelling: Log of a Cruise on the Baltic,
And Practical Hints on Building and Fitting Canoes.
By Warington Baden-Powell, London, 1871.

A Clipping Breeze

From: Warington Baden-Powell, Canoe Travelling: Log of a Cruise on the Baltic, 1871.

PREFACE.

CANOEING, as a mode of aquatic locomotion, has been in practice many thousand years; and there is as much difference between the canoes of different countries as between the men who use them. The single canoes of East India and the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans have made little or no progress beyond the canoes of the early Europeans, which, from time to time, are discovered in an embedded state; though the double and outrigged canoes of the former are a shade better.

In Canada, canoeing is one of the regular modes of travelling, and some wonderful feats-both in distance accomplished and dangerous rapids safely cleared-are performed in single canoes built of birch-bark and manned by one, two, or more paddlers.

The Greenlanders use canoes made of sealskin and built with enormous "kink;" in these they make long sea-voyages and fishing expeditions, often in bad weather; but, owing to their being decked all over, the great kink, and the skill of the canoeist, they seldom come to grief at least, we seldom hear of it.

Modern canoeing on the rivers in England has-with, perhaps, the exception of coracleing—been in pursuit of exercise and pleasure, rather than of fish or commerce. A few light canoes were to be met with, scattered along the banks of the Thames, chiefly at Eton and Oxford, for the last twenty or thirty years; but the earliest publicly recognized summer cruising abroad dates only from 1865, when the Rob Roy was paddled and sailed on the continental lakes and rivers.

Since that time, hundreds of canoes have been built, vast improvements made, other long foreign voyages successfully accomplished; the experiences of each, when made known, helping in the general improvement of canoes and their fittings, till, already in these few years, the first travelling canoes bear no comparison with those of the present time.

In canoe travelling there are two distinct pleasures one, the healthful enjoyment of a free and easy life in fine weather and varied scenery; and the other, the more sensational, cracking on under sail, and working her successfully through and over heavy seas; not in the foolhardy sense "courting danger," though this term is often applied to a man without knowing what really is danger to him. A cockney on a cab-horse might accuse a huntsman of "courting danger," for merely jumping a fence; and in the same way with canoeing, a man may be starting in his canoe to cross some hilly water; no one can tell by guessing whether these seas will be a danger to him, owing to his want of experience and caution, or a pleasure, owing to his perfect boat and knowledge of how to work her. Yet there are men who do court danger, either that it may seem bold to others, or to enjoy for a short time the excitement of flitting along the brink of eternity.

There are many lovely wild spots on lakes, rivers, and seas, to which no man can get in his yacht: no railway, no horse, not even his own legs, can take him there. In some cases a rowing boat might avail, but in bad weather the heavy seas would render any open boat work dangerous, if not impossible; or, if once there, might detain him beyond his time or will: whereas a good cruising canoe, at once his lifeboat, portable yacht, and house, is equally efficient whether the water be deep or shallow, rough or smooth.

Many imagine that canoe travelling must necessarily be a solitary performance: on the contrary, I think the more the merrier and the safer, provided that each man is "skipper of his own boat." To some men there is an intense enjoyment in being alone with their thoughts in a foreign country for months together, the spell only to be broken at intervals by the necessary intercourse with the natives. I have enjoyed many a short solitary cruise, solitary because mine was the only canoe in those parts of the world; but on a long trip I should prefer as many companions as possible, for, even when two are together, every trouble is halved and pleasure doubled. What can be more enjoyable to a lover of yachting and boating, than to form one in a fleet of these miniature yachts on a cruise; a separate interest is felt for each little ship and its doings, it is one continued regatta and picnic; and while I enjoy an unimpaired brain, I will never get the Nautilus "under weigh " for a long cruise, under a self-imposed sentence of solitary confinement.

One of the great recommendations of canoeing as an invigorating national amusement, is its inexpensiveness. The canoe calls for no heavy outlay in fitting out-, no crew to eat their heads off; she is easily housed and easily transported to any portion of the globe. The oak travelling canoe, with gear, built by the best Thames builders, costs about a guinea a foot. During our Swedish tour, a period of two months, we each spent £45, staying at the best hotels, and travelling first class when on steamboat or railway; so of course it could be done cheaper.

Details of that tour will be found in the following log, accompanied by some of its sketches.

Those who contemplate canoe building or travelling may be interested in the particulars of various methods of construction and fittings described in Part II.

May, 1871.

Contents.

I.	Whither?—The Ship—Rigging—Gothenburg
II.	Gotha River—Sleeping In Canoes—Lilla Edit—Lively Landlady
III.	Falls of Trollhatten—Lake Wenern—Carlstad—A Wet Run
IV.	Cow "Making Tracks"—Night In A Hut—"Touch And Go"—In the Surf
V.	Pike And Mosquitoes—Mariestad Prison—West Gotha Canal
VI.	Yacht Club—Motala—Towing Canoes—Lake Roxen
VII.	Invisible Diver—Norrkoping—Deer Stalking at Qvarsebo
VIII.	First Day on The Baltic—A Shout in the Dark—Oxlo Sund
IX.	Orsbaken—Thunderstorm—Nocturnal Visitors—Cross Seas
X.	Municipal Duties At Trosa—Head-Wind And Sea —Bullock-Cart
XI.	In For The "Lady's Month"—Sticky Water—Luncheon Afloat
XII.	Stockholm From The Malar—Experiments —Our Special Artist
XIII.	Carlskrona Harbour—Arrival At Malmo—Baths
XIV.	"Doctor Of Swimming"—Drowned Rats—Brass Band
XV.	Tin Hatch—Bound For Copenhagen—A North-wester
XVI.	Crossing the Sound—Swan Chase—Sleep on Saltholm
XVII.	Mirage—Ticklish Footing—Seals—Harbour After Dark
XVIII.	Copenhagen—Thorwaldsen—Kiel Harbour—Prussian Fleet—Hamburg
XIX.	Stream Work—Alster Lake—Sunk! But All Hands Saved
XX.	"Put That Sail Down"—Green Lights—Street Canals
XXI.	Water Labyrinth—Close Shave in a Lock—The Elbe at Last—"The Berlin"—Starting for London—The Thames

		Warington Baden-Powell Canoe Travelling: Log of a Cruise on the Baltic Chapter I. Whither?—The Ship—Rigging—Gothenburg.
		Warington Baden-Powell, K.C. Sea Scouting and Seamanship for Boys, the first Sea Scout Manual, 1910 Foreward by Robert Baden-Powell.
		History of the Sea Scouts from The Stockton Sea Scout Base in Stockton, California.
		When he was young, Baden-Powell and his brothers built a canvas boat and took it on many adventures. His older brother, Henry Warington Smyth Baden-Powell, was to carry these youthful seaborne experiences with him through his life—in his exploits, his career and in helping B-P form the Sea Scouts in 1910.
		Baden-Powell Family History. A series of links based on the research of Robin Baden Clay, a grandson of Baden-Powell. They are focused on the genealogy of the Powell family. The author is extremely grateful to Mr. Clay for sharing the results of his labors with the Scouting community. Links are provided to pages for three of B-P's brothers: Baden, Warington and Sir George Baden-Powell as well as to the genealogy of the Smyth and Warington families.
		Baden-Powell Home Page

Return to the Pine Tree Web Home Page