Talk:Scow

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"The flat-bottomed scows were also capable of coming right up on to the beach and grounding, then over the side went duckboards, wheelbarrows and banjo shovels. The crew would then fill the vessel with a cargo of sand.. "

Why did they want a cargo of sand?

"Logs when hauled were always carried above deck, secured by heavy chain, the space between decks being left empty to give added buoyancy."

This doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter where on a boat you put the load, the overall buoyancy is still the same. Also, as the article states, scows already have poor rough-water handling, and putting a heavy weight high up on the boat will make it worse and more liable to capsizing under wind or waves. I suspect the true reason might be that the logs were often too awkwardly shaped to make it worth putting them below decks. I don't know enough to amend the article though, but this error makes me suspicious of the veracity of the rest of this section of the article. RedTomato (talk) 07:48, 5 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@RedTomato: You raise a number of valid points. I suspect the beach sand was merely to add some weight, since I doubt the replenishing of the sand on the Auckland beaches from the abundant supply farther north was a priority in the pioneer era. That being said, I am sufficiently familiar with Northland to consider the basic gist of the section as appearing sound. However, the length of this section is disproportionate. The number of scows built in NZ would have been a drop in the bucket when compared to those in say British Columbia. Perhaps a NZer familiar with boating matters might be willing to revise the section and spin it off as a separate article. DMBanks1 (talk) 15:46, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Scows still in use, power scows[edit]

Hey I personally work as an oyster and clam farmer in the pacific northwest and felt its worth mentioning that we still use scows for our work as boats that we load and unload product and supplies from. My department has a metal scow, a wooden scow, and a power scow. a power scow basically has a similar engine you would see on a boat and doesn't need another boat to push or pull it around.

I was thinking of editing the article to add these details but I know Wikipedia likes to have stuff cited by some form of reputable source. How would I even find sources regarding this? I only know they exist because I use them near daily. I never even heard the word "scow" before my first job on a clam farm, and never see them referenced either in literature or in ordinary life, let alone modern usage for commercial agriculture. Goldscurvy (talk) 20:49, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]