Boat Building and Boating by D.C. Beard

Originally Published in 1911.

Dan Beard is the man who not only brought Scouting to America but wrote a dozen books that made popular many of the activities that Boy Scouts still do today. This is one of his best.

Boat-Building and Boating by D.C. Beard shows beginners how to build every kind of craft from a log raft to a houseboat. Originally written for boys, the book assumes builders will have only the most minimal of skills but want create an inexpensive vessel they have crafted themselves.

The book includes instruction for basic log rafts, canoes, a simple rowboat, a simple sailboat, rugged houseboat, and an inboard-motor boat. Beard believed his work was a “useful book to a large audience of new recruits to the army of those who believe in the good old American doctrine of: ‘If you want a thing done, do it yourself.’ And by doing it yourself you not only add to your skill and resourcefulness, but, what is even more important, you develop your own self-reliance.