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The Flood Boat
The great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the worst Natural
disaster to ever strike this part of the world. the thorough
watering, deposited silt, and drowned boll weevils led to a huge
and profitable cotton crop.
In the Summer of that year, after the Flood Dr. Mack Barham, asked
James cooper Rolfe, then 18, To build a good boat for the NEXT flood.
This wooden boat, carefully stored since then, Is the result.
Such boats were kept in small towns, some provided by the govern-
ment, so that stranded people could be brought to safety in a flood.
It is made of fine cypress, with white Oak stretchers, double
bolted at the joints. The marks made for its construction are still
visible on the bottom side of the hull. It is 5 feet wide and
18 feet five inches long. It takes six strong men to move it well.
Although the Two inch thick Transom is arranged to accommodate
a motor, such a boat would have most often been poled, or pushed
along by a long wooden rod.
The cracks between the planks were originally caulked with
Oakum - Sisal fibers soaked with tar, using a "caulking chisel."
The replacement of that caulking is all that is needed to prepare
the boat for service.
The current Owner is Senator Robert J. Barham, Grandson of
Dr. Mack Barham, who has kindly loaned the boat for display.
This is one of three of Jim Rolfe's Boats that survive. The Green
Boat on the rear wall was built about 1955 as a pleasure boat,
complete with seat backs - an ice chest, paddles and oars. Not
very long after its completion, A tree limb fell and knocked
a hole in the bottom - which was never repaired.
the small wooden boat on the front porch of the house, now
used as a swing, was probably built in the 1930's, as a "lightweight"
boat. Jim Rolfe said he "Wanted something I could put on top of the
car by myself."
In the fall of 1927, James C Rolfe left for LSU - the old campus
at the Pentagon Barracks. There he learned by mail that the old
log corn crib had burned, and was being replaced by this structure.
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