Mob Raft?

Over the last few months, one of the most consistent search strings for my blog, showing up in the top 20 almost every month, is “how to build a raft.” (They end up with this post, from April.) I think the desire to build something that can float and take you places runs very deep in many people. And the bigger the better.

Why not a Wikipedia of rafts, a mob riverboat? Designate somewhere on the Mississippi, maybe Minneapolis. Fix a date and a place, and take all comers. They can bring any salvaged material that is enough to float themselves and another person (and that they don’t mind never seeing again), and necessary provisions. Then make your way down the old Miss, picking up people along the way. End it with a huge party when we hit the Gulf of Mexico.

Has this already been done? It would only require a skeleton crew, some scrap lumber, and a cheap motor to get rolling, I’d think, and could accommodate as many people as were willing to give it a whirl. Maybe next June? The USS Snowcrash?

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2 Comments

  1. The Mad Historian
    Posted 8/14/2004 at 12:23 am | Permalink

    Why, yes, Alex, this has already been done, in a way – see HUCKLEBERRY FINN, BY Mark Twain, not just for Huck and Jim’s boat, but for that surreal scene in which Huck watches his father float by. But perhaps you meant “in real life?”

  2. Posted 10/15/2005 at 5:34 pm | Permalink

    http://www.floatingneutrinos.com is the site of a group begun by poppa neutrino, who lived as part of a community called the salvation navy in the 60s or 70s. they lived on rafts on the mississippi and painted signs for money. this is from the new yorker article that you’ve probably heard about by now, from about a month ago.

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