Commenting on the Government boat which has one large hole in the top, or in other words the boat is open between the air-tight departments above the deck of each end, one RLDS author provided the following quotations that may provide light on the Jaredite barges:
JAREDITE BOATS.
We now
quote from Popular Mechanics for June, 1907, page 628: “The boat can not
sink, for there are right water-right compartments in it, any of which is
sufficient to hold the boat on the surface full of men and women. And in these
eight compartments are righty-two copper air cases, so that the boat can be
smashed into small pieces, cut in two, in ten, in a hundred parts, and still
there will be enough floating for those in the boat at the time of the accident
to hold on to.”
National Magazine, November, 1906, page 163 says: “In order to procure the
self-righting quality, each is furnished with a heavy iron keel, and well
provided with ballast. If overturned it is impossible for the boat to remain so
on account of the elevated air chambers in the bow and stern, and as it rolls
upon one side, the ballast and the iron keel, which by its own weight must
naturally seek the water, quicky force it back into position.”
Popular Mechanics, June, 1906, page 625 says: “The boat can not stay upset, and turns
over with difficulty; on the bottom is a heavy keen of metal—gun metal. . . .
This eighteen hundred pounds of keel flops a boat right side up as fast and as
often as a wave upsets the boat—and it must be a mighty wave indeed which
accomplishes the feat. . . . The photographs show the difficulty which is experienced
in trying to upset one of the boats. A number of men with block and tackle, had
to pull and haul a long time, until, inch by inch, the boat finally keeled
over, took water, and at last turned bottom up. Released, and in a second the
heavy keel flopped back the boat and in no uncertain manner—witness the splash.”
National Magazine, November, 1906, says: “The excited spectators held their breath, but
presently had leisure to notice certain peculiarites of constructure, namely
three round openings in the bottom of the boat, by means of which the
self-bailing is accomplished. In the boat’s floor, which is so placed as to be
on a level with the water when it is manned, . . . are several openings, each
connecting by a metal with one in the bottom. As water can not rise above its
own level, and as each tube is closed, at the floor level, by a valve which
opens downward, no water can pas up into the boat, while any dashing in from
above is at once shipped through the tubes. So quickly is this accomplished that
a full boat can empty itself in about half a minute.”
Popular Mechanics, June, 1907, says: “The boat can not be sunk. They have a false
bottom through which run eight inch tubes, closed with valves, which keep the
water out. But let a wave fill the boat and in less than half a minute the
water all runs out the tubes back into the sea.” (A. H. Parsons, Parson’s
Text Book [Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing House, 1971], 324-25; this is
based on the article J. W. Burns, "The Jaredite Boats," The Saints’
Herald 54, 42 [October 16, 1907]:950)
