Managing a Boat

Also, if you live near water you should be able to manage a boat. You should know how to bring it properly alongside a ship or pier, either by rowing it or steering it in a wide circle so that it comes up alongside with its head pointing the same way as the bow of the ship or towards the current. You should be able to row one oar in time with the rest of a boat's crew, or to use a pair of oars, or to scull a boat by "screwing" a single oar over the stern. In rowing, the object of feathering or turning the blade of the oar flat when it is out of the water is to save it from catching the wind and thereby checking the pace of the boat.

You should know how to throw a coil of rope so as to fling it on to another boat or wharf, or how to catch and make fast a rope thrown to you. Also how to throw a lifebuoy to a drowning man.

You should be able to make a raft out of any materials that you can get hold of, such as planks, logs, barrels, sacks of straw, and so on. Often on a hike you may want to cross a river with your food and baggage where no boats are available.