Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Commonplace Book

An image from John and Willian Atkins' Book of Boats.


That's a type of boat called a Canoe Yawl. These started off as sort-of canoes. A Scotsman named John MacGregor went back to Britain from North America and described a kayak to a local boatbuilder who built his best approximation*. It wasn't anything like a kayak and nothing like a typical canoe used by North American aboriginal people but it became incredibly popular. The original one built for MacGregor was powered by paddle and was under 15 feet long. But others experimented with the type and added sails. And then they started to make them bigger. Eventually they became yachts.

* Something similar happened with the loafer which is a European shoemaker's effort at making something from a description given him of a moccasin.



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