Our First Paddler President?

[Fish]

We just celebrated his birthday, and I was reading and found out that young Abe Lincoln did some paddling in his youth. This from Wikipedia:

The following year, when his father relocated the family to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, 22-year-old Lincoln struck out on his own, canoeing down the Sangamon River to the village of New Salem in Sangamon County.[11] Later that year, hired by New Salem businessman Denton Offutt and accompanied by friends, he took goods from New Salem to New Orleans via flatboat on the Sangamon, Illinois and Mississippi rivers.

I wonder if he wore a stovepipe helmet?

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Abe, our first paddler president!

- Fish

[Gordon Kumpuris]

Not that I would have voted for him but we missed our chance at the modern era paddler prez in Al Gore. I was once on the Ocoee the same time he was on the river. Never saw him but others did. Pretty cool.

[CapnTom]

Gee-whiz, I thought it was George Washington.

You remember when he crossed the Potomac(in a boat he carved from a cherry tree)
to fight the Indians in the Battle of The Buldge in The War of 1812 ???


I could be wrong... :)

[Fish]

All I know is Taft definitely paddled an open boat.

- Fish

[Trismegistus]

George Washington spent a lot of time in a canoe -- in the late 1740s and early 1850s as a young boy he accompanied a surveying team that travel through the Shenandoah Valley via canoe. Later in life -- 1763 - Washington inspected the route for the Dismal Swamp canal by canoe. Even during his last days he could be seen canoeing in the Potamac enjoying some time fishing with one of his cooks.

Theodore Roosevelt was also a big time paddler -- in 1913 he toured the Amazon in a big dugout canoe -- these boats were no match for the river's wild waters and several craft were destroyed by rapids and waterfalls and had to be replaced in the jungle. TR almost died from the combined effects of malaria and a severe infection while on this perilous trip.

Lastly, the first reported drowning of a public national official could perhaps be -- in November, 1789, the Chief Justice, Judge Parsons, was drowned while attempting to pass the falls of Beaver. He had an interest in a tract on the Mahoning and being anxious to prove that the navigation of the falls in canoes was practicable, undertook to pass the falls in a canoe and was cast out and drowned.

I can only assume every President at one time or another has been in a canoe ... I guess one might want to look for exceptions. Does anyone know what type of boat Carter was in when he was attacked by the "swimming rabbit"?

[Trismegistus]

Answer: He was paddling a jon boat when attacked -- "the animal was clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk. The President confessed to having had limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was unable to reach a definite conclusion about its state of mind. What was obvious, however, was that this large, wet animal, making strange hissing noises and gnashing its teeth, was intent upon climbing into the Presidential boat."

The President evidently shooed the critter away from his boat with a paddle.