At 17 metres long, the Severn class lifeboats are the largest class of UK lifeboat

A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland (lakes) or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a vessel small enough to be carried aboard another vessel (a ship). Another less restrictive definition is a vessel that can be lifted out of the water. Strictly speaking and uniquely a submarine is a boat as defined by the Royal Navy^{[citation needed]}. Some boats too large for the naval definition include the Great Lakes freighter, riverboat, narrowboat and ferryboat. The term armed boat, used primarily by English speaking naval forces, referred to any boat carrying either a cannon or armed occupants, such as marines^{[citation needed]}.

History[link]

A boat in an Egyptian tomb painting from about 1450 BCE

Babur crossing river Son; folio from an illustrated manuscript of ‘Babur-Namah’, Mughal, Akbar Period, AD 1598

Boats have served as short-distance transportation since early times.^[1] Circumstantial evidence, such as the early settlement of Australia over 40,000 years ago, and findings in Crete dated 130,000 years ago,^[2] suggests that boats have been used since ancient times. The earliest boats have been predicted^[3] to be logboats. The oldest boats to be found by archaeological excavation are logboats from around 7,000–10,000 years ago. The oldest recovered boat in the world is the Pesse canoe; it is a dugout or hollowed tree trunk from a Pinus sylvestris. It was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 B.C. This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands;^[4][5] other very old dugout boats have been recovered.^[6][7][8][9] A 7,000 year-old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.^[10]

Boats were used between 4000 BCE and 3000 BCE in Sumer,^[1] ancient Egypt^[11] and in the Indian Ocean.^[1]

Boats played a very important part in the commerce between the Indus Valley Civilization and Mesopotamia.^[12] Evidence of varying models of boats has also been discovered in various Indus Valley sites.^[13][14] The Uru wooden big boat made in Beypore a village in south Calicut, Kerala, in southwestern India. These have been used by the Arabs and Greeks since ancient times as trading vessels. This mammoth wooden ship was constructed using teak, without any iron or blueprints which has transportation capacity of 400 tonnes.

The accounts of historians Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo suggest that boats were being used for commerce and traveling.^[13]

Types[link]

A tug boat is used for towing or pushing other, larger vessels.

Boats can be categorized into three types:

• Unpowered or human-powered boats. (Unpowered boats include rafts and floats meant for one-way downstream travel. Human-powered boats include canoes, kayaks, gondolas and boats propelled by poles like a punt.)
• Sailing boats, which are boats propelled solely by means of sails.
• Motorboats, which are boats propelled by mechanical means, such as engines.

Parts and terminology[link]

Several key components make up the main structure of most boats. The hull is the main structural component of the boat which actually provides buoyancy for the boat. The roughly horizontal, but chambered structures spanning the hull of the boat are referred to as the deck. In a ship there are often several decks, but a boat is unlikely to have more than one, if any at all. Above the deck are the superstructures. The underside of a deck is the deck head.

An enclosed space on a boat is referred to as a cabin. Several structures make up a cabin: the similar but usually lighter structure which spans a raised cabin is a coach-roof. The "floor" of a cabin is properly known as the sole, but is more likely to be called the floor (a floor is properly, a structural member which ties a frame to the keelson and keel). The vertical surfaces dividing the internal space are bulkheads.

The keel is a lengthwise structural member to which the frames are fixed (sometimes referred to as a backbone).

The front (or forward end) of a boat is called the bow. Boats of earlier times often featured a figurehead protruding from the front of the bows. The rear (or aft end) of the boat is called the stern. The right side (facing forward) is starboard and the left side is port.

Building materials[link]

A ship's lifeboat, built of steel, rusting away in the wetlands of Folly Island, South Carolina, United States.

Until the mid 19th century most boats were of all natural materials; primarily wood although reed, bark and animal skins were also used. Early boats include the bound-reed style of boat seen in Ancient Egypt, the birch bark canoe, the animal hide-covered kayak and coracle and the dugout canoe made from a single log. By the mid 19th century, many boats had been built with iron or steel frames but still planked in wood. In 1855 ferro-cement boat construction was patented by the French. They called it Ferciment. This is a system by which a steel or iron wire framework is built in the shape of a boat's hull and covered (trowelled) over with cement. Reinforced with bulkheads and other internal structure, it is strong but heavy, easily repaired, and, if sealed properly, will not leak or corrode. These materials and methods were copied all over the world, and have faded in and out of popularity to the present. As the forests of Britain and Europe continued to be over-harvested to supply the keels of larger wooden boats, and the Bessemer process (patented in 1855) cheapened the cost of steel, steel ships and boats began to be more common. By the 1930s boats built of all steel from frames to plating were seen replacing wooden boats in many industrial uses, even the fishing fleets. Private recreational boats in steel are uncommon. In the mid 20th century aluminium gained popularity. Though much more expensive than steel, there are now aluminium alloys available that will not corrode in salt water, and an aluminium boat built to similar load carrying standards could be built lighter than steel.

A wooden boat operating near shore

Around the mid 1960s, boats made of glass-reinforced plastic, more commonly known as fibreglass, became popular, especially for recreational boats. The United States Coast Guard refers to such boats as 'FRP' (for Fibre Reinforced Plastic) boats.

Fibreglass boats are extremely strong, and do not rust (iron oxide), corrode, or rot. They are, however susceptible to structural degradation from sunlight and extremes in temperature over their lifespan. Fibreglass provides structural strength, especially when long woven strands are laid, sometimes from bow to stern, and then soaked in epoxy or polyester resin to form the hull of the boat. Whether hand laid or built in a mould, FRP boats usually have an outer coating of gelcoat which is a thin solid colored layer of polyester resin that adds no structural strength, but does create a smooth surface which can be buffed to a high shine and also acts as a protective layer against sunlight. FRP structures can be made stiffer with sandwich panels, where the FRP encloses a lightweight core such as balsa or foam. Cored FRP is most often found in decking which helps keep down weight that will be carried above the waterline. The addition of wood makes the cored structure of the boat susceptible to rotting which puts a greater emphasis on not allowing damaged sandwich structures to go unrepaired. Plastic based foam cores are less vulnerable. The phrase 'advanced composites' in FRP construction may indicate the addition of carbon fibre, kevlar(tm) or other similar materials, but it may also indicate other methods designed to introduce less expensive and, by at least one yacht surveyor's eyewitness accounts,^[15] less structurally sound materials.

Cold molding is similar to FRP in as much as it involves the use of epoxy or polyester resins, but the structural component is wood instead of fibreglass. In cold moulding very thin strips of wood are laid over a form or mould in layers. This layer is then coated with resin and another directionally alternating layer is laid on top. In some processes the subsequent layers are stapled or otherwise mechanically fastened to the previous layers, but in other processes the layers are weighted or even vacuum bagged to hold layers together while the resin sets. Layers are built up thus to create the required thickness of hull.

People have even made their own boats or watercraft out of materials such as foam or plastic, but most homebuilts today are built of plywood and either painted or covered in a layer of fibreglass and resin.

Propulsion[link]

The most common means are:

The Wanli Emperor enjoying a boat ride on a river with an entourage of guards and courtiers in this Ming Dynasty Chinese painting.

• human power (rowing, paddling, setting pole and so on.)
• wind power (sailing)
• Motor powered propellers
  • Inboard
    • internal combustion (gasoline, diesel, heavy fuel oil)
    • steam (coal, fuel oil)
  • Inboard/Outboard (sterndrive)
    • gasoline
    • diesel
  • Outboard
    • electric
  • paddle wheel
  • Water jet (personal water craft, jetboat)
  • Air fans (hovercraft, air boat)

Track-driven propulsion[link]

The water caterpillar boat propulsion system (Popular Science Monthly, December 1918, p 68)

An early uncommon means of boat propulsion was referred to as the water caterpillar which is similar in construction to paddles on a conveyor belt and preceded the development of tracked vehicles such as military tanks and earth moving equipment. A series of paddles on chains moved along the bottom of the boat to propel it over the water.^[16]

The first water caterpillar was developed by Desblancs in 1782 and propelled by a steam engine. In the United States the first water caterpillar was patented in 1839 by William Leavenworth of New York.

Buoyancy[link]

A floating boat displaces its weight in water. The material of the boat hull may be denser than water, but if this is the case then it forms only the outer layer. If the boat floats, the mass of the boat (plus contents) as a whole divided by the volume below the waterline is equal to the density of water (1 kg/l). If weight is added to the boat, the volume below the waterline will increase to keep the weight balance equal, and so the boat sinks a little to compensate.

See also[link]

Abora Boat building Cabin cruiser Canoe Dory Flat-bottomed boat Glossary of nautical terms Gondola Halkett boat Inflatable boat Kayak

Launch (boat) Lifeboat (rescue) Lifeboat (shipboard) Log canoe Motorboat Narrowboat Naval architecture Panga (boat) Pirogue Raft Reed boat

Rescue craft Row boat Sailboat Sampan Ship Skiff Super yacht Traditional fishing boats Yacht Ferry Barge

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boat Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Boats

References[link]

External links[link]

• PDRacer - The Easiest Sailboat In the World To Build
• Sailboats database: sailboat data sheets all over the world
• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections -- Freshwater and Marine Image Bank -- Vessels - images of boats and vessels

The Inspector is a series of 1960s theatrical cartoons produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and released through United Artists. The titular character is based on Jacques Clouseau, a comical French police officer who is the main character in the Pink Panther series of films.

Plot[link]

Although the titular character was never given a name, in contrast to the completely inept Inspector Clouseau, the cartoon character was generally competent, if prone to moments of bad judgement. Humor came from the sometimes surreal villains and situations the Inspector was exposed to, with a healthy dose of stylized cartoon slapstick. Through these difficult circumstances, criminals often get the better of him and he must face the wrath of his ill-tempered, bullying Commissioner (based on Herbert Lom's Commissioner Dreyfus) who holds him in well-deserved contempt.^[1]

Pat Harrington, Jr., provided the voice (and voiceover narration) for the Inspector and, with the exception of one cartoon, his assistant, a Spanish gendarme named Deux-Deux (common nickname in French for Eduard or Eduardo). In Spain, the character was named "Totó", and in the Mexican dubbing, Dodó. The name in the English version of the cartoon sounds like Ju-Du. The frustrated Commissioner was voiced by Larry Storch in the first two cartoons, Paul Frees in most of the following ones, and Marvin Miller in the final few cartoons.^[1] The first entry, The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation, was the short featured before screenings of the James Bond film Thunderball.

In a majority of the cartoons, the Inspector usually always had to tell Deux Deux: "Don't say "Si", Say "Oui", in which Deux Deux would reply: "Si, I mean "Oui". One variation had to have Deux Deux not to say "Ouisick", but "Seasick". Also, Deus Deus usually exclaims when the Inspector gets into a mess: "Hola Frejoles!!!" Meaning: "Holy Beans". Sometimes, Deux Deux ends up as the winner, when he arrests the culprit, but, usually, without much of a struggle.

While the Inspector character design remained basically the same throughout the DePatie-Freleng shorts, and was used in the opening credit sequence of the 1968 live-action film Inspector Clouseau (which had Alan Arkin standing in for Peter Sellers as the title character), the Inspector featured in the opening titles of the later Pink Panther features changed dramatically over the years.^[1] While both characters bore the brunt of the slapstick, a sense of dedication to the police force and repeated attempts would achieve mixed success, as Clouseau and Deux-Deux would generally either apprehend the wanted criminal or recover the item assigned to them.

The music used for the titles of the cartoon was the song "A Shot in the Dark" by Henry Mancini, borrowed from the 1964 feature film of the same name (the second entry in the Pink Panther film series). The other music in the shows was composed initially by William Lava, then by Walter Greene later on. Two shorts had their own unique version of the theme music, Napoleon Blown-Aparte and Cock-A-Doodle Deux Deux.^[1]

All 34 entries appeared during the inaugural season (1969-1970) of The Pink Panther Show. For new bumper sequences, The Inspector (now voiced by Marvin Miller) is featured trying to capture The Pink Panther. Reruns of The Inspector and The Pink Panther Show currently air on Boomerang and BBC2.^[1]

List of shorts[link]

NOTE: The initials after each title indicate the director. FF=Friz Freleng, GC=Gerry Chiniquy, RM=Robert McKimson, GS=George Singer.

1965

• 01 The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation 12/21/65 (FF, co-directed by GC) - The Inspector is determined to retrieve the famous DeGaulle diamond from the three-headed jewel thief, the Maxi O,Reilly Bros. who are attempting to steal it.

1966

• 02 Reaux, Reaux, Reaux Your Boat 2/1/66 (GC) - The Inspector is after the notorious smuggler Captain Clamity (a clam with legs) and his sidekick Crab Louie.
• 03 Napoleon Blown-Aparte 2/2/66 (GC) - The Mad Bomber escapes from Le Prison and swears vengeance on The Commissioner by blowing him up with an endless amount of bombs.
• 04 Cirrhosis of the Louvre 3/9/66 (GC) - The insidious criminal known as The Blotch plans to steal all the paintings from the Louvre.
• 05 Plastered in Paris 4/5/66 (GC) - The Inspector and Deux Deux chase a man known as "X" across Africa.
• 06 Cock-A-Doodle Deux Deux 6/15/66 (RM) - The largest diamond in the world, 'The Plymouth Rock', has been stolen from Madame at her palace,and the suspects turn out to be chickens.
• 07 Ape Suzette 6/24/66 (GC) - The Inspector thinks he is fighting a little man but an ape gets in all the punches.
• 08 The Pique Poquette of Paris 8/25/66 (GS) - Spider Pierre (who has four arms, two legs and a spider-web gun) picks pockets, especially those of the Inspector.
• 09 Sicque! Sicque! Sicque! 9/23/66 (GS) - Deux Deux drinks a flask of a green liquid and keeps changing into a big green monster who beats up and shoots the Inspector.
• 10 That's No Lady, That's Notre Dame 10/26/66 (GS) - Trying to catch a purse snatcher, the Inspector sets up a sting operation by disguising himself as a woman and soon falls afoul of the Commissioner's very jealous wife.
• 11 Unsafe and Seine 11/9/66 (GS) - The Inspector and Deux Deux search for an agent across the world.
• 12 Toulouse La Trick 12/30/66 (RM) - The Inspector handcuffs Toulouse Le Moose and himself to prevent Toulouse from escaping.

1967

• 13 Sacre Bleu Cross 2/1/67 (GC) - When they go after Hassan the Assassin, Deux-Deux gives The Inspector an unlucky rabbit's foot.
• 14 Le Quiet Squad 5/17/67 (RM) - The Commissioner is overworked and needs absolute quiet or he goes into uncontrolled fits of temper. The Inspector is assigned to look after him, but has trouble with a noisy cat.
• 15 Bomb Voyage 5/22/67 (RM) - The Commissioner is kidnapped by aliens.
• 16 Le Pig-Al Patrol 5/24/67 (GC) - The Inspector is sent after biker Pig Al and his biker gang.
• 17 Le Bowser Bagger 5/30/67 (GC) - The Inspector is given Private Bowser, a very energetic dog, in his efforts to track down a thief.
• 18 Le Escape Goat 6/29/67 (GC) - Sacked for letting Louie Le Finke escape, the Inspector tries to stop Le Finke from taking vengeance on the Commissioner, but ends up becoming part of the manhunt himself.
• 19 Le Cop on Le Rocks 7/3/67 (GS) - The Inspector is sent to prison having been mistaken for a bank robber who is his double. He soon realizes that his backfiring attempts to escape adds even more years to his sentence.
• 20 Crow De Guerre 8/16/67 (GC) - The Inspector is continually outwitted by a crow that steals jewels.
• 21 Canadian Can-Can 9/20/67 (GC) - Sent to Canada on an exchange programme, the Inspector is sent after Two-Faced Harry, who has an "innocent" face on his front and an evil face on his back.
• 22 Tour De Farce 10/25/67 (GC) - Through his own mistake, the Inspector is stranded on Deserted Island with the large convict Mack Le Truck, who is trying to kill him.
• 23 The Shooting of Caribou Lou 12/20/67 (GC) - On holiday in Canada as a Mountie, the Inspector is kidnapped by the diminutive but aggressive fur trapper Caribou Lou.

1968

• 24 London Derriere 2/7/68 (GC) - Having chased jewel thief Louie Le Swipe around Europe, the Inspector tries to nab him in London. Unfortunately, he runs afoul of the no-gun laws and a British Police Captain.
• 25 Les Miserobots 3/21/68 (GC) - The Inspector is fired after being replaced by an efficient police robot. He tries to destroy it, but his attempts backfire.
• 26 Transylvania Mania 3/26/68 (GC) - The Inspector is sent to find a scientist who is making monsters without a licence. The scientist is a vampire who needs a brain for his latest monster, and the Inspector arrives at just the right moment.
• 27 Bear De Guerre 4/26/68 (GC) - The Inspector goes quail hunting but runs afoul of a bear who thinks he is being hunted.
• 28 Cherche Le Phantom 6/13/68 (GC) - The Inspector searches for a wanted gorilla from the Paris zoo and a phantom that is hiding in the opera house, who is really the gorilla himself.
• 29 Le Great Dane Robbery 7/7/68 (GC) - A code cipher has been stolen from a French intelligence unit and hidden in the Soviet Embassy. Because the Soviets are flouting diplomatic immunity, Inspector Clouseau is assigned to recover it in a clandestine, non-cover operation, which annoys him as he was scheduled to go on an ocean cruise for a long-awaited vacation. The Inspector must get past a vicious dog named Tiny and get the cipher back before his cruise ship departs.
• 30 Le Ball and Chain Gang 7/24/68 (GC) - The Inspector tries to get into the house of an argumentative couple named Charlie and Edna.
• 31 La Feet's Defeat 7/24/68 (GC) - The Commissioner assigns The Inspector and Deux-Deux to capture Muddy La Feet and encounter many booby traps, which Deux-Deux sets off.

1969

• 32 French Freud 1/22/69 (GC) - A crooked Russian actress Melody Marcuri and her "maid" (i.e. husband in drag also a psychiatrist) are trying to kill the Inspector to get at the Du Barry diamond, which he is guarding under his hat.
• 33 Pierre and Cottage Cheese 2/26/69 (GC) - A Chinese robot named Charlie tries to help The Inspector capture Dirty Pierre Le Punk.
• 34 Carte Blanched 5/14/69 (GC) - The Inspector discovers he has accidentally stolen a shopping cart from his local supermarket. A voiceover suggests numerous ways to get rid of it before he is caught.

Voices[link]

• Pat Harrington, Jr. - The Inspector, Deux-Deux
• Paul Frees - The Commissioner (1966–1967)
• Don Messick - Deux-Deux (La Feet's Defeat)
• Larry Storch - The Commissioner (1965–1966) (The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation, Napoleon Blown-Aparte)
• Marvin Miller - The Commissioner (1967, 1968–1969), The Inspector, Deux Deux (The Pink Panther Show)
• Mark Skor - The Commissioner (1967) (Canadian Can-Can)

DVD release[link]

A DVD containing the first seventeen shorts was released on March 4, 2008 from MGM Home Entertainment/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.^{[citation needed]}

A DVD set titled Pink Panther and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection released on January 27, 2009 MGM Home Entertainment contains the first set of 17 shorts and a volume 2 containing the last 17 shorts.

Revival[link]

The Inspector was revived in 1993 for the syndicated series, The Pink Panther voiced by Brian George. The Inspector often works alongside the Pink Panther when he is depicted in the law enforcement.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Big Cartoon Database
• Golden Age
• Retrô TV (Portuguese)