DCHP-1 Online

pointer

• 1 n. Lumbering a sturdy flat-bottomed boat about 20 ft. long, pointed fore and aft and having a shallow draft, specially designed for use in river drives. [See picture at pointer.]

  See also: driveboat  lumberboat  pointer boat  river pointer  bonne  

  • 1901  Swiftly the pointer shot down the current, the swaying bodies and swinging oars in perfect rhythm with the song that rose and fell with melancholy but musical cadence.
  • 1950  They would use "pointers," twenty-foot heavily built craft with steeply sloping sides, which seemed very tippy but actually were the most practical craft ever devised for Canadian logging.
  • 1961  At the suggestion of J. R. Booth, who wanted a useful river craft, John Cockburn in 1883 designed the "pointer," a sharp-pointed boat that is still widely used in the lumbering business. Jack Cockburn, grandson of the designer, makes them today in Pembroke; he is the only commercial builder of "pointers" in Canada. Largest ones are 55 feet long, weigh up to 2,000 pounds and carry eight tons. They draw such a small draft that Cockburn says they "will float on a heavy dew."
  • 1964  If you ask Emmett Chartrand about the driving boat or "pointer" he has a faraway look when he answers, "--used them, wore them out, broke them.

• 2 n. Esp. Fur Trade an inland freight bateau of shallow draft. [See picture at york boat.]

  See also: bateau (def. 3)  Hudson's Bay pointer  York boat  

  • 1936  In the interval we remained in the pointer, making periodic trips to the post by canoe for supplies and to salvage what we could.
  • 1966  He got one twenty-four-foot, shallow-draft riverboat built, square-sterned for a four horsepower outboard, sweeping up and fining to a pointed bow. A "pointer."