Hi from Mariner

[Bryant Owen]

This is "mariner@kawartha.com". Yes, I do reside in the Kawartha Lakes
area. For those of you who don't know this spot, I'm about 75 miles (110
km) north of Lake Ontario.

My interest in paddlewheeling is closely related to my interest in
Alligators (see John Brooks stuff in the Paddleducks files. Alligators
were relatively common in my neck of the woods and I'd eventually like
to build a scaled down working replica that one or two people could
operate. Lately I've been thinking more about a much smaller scale
version of one of the vessels that once plied these waters. We've an
excellent boat modellers group in my area but I haven't formally
connected with them. Most of my modelling experience is limited to
plastic kits - a la Revell. So I'm really a newbie.

I'm going to (try and) upload a pic of an interesting variation on the
paddlewheeler theme. Look for "Rollerboat". I think this'd be a real
challenge for a modeller. And, yes, it did acutally work - sort of. The
pic was taken at a trial and she's under steam and moving on her own
here. The inventor, Knapp, intended the boat to travel across Lake
Ontario from Toronto to the US shore somewhere east of the Niagara
river.

Thanks for the invite to "reveal".

Bryant Owen

[Paulrjordan]

Fantastic, Bryant....another "Alligator" enthusiast..you're in good
company here with a couple of us who are also fascinated by these
wonderfully Canadian little logging paddlers. Paddleducks member
Chris Andersen of Ajax, Ont <chris.andersen@sympatico.ca> is very
knowledgable on these boats and is currently conducting research and
preparing scale drawings of a restored example in Algonquin Park. He
has also collected a pretty extensive inventory of photos of Ontario
Alligators. I also want to build a 1:48 scale model of one of these
boats and am searching for photos of prototypes.

> I'm going to (try and) upload a pic of an interesting variation on
> the paddlewheeler theme. Look for "Rollerboat". I think this'd be a
> real challenge for a modeller. And, yes, it did acutally work - sort
> of.
> The pic was taken at a trial and she's under steam and moving on her
> own here. The inventor, Knapp, intended the boat to travel across >
Lake Ontario from Toronto to the US shore somewhere east of the
> Niagara river.

The picture you uploaded of Knapp's Rollerboat is excellent and gives
a vivid idea of how substantial it was. Once again, Chris (Andersen)
is particularly interested in researching this unique vessel and
appeared last year on the History Channel's programme about "The Great
Farini", on which he spoke about the ultimate paddlewheeler, Knapp's
"Roller Boat." In his post 480 he wrote:

"On another subject, do any of you out there have any infromation
about the greatest "paddle" boat of them all, Knapp's "Roller Boat"?
This extraordinary vessel is another one of my research interests of
long-standing and I am always looking for additional information
about its design, construction, modifications, (limited) service, and
demise. If anyone can help, please contact me off-line at
chris.andersen@sympatico.ca"

You might also look up my post 481 on June 18 in which I posted some
info for the benefit of our members who may have thought this vessel
to be a delusionary figment of our Canadian imagination!
Nowww..I wonder just how difficult it would be to make a working
model!!! Maybe best to stick to "Gators!

In the meantime, glad to have you here and we look forward to giving
you encouragement and sharing ideas when you get started on your
'Gator model.

PJ