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Page 59 FROM BARK CANOE TO BULK CARRIER by Joseph E. Johnston Reprinted from October, 1955 Telescope VOL. 4 In the vast area known as the Great Lakes Basin, located a thousand miles from the salt seas, shipping has for nearly three centuries been a major factor in everyday lives of the people. With the coming of the railroad, travelers turned away from the water, and when the automobile arrived, passenger traffic on the Great Lakes dwindled to a mere trickle handled by a few companies. With the suspension of service by the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company at the end of the 1950 season, scheduled through passenger service became a thing of the past. A few cruise boats still operate during the summer months, and there are a few short steamer runs, which are more in the nature of ferries than true passenger vessels. Still, Great Lakes shipping is an indispensable industry of great magnitude, and without it life in the region would be quite difficult. While travel by steamer has virtually ceased, cargo tonnage moved by lake vessels has steadily increased and a three-century-old tradition continued. That tradition is one of special types of vessel for special needs. Actually, that tradition began more than three hundred years ago, for when the Indians perfected the birchbark canoe, far back in antiquity, they were trying to produce a craft for a special purpose. Their specific need was for a light boat, which could be portaged from one stream to another, giving them a wider range of hunting activities, far back in the forests and away from the big lakes. It is generally conceded that the Indian had previously mastered the art of shaping a dugout (telescope OCTOBER 1955 250 RIO .10 nrro the great heyotd TRon *trif« To 11 t* fan Is itory tad in aoac.- log canoe, but this was an accomplishment common to all primitives where timber grew. The dugout was a sturdy craft, which could take a lot of rough handling and survive a lot of neglect. They could be made graceful, but there is little to indicate that much love was wasted on them by the aborigines around the Great Lakes. Possibly the explanation of that lies in the fact that the dugout canoe was what today we would call "an obsolete model." It sufficed for navigating the open lakes and the lower reaches of the rivers, but extremely unhandy on the portages. The bark canoe was handy to portage and could be used on the open lakes as well. Its greatest disadvantage was in making a landing on a rocky shore, for its bottom and sides were susceptible to damage in such a situation. That disadvantage was largely overcome by dropping a stone for an anchor just before grounding, then lifting the lift craft and carrying it ashore. One thing is reasonably certain, and that is it was not lack of skill that prevented the Indians of the Great Lakes region from leaving us an example of a graceful log canoe. A people who could work out the details of the beautiful birchbark canoe, could have shaped a graceful dugout. The methods used in the construction of the bark canoe, while primitive, were ingenious. As for design, we have never improved upon it, even though we have substituted materials. Many steps entered into the construction. From light, straight-grained cedar, ribs were fashioned, then bent to form by suspending them at each end and weighting the middle with a stone