September 2011 found the bateaux stranded on a muddy river bed. We built and used a bateau wagon to portage them back to safety.
In May 2011, we loaded our cannon into a bateau and transported it across the Mohawk River. We did something novel that we had only read about.
This is a list of items that were sold in Schenectady in the 1760s and 1770s. I've also included a few items from Albany from that time period. It gives some idea of what goods were available at the time.
It was a monumental amount of work, but I made a new yard and a new sail for the bateau DeSager. The yard was hand-planed out of oak. The sail was entirely hand-sewn, and includes such features as bowline cringles. I can't say I'm eager to do it again, but I'm very proud of the way it came out.
I have the priviledge of crewing a 1792 reproduction bateau owned by the Schenectady County Historical Society. Here is a list of 18th century commands used for rowing and sailing small boats, compiled by Reb and myself.
There is a two page Short List in html and pdf formats, and a Full List in html and pdf formats.
Curious what laws affected us while boating, I have compiled a table of the New York State maritime laws that pertain to the bateau. There are some differences depending on whether we are a rowboat that can sail or a sailboat that has auxiliary oar power.
This is a scan of a broadside advertising "George Pettit, Taylor" in London, from perhaps 1750. His prices and terms are of interest to those curious about the fashions of those times. The actual date is uncertain. 1750 is marked in a faint hand at the bottom of the broadside. Certainly the font is from between 1735 and 1790.
Disgusted with the fit of modern elasticized stockings, Reb researched 18th century stockings. She summarizes her findings and supplies clear patterns. The patterns include how to properly measure one's legs, and details on short gore, long gore, and no-gore stockings. This is a 290 kb PDF file.
I can attest that these look good, wear well, and get many complements.
Too many people that are trying to make something look like it is from the 18th century use the long s (what looks like an 'f' to modern readers) without knowing when it is supposed to be used. This is a paper I wrote based on examining several 18th century books. The font I used is one that I created to match the The Practical Surveyor from 1725. The font and MS-Word macros for automatically adding ligatures are availible in this file: wyld.zip. Please request permission before using the font commercially.