The Koch was a special type of small one or two mast wooden sailing ships designed and used in Russia for transpolar voyages in ice conditions of the Arctic seas, popular among the Pomors.

Because of its additional skin-planking (called kotsa) and Arctic design of the body and the rudder, it could sail without being damaged in the waters full of ice blocks and ice floes. The koch was the unique ship of this class for several centuries.

The development of koch began in the 11th century, when Russians started settling of the White Sea shores. This type of ship was in wide use during the heyday of Russian polar navigation in the 15th and 16th centuries. There is documentary proof that in those days the private Russian civil fleet in the Arctic seas numbered up to 7,400 small ships in a single year. In the 17th century kochs were widely used on Siberian rivers during the Russian exploration and conquest of Siberia and the Far East. In 1715, during the Great Northern War, the Russian Arctic shipbuilding and navigation were undermined by the ukase (decree) of tsar Peter the Great. According to the ukase, it was permitted to build only the novomanerniye ("new-mannered") vessels, that is the civil ships, which could also be used for military purposes. The koch with its special anti-icebound features did not suit this aim.

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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]}.

Boats have served as short-distance transportation since early times. Circumstantial evidence, such as the early settlement of Australia over 40,000 years ago, and findings in Crete dated 130,000 years ago, suggests that boats have been used since ancient times. The earliest boats have been predicted 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; other very old dugout boats have been recovered. A 7,000 year-old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.

Chuck Ragan is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. From 1993 until 2006 he was one of the lead singers for Gainesville, Florida-based punk rock band Hot Water Music. The group disbanded on good terms in 2006, and the other three members went on to form punk band The Draft, while Ragan launched a solo career playing folk music similar in tone to a former acoustic Hot Water Music side project called Rumbleseat. He has since released a series of 7-inches on No Idea Records, a live album and three studio albums on Side One Dummy Records. Hot Water Music reunited in 2007 for a tour across the United States and Europe.

Chuck Ragan, Tim Barry and Ben Nichols toured in the fall of 2008. Chuck Ragan was also a support act on Frank Turner's 2010 tour of the UK, and supported The Gaslight Anthem during their 2010 European Fall tour. Ragan was the opener on the Social Distortion west coast tour in late January and February 2011.

Ragan conceptualised the idea of the Revival Tour in 2005 and organised the first Tour in 2008. The Revival Tour is a collaborative event between musicians. The 2011 Revival Tour featured Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem, Dave Hause of The Loved Ones (American band), Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio, and Ragan himself.