How To Make A Toy Boat

Try yourself and make your own toy boat! Its fun and easy!

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http://www.historyworld.net

Humans have tended to live near water, and it is natural to make use of things that float. Logs or bundles of reeds can be lashed together to form rafts; hollow trunks can be improved to become dugout canoes. Once the principle of a watertight hull is understood, animal hides or the bark of trees can be attached to a framework of bamboo or wicker to make a simple coracle.

Boats of all these kinds have been made by technologically primitive communities, and many continue to be made into the 20th century.

If planks are added to raise the edges of a dugout canoe, with wooden struts to hold them in place, the primitive boatbuilder is already on the way towards the only design of wooden boat capable of being built on a large scale. This consists of a keel to which a ribbed frame is attached - much as animal ribs curve outwards from a backbone.

Planks are attached to these ribs. They either overlap (clinker-built) or are fastened edge-to-edge (carvel-built). These remain the basic designs for large boats and ships until the gradual introduction of metal hulls in the 19th century.