The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-14
RECORD RAFT PLANNED.
TO BE BUILT FOR fl TRIP ACROSS
 THE PACIFIC.


 tempt to Send Logs on Such Long
 JOurncy-May Prove n Menace to
 Navigation.
 The little city of Stella, Wash, on the Columbia River, the birthplace of most of the immense log rafts which have brought worldwide fame to the picturesque and daring methods of lumber transportation on the Paclhc Coast, is just now all agog over the prospect that her expert raft builders will have an opportunity to outdo themselves by building the largest raft the world has ever seen, says the LOS Angeles Times. The record breaking raft which is now projected will con- tain more than ten million feet of lum-s Der and will be one-fourth larger than the biggest log leviathan previously constructed.
 Still more interesting is the fact that this new queen of the, rafts is to be lowed across the Pacific from San Francisco to Shanghai, China, the first time such feat has been attempted. A number of the monster log ratts have within the last few years been lowed from ports in the Pacific northwest to San Francisco but this will be the first attempt to send one of the ponderous craft on a transoceanic voyage. Two of the most powerful tugboats on the western coast will undertake to drag the unwleldy mess of logs to the Orient and the odd fleet will be accompanied by collier or oil steamer with fuel for the tugs.
 Already shipowners, vessel masters and seafaring men in general who have to do with navigation on the Pacific are decidedly worried by the news that the big raft is to attempt the journey to the Far East and are urging that steps be taken to prevent the monster tow from putting to sea. As matter of fact all the monster rafts which have from time to time been lowed along the Pacific coast have been brought safely to port win the exception of one or two of the first of these log craft tc be built, and which were put together when the builders did not have, as per feet a knowledge as they have now of the best way to fashion them. Never theless the mariners on the worlds greatest ocean declare that the craft en route to China will be positive menace to navaigation and are more than dubious over the outlook.
 The top notch raft now projected will be made up of logs which wher the raft is broken up and the materia sold, will be used for spars and bling The best material of this kind in tht world is to be found in the States O oregon and Washington, for here W, find those remarkable frs which have the lightness of pine and the strength of oak Indeed, 1t is doubtful If thest large rafts could be constructed tC equal advantages anywhere else in thu | world, for only in the Pacific North west is it possible to find an ihexhaus l table lot of trees that tower, straight 1 as an arrow, too to 200 feet without ; | limb and which consequently adap themselves most admirably to rafting on grand scale.
 1 The record breaking raft will be con structed under the supervision of Hugl | R. Robertson, the father of the gian log raft. A new company has jus been organized under the laws 0 British Columbia expressly for thu purpose of building this raft, but tn ! special corporation is merely brancl of the Roberson Raft company, whicl has built most of the other big raf l which have started on from the Colum i bia River within the last decade. I is interesting to note in this connec tion that the big raft idea had it's in ception on the Atlantic Coast Inven | tor Robertson formerly resided in St 1 John, N. B., and he built his first larg raft at Joggins, Nova Scotia, in 1SSi l The raft was lost at sea while he ing lowed to a United States port, bu | the inventor, undaunted. immediatei shape type and thus justified hi l theories by successfully making 1 journey of 700 miles in ten days. A this juncture MT. Robertson recogniz ed the broader field awaiting him O the Pacific coast and disposed of right for the Atlantic coast, taking up op erations on a yet more pretentiou scale on the west coast.
 It is planned to construct the bigges raft at a point on the Columbia River which for over two hundred miles forms the boundary between the State' of Oregon and Washington-since here the rafter's workshop, it it may be SC designated, is in the heart of the flores and he has close at hand the bulky material. The logs to be used in tht raft may be transported by cars or wire ropes cableways and piled on the banl of the river awaiting the time whe1 they shall be needed, or they may b. foated down stream and held in ; boom under the shadow of the raft il process of creation.
 In the construction of the transpacif1 raft there will be utilized what ii known as a floating cradle-an improve ment which is largely responsible fo the present development of this uniqu, industry. When MT. Robertson bull his first large rafts he assembled then on shore, resting upon timber founda tions much as a ship rests when unde construction. When he came to launcl a raft, however, he found that the cum bersome mass had none of the ship propensity for sliding easily and grace fully into the water, even though tn pathway was greased. So much tim I