We’re gonna need a bigger boat

December 2023

By Randy Randall

Four Months in a Sneak-Box
by Nathaniel H. Bishop. Lee & Shepard Publishers. 1879. 348 pp. $19.13. Kindle Edition free.

When it comes to cruising, how small a vessel is too small? Extraordinary voyages in ridiculously small boats, it seems, have been a maritime tradition for ages. A few, quite famous, solo adventurers come to mind. Robert Manry sailed his 13-foot Tinkerbelle from America to England in 1965. In 1960, Stan Smith on the Isle of Wight sailed his 15-foot West Wight Potter across the North Sea to Sweden. The vessel Trekka was only 20 feet long, and yet her builder, John Guzzwell, sailed her around the world in the 1950s.

Quite a few years ago we had a young fellow stop at Marston’s Marina on his way to Florida and a reunion, he hoped, with a girlfriend. He was alone in his 19-foot O’Day. He’d come from Bangor and had almost no money. He sailed on a morning tide and we never found out if he found his true love.

And then there’s Paul Boyton, the Fearless Frogman, who took things to the extreme and paddled the English Channel in 1875 wearing an inflatable wetsuit. He floated down the Mississippi in 1876. But I digress.

There are literally hundreds of such instances where some very determined people have sailed, rowed or steered some very small boats over long distances. This cruising in small boats became popular in the late 1800s, mostly due to the exploits of an English barrister, John MacGregor. MacGregor designed a decked canoe he called Rob Roy and made long voyages in England and Europe and the Middle East. His most famous book is “A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe.” MacGregor’s expeditions started a trend that spread to the United States, where young men were inspired to row or paddle long distances in small boats.

One of those stalwarts was Nathaniel H. Bishop. Bishop was a journalist who undertook hiking and boating adventures and wrote about them. One of his books was “Voyage of the Paper Canoe.” Between 1874 and 1875 Bishop rowed a canoe – picture a long, thin, Peapod type of boat – built from laminated layers of paper from Troy, New York, to Florida by way of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).

Bishop’s second book was, “Four Months in a Sneak-Box.” In this case he rowed a 12-foot Barnegat Bay Sneak Box (a small, decked-over boat in the shape of a duck’s bill, and named for its ability to sneak up on prey) from Pittsburgh to Florida by way of the Ohio River, the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Bishop painted his little boat white and named it the Centennial Republic. It was built by George Bogart in New Jersey. I’ve read Bishop’s account several times and marvel at how he managed to live aboard a 12-foot boat for four months. The daggerboard was mounted off-center, and that left the middle of the boat clear with room for Bishop to lie down and sleep. The rectangular cockpit had a wooden hatch cover that locked in place. During the day, this hatch lay crossways on the stern of the boat. At night, Bishop pulled it closed over himself as he wriggled into the confined space. This kept him dry, relatively warm, and safe from prying eyes and curious onlookers. The Sneak Box carried a small canvas apron that was raised in front of the cockpit to shield the rower from the wind and shunt any stray splashes off to the side.

Bishop left Pittsburgh in December and had to dodge ice floes in the Ohio River. When the temperature dropped below zero and stayed there, he found lodging with a German shoemaker until the cold snap was over. Eventually, and basically without incident, Bishop arrived in New Orleans via the Mississippi. He stayed there for a few weeks before continuing on to the Gulf of Mexico. There he met a young adventurer who, not unlike himself, was traveling via small boat. They decided to row in company to Florida. In the book, Bishop refers to his companion as “Saddles.” Saddles was not healthy, and seemed to be an alcoholic. Nevertheless, the pair rowed along the coast of the Florida panhandle meeting various piney-woods folks and fishermen and camping on the islands and beaches. Saddles became so sick that Bishop had to leave him behind in the care of some friendly settlers and push on again by himself. He finally reached the Suwannee River, where he closed the circle he had begun when he rowed the paper canoe down the ICW.

For anyone who has daydreamed of taking off in a tiny boat to see the very big world, “Four Months in a Sneak-Box” will give you plenty to think about. What I think about most is how these guys all went alone. If I were going, I’d want a companion who wasn’t Saddles along to share the adventure, and for that I’d need a bigger boat.

Frequent contributor, correspondent and friend, Randy Randall is co-owner of Marston’s Marina in Saco, Maine, and a dreamer and waterman of the first order.