Topic starter
29/06/2017 4:54 am
I have received an extract from an old interview with a riverman talking about blueprints of riverboats. There is one word I simply can't identify as I haven't heard this term ever before. It sounds like "cenwheelers" or "sandwheelers" which doesn't make any sense to me.
Maybe anyone can identify what he is talking about? Here is a link to the audio file:
http://www.steamboats.org/temp/audioclips/crump-ralph-tape-11-extract.mp3
And that's what he's saying with som emore context than in the audio file: "That's where the word blueprint came from. The background was blue, and the designs of the ship or whatever the project was, that was in white. And so we had all of these shallow draft barges, (((cenwheelers???))), sternwheelers that ..."
Thanks so much!
Franz
29/06/2017 11:24 am
A guess
It sure sounds like cenwheelers. Could that be short for centerwheelers? There were some ferries with wheels in the center.
29/06/2017 1:51 pm
*RE: 'Unidentified words.*
Morning, Franz,
I have to agree with Judy above with "centerwheelers" etc. I also find sleuthing old steamboat documents, letters etc. a number of words they corrupted or changed using local colloquial sayings etc. that were known then but since almost lost.
R. Dale Flick
Summer: From the northern shores of mighty Lake Michigan.
29/06/2017 4:31 pm
I think Judy nailed it. As stated earlier there were centerwheel ferries, such as the CITY OF BATON ROUGE. Also running down in Florida on rivers such as the St. Johns there were pint sized packets with center wheels carrying on in their trade.
Topic starter
01/07/2017 12:44 pm
short for "centerwheeler" was my uneducated gues as well, so that makes four thinking the same thing. I suppose that's the answer to the question then. Thanks!