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Cigar raft
Collective term for large ocean going log rafts built in California, Oregon and Washington State, and Nova Scotia, Canada during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Traditional log rafts

Prior to the construction of cigar rafts, transporting logs on water logs were usually constructed as a single layer of individual logs secured together and floated or towed to a destination. This practice was usually done on rivers, lakes or sheltered coastal waterways. Cigar rafts

Cigar rafts construction utilized a wooden cradle where individual logs were secured in multiple layers and wrapped with thick chain. The finished raft was elongated, thick in the middle and tapered at the ends, resembling a cigar. Cigar rafts were superior to traditional log rafts in several ways, chief among them the ability to be towed long distances through the open ocean.

Nova Scotia

Hugh R Robertson, a resident of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, filed and was granted an 1886 patent for a wooden cradle that would "form a raft or pile of lumber that may be towed comparatively easily, and, being securely bound together, will be strong and have little tendency to chate or work loose."

The first iteration of the Cigar Raft design included the wooden cradle of later patents, but in the initial design the cradle was constructed on the dry ground and once the craft was completed pulled off the shore into open water.

In 1887, Robertson with the backing of New York businessman James Leary constructed a Cigar Raft at Port Joggins, Nova Scotia. These first rafts were often called Joggins Rafts. The raft  was 525 feet long, 33 feet high, with a beam of 50 feet, and containing 3,000,000 board feet of timber. The raft launched December 6th 1887 bound for New York but was broken up in route by a severe storm and never reached its destination.

In 1888 Robertson filed and was granted a patent on improvements to his cradle design.

Robertson successfully delivered two rafts from Nova Scotia to New York. The 1888 raft was 592 feet long and an 1890 raft measured 1,000 feet.

California

Oregon

Coos Bay

Columbia River

Puget Sound

Columbia River

Stella

Benson

Distinguishing Benson cigar rafts from Stella cigar rafts

Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest means of transporting felled timber. Both methods may be referred to as timber floating.