Four Months in a Sneak-Box | Page 5

the sneak-box, and fairly presented its claims to public
favor.
The sneak-box is not a monopoly of any particular builder, but it requires peculiar talent
to build one,--the kind of talent which enables one man to cut out a perfect axe-handle,
while the master- carpenter finds it difficult to accomplish the same thing. The best
yacht-builders in Ocean County generally fail in modelling a sneak- box, while many
second-rate mechanics along the shore, who could not possibly construct a yacht that
would sail well, can make a perfect sneak-box, or gunning-skiff. All this may be
accounted for by recognizing the fact that the water-lines of the sneak-box are peculiar,
and differ materially from those of row-boats, sailboats, and yachts. Having a
spoon-shaped bottom and bow, the sneak-box moves rather over the water than through it,
and this peculiarity, together with its broad beam, gives the boat such stiffness that two
persons may stand upright in her while she is moving through the water, and troll their
lines while fishing, or discharge their guns, without careening the boat; a valuable

advantage not possessed by our best cruising canoes.
The boat sails well on the wind, though hard to pull against a strong head sea. A
fin-shaped centre-board takes the place of a keel. It can be quickly removed from the
trunk, or centre-board well, and stored under the deck. The flatness of her floor permits
the sneak-box to run in very shallow water while being rowed or when sailing before the
wind without the centre-board. Some of these boats, carrying a weight of three hundred
pounds, will float in four to six inches of water.
The favorite material for boat-building in the United States is white cedar (Cupressus
thyoides), which grows in dense forests in the swamps along the coast of New Jersey, as
well as in other parts of North America. The wood is both white and brown, soft,
fine-grained, and very light and durable. No wood used in boat-building can compare
with the white cedar in resisting the changes from a wet to a dry state, and vice versa. The
tree grows tall and straight. The lower part of the trunk with the diverging roots furnish
knee timbers and carlines for the sneak-box. The ribs or timbers, and the carlines, are
usually 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches in dimension, and are placed about ten inches apart. The
frame above and below is covered with half-inch cedar sheathing, which is not less than
six inches in width. The boat is strong enough to support a heavy man upon its deck, and
when well built will rank next to the seamless paper boats of Mr. Waters of Troy, and the
seamless wooden canoes of Messrs. Herald, Gordon & Stephenson, of the province of
Ontario, Canada, in freedom from leakage.
During a cruise of twenty-six hundred miles not one drop of water leaked through the
seams of the Centennial Republic. Her under planking was nicely joined, and the seams
calked with cotton wicking, and afterwards filled with white-lead paint and putty. The
deck planks, of seven inches width, were not joined, but were tongued and grooved, the
tongues and grooves being well covered with a thick coat of white-lead paint.
The item of cost is another thing to be considered in regard to this boat. The usual cost of
a first-class canoe of seventy pounds' weight, built after the model of the Rob Roy or
Nautilus, with all its belongings, is about one hundred and twenty-five dollars; and these
figures deter many a young man from enjoying the ennobling and healthful exercise of
canoeing. A first-class sneak-box, with spars, sail, oars, anchor, &c., can be obtained for
seventy-five dollars, and if several were ordered by a club they could probably be bought
for sixty-five dollars each. The price of a sneak-box, as ordinarily built in Ocean County,
New Jersey, is about forty dollars. The Centennial Republic cost about seventy-five
dollars, and a city boat-builder would not duplicate her for less than one hundred and
twenty-five dollars. The builders of the sneak-boxes have not yet acquired the art of
overcharging their customers; they do not expect to receive more than one dollar and fifty
cents or two dollars per day for their labor; and some of them are even so unwise as to
risk their reputation by offering to furnish these boats for twenty-five dollars each. Such a
craft, after a little hard usage, would leak as badly as most cedar canoes, and would be
totally unfit for the trials of a long cruise.
[Diagram of Sneak-Box "Centennial Republic"]
The diagram given of the Centennial Republic will enable the reader of aquatic
proclivities to understand the general principles upon which these boats are built. As they
should be rated as third-class freight on