Sunday, August 9, 2015

The Spirit Scow

Do you remember the scow built with hand tools of antiquity by the Crystal River Boat Builders? The USS WARTAPPO was used by the East Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron along the Crystal River shore of Florida during the US Civil War.

Dave Lucas and Bill Whalen sent us an update to this story along with a video. The soundtrack is a song written for the scow by a band calling themselves "7 lbs of Bacon". Even if you're not impressed by sea chanties, you'll have to admit this big scow (36 feet) moves along nicely.



The CRBB have named their scow Spirit and that's what the song is about. Be sure to follow the link above for the back-story.








Happy sailing, SV Spirit!  Thanks to Dave, Bill and the Crystal River Boat Builders for the photos and video.
And thanks to 7 lbs of Bacon. Too much fun!

3 comments:

Elaine said...

Good story and history in the making, great song to go along with it. Thanks Michael for keeping us informed on the progress.

Alden Smith said...

Thoroughly enjoyed the video. I like scows and their shallow water possibilities. We have a great legacy of scows from the early years of colonial New Zealand.

doryman said...

Shallow draft boats have a history as inter-coastal work boats, with the scow and the dory at the top of the list. Easy and inexpensive to build, I understand they were also used intra-coastally. Check out this post on a 95 foot dory built in Australia:
http://dory-man.blogspot.com/2009/06/largest-dory-ever.html