DCHP-1 Online

scow † [Am.E < Du. schouw]

• n. a crude, oblong, flat-bottomed boat of shallow draft, much used in colonial days on the St. Lawrence and the Lower Lakes and in later times on the lakes and rivers of the Northwest. [See picture at scow.]

  • 1795  (1911)  I saw some of the vessels which are built on this lake and rigged like scows, a large flat bottomed boat.
  • 1807  (1809)  A scow is a vessel with four sides, an oblong square, in length forty to fifty feet, in breadth thirty to forty, and from four to five feet deep, flat-bottomed.
  • 1898  The cargo on a 100-foot scow consisted principally of whiskey and fair doves, and the number of women coming up was probably equal to that of the men.
  • 1957  Our scow, based at Fort George and always manned there by an all-Indian crew, was 40 feet long with an eight foot beam. In the bow a rough wooden capstan provided a means of winding through the worst of the white water in the canyons. At the stern a sweep, as long as the scow itself, was the chief navigational aid.