Mississippi River Scull Boat ID

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Derek Bendell

Active member
So I'm posting this for a Pal who recently acquired this Boat. He's in the Debuque, IA stretch of the Miss. River area. Presume this isn't too far from the Pat Gregory, Tim Speight neck of the woods??? The Boat is 15' 7" long, and has a handmade HIN plate with the numbers etched in. Dates to the early 1910's. He got it from a man who had a pair of them that came from the Widow of their previous owner. One went to the landfill, and the better one was kept, and sold to my Buddy last month. Any ideas??? It's got some classic duck boat features, and I'm sure based on the age it's helped bring quite a few piles of birds back to shore...

Somebody along the way replaced some of the decking with plywood. The shape is the same, but it's not totally original. Buddy wants to fully restore it.
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Hin Plate.
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Scull Oar.
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I have no idea Derek but, nice find on your buddies part. Dubuque is quite aways north of us. Might have better luck with some of the guys up around Rockford. Would be great to know the ultimately history. Can you imagine sculling down Big Muddy in that coming upon a large raft of cans? Actually, some of the Pools on the Mississippi still allow sculling...

Thanks for sharing Derek! Great looking boat. We look forward to any history you might uncover...
 
Looks like it was used with a motor. Also I figure with the current the sculling oar was likely used as a rudder, and to keep the bow pointed the right direction more that to actually move towards the birds like a scull boat would be used in an open bay, or lake. It's got a shield so it sure seems like it was used to approach ducks in a sculling fashion. Neat ice-runner on the bow. Last registered in 2006. We're both interested in learning more about it. The fact there was a pair of them is cool. I wondered how popular that type of hunting was along the river. Pools to the north are well known for the great numbers of Cans. It's fun to imagine how it was used, and by whom...
 
Used to be a couple boats very similar to this one in use on our stretch of the river.
Don't know who made them. I think mark rongers looked into the history of some of our local boat designs.

They used the motor to get as close as possible without spooking the birds and then skulled up on them with the oar.

The locals mostly used them on mallards and geese.
I never really understood that with the divers numbering in the hundreds of thousands back then.
 
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There are still a number of old sculls around pool 12 and 13. Most are cedar strip that have been glassed. Ralph Thompson of Clinton Iowa was building boats not that many years ago. Guys I know motor around glassing the backwaters and scull on birds when they spot some. I have been told stories about putting out big diver spreads years ago and waiting on an island or up river till birds dumped into the decoys, then they would scull on the birds. I can't post pictures here.
 
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Ralph Thompson of Clinton Iowa was building boats not that many years ago.
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Thats the name that I have been trying to remember the past few days. However, I don't think this is one of his boats.
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Spider Brown was another name I have heard that was a scull boat builder from the Iowa side of the river. I have no idea how old my boat is. Friends from Galena were still using a boat that is probably getting close to 100 years old.
 
Neat looking boat. Wish I could help. My great uncle had a boat similar in design when I was younger. He bought it from a guy in Savanna, IL. My uncle and my dad hunted the Mississippi river from the Illinois side around Thompson, IL in the late 50's. I remember my dad saying it was a pig on water. Back then they would motor out with a small motor, set decoys and then motor up stream and anchor. Then they would use the scull oar more as a rudder than for propulsion. Once the shooting was over they would put the motor back on the transom and head back up stream and do it again.

These are examples of a Ralph Thompson boat. I've seen both these styles. I looked at buying a Ralph Thompson boat a few years back but the bow was rotted and would have been very hard to repair. Ralph built a strip hull with a plywood deck then covered with polyester resin. One of our members here new Ralph quite well. I haven't seen him post much in the couple of years but he knows a lot of history about Ralph and his boats and decoys. Prior to Ralph's passing several years ago I bought some of Ralphs decoys. I sold the before moving to Florida. Wish I still had them now.

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Ralph passed a couple years ago. I have not seen one like this. My uncle used to build them too. Jim Lundeen. His brother still has one of them. He actually even made all of the strips to build them. Planed the boards. Cut them down then hand sanded every piece. He still has all of his jigs to make them. I probably could get him to build one if I wanted to. He mainly builds furniture now.

Oh, We are in Clinton, Ia
 
you might be able to use the hull id number to go back with the dnr and see ho it was originally titled.
 
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you might be able to use the hull id number to go back with the dnr and see ho it was originally titled.
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Bob,

In this case the hull ID does not narrow it down much.[/font] The boat was registered as a homemade boat and as such no further info is on file.
ILZ = ILLINOIS HOMEMADE BOATS
 
Definitely not one of Ralphs rigs it has totally different lines. Spider Brown maybe possible he was building earlier than Ralphs start If I recall properly.

Spent alot of time with Ralph and its to bad that the tradition did not continue. He trained an apprentice of sorts but it did not make it after ralph quit and passed away.

Rongers had one of Ralphs rigs at one point that came from a friend of mine. the old guys that sculled the pools back in the heyday are mostly gone and so is all the knowledge

:(
 
Dave, I was hoping you'd chime in. Dave was the one that told me the history of Ralphs boats and decoys. After Dave explained the construction of the boats I opted out of buying the boat I had located. There is still a sculler in a back yard I know of that maybe a Ralph Thompson but it's been covered with falling branches for years and I suspect there isn't much to it after all the years.
 
I am the grandson of Spider Brown. He made over 400 scull boats. If you have any questions you can call me:
Bruce Brown
563-249-3488
 
Derek,
It would be my guess, based upon what one of our customers did with one of our scullers that he bought. He put the oar hole on the starboard side and knelt/bending over and using the scull oar along his right side to propel the boat. He liked it that way and both he and his Dad sculled like that.
Sounds like a back breaker to me though.
Lou
 
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