The tin canoe

As the heading implys this is about  the tin canoe we built, there was a large sheet of tin washed down the creek behind the house after some heavy rain and this was retreaved and all the dints were knocked out. This wasn't the new type of corrigated iron but the old soft stuff that when you were on the roof you had to walk on the rafters or you might fall threw.  The sheet after about an hour was straight so to speek with the hammer marks of a fine craftsman and then there was the bullet holes and nail holes to fill in. Silicon would do a fine job of those but for the fact that it had'nt been invented. It was hot and the tar was melting on the road and with a stick this was scraped up to fill the holes. The two corners were bought together and nailed to a vertical upright that was cut from the front fence at the end corner of the fence so no one would miss it.The only real tool we had was a fine little hatchet which was used for a hammer and everything else we could think of using it for and it was as sharp as a gellette razor. Then the stern had the same proceedure done to it. Now came the tricky bit the canoe was proped up against the fence and mud was rammed into the end and covered with the tar from the road. This was heated in a jam tin on a fire made in the yard. No fire banns in those days and we could play with matches in this special area denuded of all vegitation.

What a fine craft it was after putting in a spreader bar to hold the sides out, many a voyage was performed in that fine ship, modifications were an outrigger and a sail made from a sheet taken from Mrs Willets clothes line shes long gone now god bless her soul. We used the left over tar to paint the sheet after disolving it in petrol, like all good sails there was an attempt at the skull and cross bones, well it looked good to us.