my first wooden boat!!!!!!

Capt. John

Capt. John

Active member
I FINALLY after about a year of trying to get it have received this boat from my uncle. This great boat has been sitting in his barn in Illinois for over 40 years. If the story is correct this was my great great uncles boat that he market hunted the Mississippi river with. Its been in the family since it was built. My uncle started to work on her in the late 70's and forgot about it. The original upper deck supports still have the bolt holes for the punt gun but the wood on the top side has been replaced. I have major plans to fix her up to her original design and get a trailer and small outboard for her. ALso I need to get a scull oar hole from Lou, the transom has been replaced and needs a new one. I just had to promise that when she's done I'll bring her home to scull the Miss again at least once. I'm just chomping at the bit to get to work on this boat. Next season is gonna be great!

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Hope ya'll like my new old boat!
John Ven Huizen
 
What a treasure you have. I want to see it with a punt gun affixed.......even if it was a mock up.
 
I've been thinking about using layout boats or a skull out in the bays near Rockport.
I bet you could skull right up on those HUGE rafts of redheads.
 
You know it Paul, I had a one man scull but sold it but my buddy Eric has a one man scull also. Its deadly down here. Redheads are the easy species with it. We commonly shoot both lesser and greater scaup, goldeneye, ruddy, and buffies out of her. Its also very deadly inland at the bigger public lakes on cans and puddle ducks, Eric just shot a hybrid Mexican/mallard last week from her. To say sculling works is an understatement. I'm anxious to see how this bigger boat rows compared to the smaller ones I'm used to.
 
I wish! Texas has some very liberal hunting laws but I dont think I could get away with it! I guess I can be more clear, I'm gonna try and leave it wood but maybe just glass the bottom of the hull, the whole underside is original oak strips so I really need to get to inspecting before I make any real decisions. I really dont know yet. I figure I have some time to stand back and have few coctails and dream about her before I get to it. I do plan on at least putting the punt gun mounts back into it, that will really stump the GW when I get stopped!
 
Sweet boat John! Glad you are putting her back into use. Is the punt gun still around? Make for a cool off season show piece...remove it to hunt of course.

Chuck
 
punt guns on the Mississippi? This is the first time I've ever heard them referenced as having been used there.....

All of the literature that I've ever read about them seems to indicate that they were an East Coast application and I've never heard of them being used anywhere other than there.....be neat to see an additional area added to the area that they were used if you have anything on it, (like written notes from your Uncle or pictures).....

The boat is neat...love the crown in the deck.....way different in design than the flat bowed boats that were used as punt skiffs on the Atlantic Seaboard and in England.....

You said the upper deck and the combing had been replaced.....are the side boards and what looks like a front curtain frame original and is the boat still set up for those to be used? Would love to see those installed....my "guess" is that it will look much like the Sneak Boats that were common in the area......

Anything else left of the Uncles that he used in his "market hunting", like "guns"? Interested in hearing about him if you know anything...where and when he operated...what he targeted....who he sold to....that sort of thing if you know any of it.....make a neat story....

Steve
 
Hey Steve, I'm running off of word of mouth passed down the line throught the family, I'm aware of how inacurate this can be and I understand your questions. To be honest I'm going off of what I was told. The only "facts" I'm aware of is that the side of my family this boat came from migrated to Illinois from Delaware in the late 1800's? Somewhere around there and that my family supposedly sold ducks in Chicago. A historian I'm not, I only know a few solid facts on it and I guess the best I can do is hope that what I was told is true. And yes there are quite a few "new" parts on her. Shoot, If I'm wrong and way off of track I would love to know so I dont pass the wrong info to my nephew someday.
 
Mr. Steve, your questions got me really curious on the design aspects of my boat for the use of a market boat. I searched a bit and I think I nailed down the design of my boat, a pool 13 scull. This makes sense due to the fact that my family is from the area of pool 13 on the miss. The boat design is on track with what I have, the scull oar I have for it is very long and it says this style is oared from the front area of the boat, DO you think this was still used as a market boat? Know this has me wondering, I'm gonna keep looking into this. Thanks for the push
John
 
by someone who hunted "for the market"....the "design", (the round hull and the extreme crown in the front deck which would put the muzzle of a punt gun WAY ABOVE the watrer which isn't where you want it), just doesn't "fit" any of the boats I've ever seen outfitted with punt guns.....looks more like a traditional "scull" or a "sneak box", (a boat that had a "screen" at the front of the cockpit behind which the shooting knelt dropping it at the last minute to shoot).....

Don't think that just because the boat might not have been hunted with a punt gun that your Uncle didn't hunt for the market....lots of the early LEGAL market gunners made their living gunning with lights at night, shooting over heavily baited areas with the shoulder fired weapons and were very efficient using those techniques.....with the advent of reliable "repeating" shotguns, (like the Winchester 1897 pump), and shortly after smokeless powder, good shots, in areas of "abundant waterfowl" made an excellent living shooting for the market.....ILLEGAL Market gunners, your Uncle, (assuming it wasn't a Great Uncle), likely being one of those, only got better as weapons and ammunition got better and "gunning for the market" continued for a long time after the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty outlawed the selling of ducks and geese....

Neat piece of history there no matter whether it was used as a platform for a punt gun or in what would seem more likely to me, as a scull or sneak/bushwhack boat.......I'd urge you to search all family assets to see if you can find any additional information on the boat, or the Uncle......definately neat to know......and "maybe" theres a treasure trove of old pictures somewhere, a box full of reloading tools and powder tins or live decoy harnesses laying around that have yet to be uncovered......

Sure makes me wish my "relatives" had been hunters instead of dirt farmers......

Steve
 
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Steve, I'm glad you posted that, thank you. About three years ago my other uncle, brother of the guy I got the boat from, gave me a shotgun. He died of cancer but before he did he gave me a family shotgun passed to him from my grandfather. Without letting out to much family dirt, my two uncles really did not get along. So he gave the gun to me. It is a winchester 1897. It has my great grandfathers initials on the buttstock. I ran the numbers when I got it and it was made around 1910? I believe. I think you may have helped me figure out some family history. Thank you very much!

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witht eh straight English stock....that one looks heavily used but well maintained.....almost no blueing left, and that was back when a gun was BLUED and you had to actually do more than slide it in and out of the case to wear the blueing off, but no rust......

Have you ever shot it? I shoot a '97 several times a year....special hunts when I'm feeling "nostalgic" and I'm always surprised at how much I like the 30" barrel and how it feels to slip the hammer back to full cock as birds come into the decoys....

Definately one of those.."if guns could talk" things.......

Steve
 
There is historical documentation of market gunning on Lake Erie, particularly in the Long Point area. I believe Coots Paradise and Hamilton Harbor off of Lake Ontario also saw market gunning. I would bet that Lake St. Clair also had its share. Maybe Lou would know.

Nice boat! I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
 
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