New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-11
PACIFIC "FLO4TERS."
Largest Craft IN the World Made of
Logs on Way to Market.

Contrary to general belief, the longest craft
In the world floats not in Atlantic, but in Pa
cific waters. There may structures
which overreach the longest Atlantic liner by
some fifty feet At first glance they appear
more like whales than the work Of man,
perchance like some mammoth kind Of torpedo
boat which almost hides itself to escape the
eyes of the eremy Although some measure
nearly four city blocks in length, they rarely
rise above the water more than ten feet, and
in storm they are swept by the waves from
end to the other.
These 'foaters" of the Pacific, for the term
"foater" characterizes them better than any
other, differ in many other ways from the great
ships with which New Workers so familiar.
For instance, they are built right in the
water. and not on the land and then launched
They leak at every joint. They are held to-
gether by chains, not rivets- They of the
same tapering shape at either end They
utterly helpless themselves. and must be towed.
They make more than one trip, and
reaching their destination they are torn to
pieces Many of them have been wrecked at
sea, and instead of floating about derelicts.
they have broken up into thousands of pieces
which have been carried by wind and tide to all
parts of the world.
In fact. the Pacific '1Oater' is more than
raft of logs. 1t exists for the reason that
Washington many hundred miles away from
the Western centres Of population. and the logs
too long for ordinary railroad cars. Then.
too. water is far cheaper medium of trans
portation than rail, and the price of lumber is
such that for those who can build one of these
huge RATS and bring it safely to market there
are fortunes of $4,000 to $4,000 to be made.
One of the largest ''foaters' that has yet trav-
elled the Pacific was $50 feet long. so feet wide,
co Dnn
passing through mill would produce S.O00OO0
feet of lumber, board measure. AS it is almost
Il, $4,000 feet from New York to San Francisco
the boards obtainable from this raft if placed
end to end in a straight line would reach more
than half way across the continent. The chains
which bound the logs of the raft together
weighed 100 tons The 'floater'' drew 2212 feet
OF water
Log RATS have for many years been built on
the Pacific Coast to be brought by ocean to the
lumber market of San Francisco. but not until
recently have they built so as to successful
ly Withstand the tremendous force of the waves
and to weather storms. The first made
were too small to prove profitable and those
that constructed larger of rectangular
shape soon broke in the middle and went to
pieces. AS they were long enough TO reach from
one billow to another. they moment
bent cOncavely as the centre lay in the trough
of two waves, and the next cOnveXly thu
centre rose on a and the ends sank
either side. At last it occurred to a NewBruns-
wick to build raft in cradle that IL
would have the form of ship. and to bind it
together with chains in such way that it
would withstand the rending power OF tho
waves
The first cgar-shaped raft, accordingly. was
built by Hugh r. Robertson. of st. John. n. B..
and measured $50 feet long and 80 feet deep.
Being constructed on land it had to be
launched, and this was accomplished with great
difficulty 1t went to pieces in an Atlantic
storm.
The Pacific Coast raft-makers profited by the
example, and they built up their logs, not on
land but in the water in vast cradle. which